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    Launching Symphony in D: A collaborative symphony by and for Detroit

    Published November 19, 2014 by

    MIT Media Lab composer Tod Machover. Photo by Priska Ketterer. What does Detroit sound like? Today, Knight Foundation is announcing a new partnership with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Composer Tod Machover of MIT to find out by creating a collaborative symphony by, for and with the people of Detroit. Below, Machover writes about the process that will be unveiled today at an event in the city. "Announcing 'Symphony In D' " on YouTube I can’t tell you how excited I am to be starting on the Symphony in D project, which proposes to create a musical portrait of Detroit using both notes and noises, and created by me in collaboration with everyone in Detroit who wants to participate…and I hope that means you! The project starts this week, will develop over the coming year, and will be premiered by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra almost exactly one year from now (all thanks to the support of Knight Foundation). One year seems like a long time, but I promise you that it will go by very quickly. So I invite you to join me as soon as you can in this adventure to create Symphony in D together. I have learned a lot while working on four such collaborative symphonies over the past two years – for Toronto, Edinburgh, Perth, and currently Lucerne– and will build on these other projects to make our Detroit collaboration even more fun and satisfying. And it is so very exciting to bring the City Symphonies project to the U.S. for the first time, and especially to Detroit. No city in the world has such an opportunity to study its proud past, to reflect on current possibilities and to boldly build a different future.
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    Charlotte Ballet invites everyone to show their #PattiPride

    Published November 18, 2014 by

    By Logan McSwain, Charlotte Ballet Charlotte Ballet is incredibly proud of Associate Artistic Director Patricia McBride’s 2014 Kennedy Center Honor. To help celebrate, Charlotte Ballet is inviting the community to show its #PattiPride on social media. To participate, connect with Charlotte Ballet on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using #PattiPride. This...
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    Happy 30th, ArtCenter

    Published November 18, 2014 by

    Time for a look at the art created at ArtCenter through the years. Photo by Leila Leder Kremer This is a year of big birthdays for South Florida’s art world. The Bass Museum had the major one – 50 years; but others too. Margulies has been...
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    Painting mural engages communicators in Philadelphia

    Published November 18, 2014 by

    Artist Phillip Adams of Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program took his talents off the streets last month to paint a mural titled “Communications Matters” at the Communications Network conference of the same name. Like good communications, the mural was engaging, with as many as four or five people helping Adams with it at a time. Knight Foundation was a sponsor of the conference, which seeks to strengthen communications in the nonprofit sector, and the mural itself. The Mural Arts Program was a 2011 Knight Arts Challenge winner and received Knight support this year for the installation “psychylustro.”
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    Urban fellowships foster leaders to move cities forward

    Published November 18, 2014 by

    Photo courtesy of the Detroit Revitalization Fellows.  This month, I attended a symposium convened by the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech on “The Promise of Urban Fellowships.” The symposium gathered representatives of the federal government’s Strong Cities, Strong Communities fellowship program, the Detroit Revitalization Fellows, the Capital City Fellows Program and the (now completed) CUREx program to consider whether national convenings of similar programs might be valuable for sharing best practices, mutual learning and support.  Knight Foundation is interested in the learning we might glean from these programs and I, as someone who has been a supporter of the Detroit Revitalization Fellows since the program’s inception, was interested to see how Detroit would compare to others. What types of fellowships were we talking about? Here are some common features. They:
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    Madama Butterfly: “I gave tears to the earth”

    Published November 17, 2014 by

    Despite the incessant coughing and overtly assertive scent of floral perfume filling up the Arsht Center, soprano Kelly Kaduce (Cio-Cio-San/”Butterfly”) and mezzo-soprano Caitlin McKechney (Suzuki) delivered an extraordinary performance in "Madama Butterfly" on the opening night of Florida Grand Opera's 74th season. "Madama Butterfly." Brittany Mazzurco...
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    Serious fun at The Swamp – and everywhere – at Miami Book Fair International

    Published November 17, 2014 by

    “Live Painting With Lebo!” at The Swamp. Photo by Michael D. Bolden. The 31st edition of Miami Book Fair International, staged at the campus of Miami Dade College in downtown Miami, opened Sunday with dance, poetry, radio and authors addressing serious topics. There was also serious fun at The Swamp, a popup lounge set up on one of the campus parking lots, including live painting to music, poetry karaoke and, it being Miami, a closing set by Suénalo, a Latin funk nine-piece band. The Swamp includes an open-air space with a book sales tent, a food truck and a bocce court; a roomy, hangar-like performance space, with a stage and inside walls covered with art by local artists, a porch, and a beer stand with offerings from a South Florida microbrewery. The project, a 2013 Knight Arts Challenge winner, is just one part of Knight Foundation’s support for the fair, which is expanding the reach of the event to include live-streaming and daily coverage by PBS, a children’s theater festival, a discussion on the future of publishing, and events with notable poets and National Book Award winners and finalists. But the Swamp, as the Miami Book Fair website says, is “part funky, part fancy—all Florida.”
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    Second Street reopens with a block party

    Published November 17, 2014 by

    Turnip Fest and Mid-East Peace Productions present Second Street: Reopen the Block Party.   One phase of the Second Street Corridor project has come to an end. For approximately three months, several businesses have experienced a change with their normal routines. Although they are mindful that...