• Article

    Listening to ‘We the People’ in Philadelphia

    Published October 9, 2014 by

    Philadelphia's Independence Hall, via IceNineJon on Flickr. In the city where our Founding Fathers created this great republic, Thomas E. Wheeler, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, recently heard from some very informed and engaged citizens during a closed-door meeting coordinated by Media Mobilizing Project and hosted at the Independence Mall studio of PhillyCAM. The people in the Sept. 22 meeting represented low-wage workers, persons with disabilities, minority and independently owned media outlets, academics and activists. They eloquently described the state of media in Philadelphia for Chairman Wheeler.  
  • Article

    The first rule of livable cities: pedestrians first

    Published October 8, 2014 by

    For someone who is in such a hurry to change cities, Gil Penalosa talks a lot about going slow. That’s because for the executive director of 8-80 Cities it all starts with making cities and residential neighborhoods safe for pedestrians. “Every single trip begins with walking,” said Penalosa, who has advised cities in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Most recently, he led a group of 34 civic innovators from nine U.S. cities on a study tour to Copenhagen, Denmark, and Malmo, Sweden. Exploring the city on foot and by bike, the group observed firsthand several key tactics for making cities walkable:
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    Knight Cities: Phil Cooley shares insights from Detroit’s comeback

    Published October 8, 2014 by

    Phil Cooley is one of Detroit’s most enthusiastic champions.  Phil, the owner of Slows Bar-B-Q and developer of Ponyride, an incubator for social innovators, was an early investor in the revitalization of the city.  He has been an insider to Detroit’s do-it-yourself comeback and has lessons to share for urbanists everywhere who are working to jump-start their own grassroots version of revitalization in their cities.
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    Macon, Ga., gets a kick out of ‘health’

    Published October 8, 2014 by

    Photo by Molly McWilliams Wilkins. The Macon League of Creative Interventionists chose kickball to demonstrate “health,” its theme for August. The league, a global group with local chapters, chooses a theme each month that is applied differently in each community. Chapters have been established in Macon, Akron, Ohio, Detroit and Philadelphia as part of a Knight Foundation initiative with artist and founder Hunter Franks. “It was great to see so many different people from the community participate and connect,” said Eric Mayle, executive director of Centenary Community Ministries at Centenary Methodist Church. The Aug. 22 kickball event drew all ages to Tatnall Square Park, including passers-by who stopped to watch the fun. “We have people of all skill levels coming out to play, as evidenced by the fact that many of us need to learn how to kick the ball with our feet instead of our ankles,” participant Melanie Bruchet said.
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    Brothers’ keeper: Teo Castellanos’ family story in 22 voices

    Published October 8, 2014 by

    Above: Teo Castellanos won a 2013 Knight Arts Challenge grant for “Third Trinity,” a one-man play he wrote that debuts Oct. 10 and is directed by MacArthur Fellow Tarrell McCraney. The two sat down earlier this year to talk about working together and the process of adapting the work for the stage. Actor, writer and director Teo Castellanos once put a deep slice of true Miami, in all its glorious diversity, promise and miseries, right on stage. Set as a jitney ride through town, his one-man play “NE 2nd Avenue” offered a mirror to a city still becoming. It was a tour de force. It turns out that it was just preparation for telling his family’s story and the tale of three brothers on different paths. Castellanos won a Knight Arts Challenge grant in 2013 to stage “Third Trinity,” a one-man play directed by playwright, actor and MacArthur Fellow Tarell Alvin McCraney. It was commissioned by The Miami Light Project in 2011 and premieres at The Light Box in Miami on Oct. 10-18. Castellanos also won the challenge’s People’s Choice Award for his project.  “I said I’d never do another solo piece again. That was hard work,” says Castellanos, his voice trailing off. Then he adds: “Different challenge.”
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    Motivating donors: Which prizes work best for Giving Days

    Published October 7, 2014 by

    Anyone who has hosted an online giving campaign can relate to the exhilaration that comes when the total-amount-raised tracker goes up and up and up.  Prizes offered throughout Giving Days, or online fundraising sprints, are a big part of generating that excitement and keeping donors and nonprofits engaged.   But what prizes are most effective in motivating donors? How can matching funds be used to keep the momentum going during a 24-hour campaign?  Below are some insights we’ve learned through an evaluation of the Giving Days run by community foundations that Knight Foundation supports. These insights build on Knight’s new report that contains 10 lessons for Giving Days.
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    A peek at ArtPrize 2014

    Published October 7, 2014 by

    "Peralux" by Gabriel Hall & Daniel Land; illuminated, time-based installation at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts (UICA), and one of the finalists in the time-based category. 2014 ArtPrize is alive and thriving around Grand Rapids, with the 1,500+ entries from local and international artists narrowed...
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    Increasing the impact of the Knight Fellowships program at Stanford

    Published October 7, 2014 by

    2015 John S. Knight Journalism Fellows Christina Passariello (left), Anne Kornblut, Zena Barakat and Charla Bear take on the challenges of journalism during a brainstorming session last month. Photo: Samaruddin Stewart Jim Bettinger is director of the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships at Stanford. The program fosters journalistic innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership; each year it brings 20 journalists and journalism entrepreneurs from the U.S. and around the world to spend the year at Stanford. It was founded in 1966 as the Stanford Professional Journalism Fellowships program and was renamed for Knight Foundation co-founder John S. Knight in 1984, after the foundation made a major gift to endow the program. We believe in journalism. We believe in journalism so much that we’re constantly looking for new ways that our fellows and our program can make journalism better — in the future and right now. And that’s why we’re so amped about our new initiatives, which $1.8 million in new support from Knight Foundation will enable us to pursue. This will: ·      Give us resources to increase our fellows’ impact, especially after their year at Stanford. ·      Help us create a technology resource curriculum that will be useful not just to our fellows but to journalists everywhere. ·      Enable us to convene — at Stanford University — small groups of top editors and news leaders for grounding in the latest thinking about innovation, human-centered design and leading organizational change.
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    Announcing 58 winners in the Detroit Knight Arts Challenge!

    Published October 6, 2014 by

    Photo: A Detroit Symphony Orchestra project explores music in Detroit and New Orleans. It is hard to believe one year has passed since we announced the winners of the first Detroit Knight Arts Challenge, a group The Detroit Free Press called the “soul of Detroit.” In the last year, projects like Dlectricty, Complex Movements’ Beware of the Dandelions, North American Souvenir’s Canadian Residency, Mark Wallace’s Recycled Guitars and more have taken shape and spread across the city. Detroit’s first group of Knight Arts Challenge winners was the quickest to match in the history of our program, continuing to prove the community’s commitment to the arts.