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    Richard Florida on driving success in cities

    Published September 23, 2014 by

    Photo of downtown Miami by Flickr user Lonny Paul. Knight Cities Challenge offers applicants a chance to share in $5 million by focusing on the question: "What’s your best idea to make cities more successful?” The contest will test the most innovative ideas in talent, opportunity and engagement in one or more of 26 Knight Foundation communities. Below, urbanist Richard Florida, director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto, Global Research Professor at New York University, and co-founder of The Atlantic’s CityLab, writes about talent as a driver of city success. The Knight Cities Challenge comes at just the right time. Just as our cities are coming back, they also face new and deep challenges.  The past couple of decades have seen a dramatic back-to-the-city movement, which Alan Ehrenhalt has dubbed a “great inversion.” As talented and ambitious people stream back to cities and urbanizing suburbs, the nature of city building and economic development has changed dramatically. No longer can places prosper by luring in headquarters or factories. The key to success is the attraction, retention and magnetization of talent. The great urbanist Jane Jacobs was the first to recognize the economic power that’s unleashed when talented people cluster in cities.
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    Film at Bechtler: “The Vision of Paolo Soleri”

    Published September 22, 2014 by

    The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art’s Modernism + Film program investigates themes in design, engineering, architecture and modern/contemporary art through the lens of film. This month’s film “The Vision of Paolo Soleri: Prophet in the Desert” on the 26th documents the life and work of Italian-born architect Paolo Soleri (1919-2013)...
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    Meeting the information needs of communities at the public library

    Published September 22, 2014 by

    Photo illustration using photos by Flickr users Sourabh Rath and Thomas Hawk.  Knight News Challenge: Libraries offers applicants a chance to share in $2.5 million by focusing on the question, “How might we leverage libraries as a platform to build more knowledgeable communities?” Below, Amy Garmer, director of the Aspen Institute Dialogue on Public Libraries, writes about the need for libraries to become community learning platforms. The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy called on the nation to make every community in the United States an informed, engaged community: America needs a vision for “informed communities,” places where the information ecology meets the personal and civic information needs of people. This means people have the information they need to take advantage of life’s opportunities for themselves and their families. It also means they can participate fully in our system of self-government, to stand up and be heard. Paramount in this vision are the critical democratic values of openness, inclusion, participation, empowerment, and the common pursuit of truth and the public interest. This vision of a place where the information ecology meets the personal and civic information needs of people describes perfectly the public library! And it’s the starting point for the work we’re doing through the Aspen Institute Dialogue on Public Libraries.
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    Liz Ferrer’s “Spectual Sextrum” opens at Inkub8

    Published September 22, 2014 by

    On Tuesday, September 23rd at 7:30 p.m., Liz Ferrer will host “Spectual Sextrum,” an experimental research gathering event for her apocalyptic underwater work-in-progress, “Subaqueous.” "Spectual Sextrum." Ferrer, who is currently artist-in-residence at Inkub8 (a Knight Arts grantee), is a Miami-based interdisciplinary artist, director and founder of...
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    Cultural Shift: Rust Never Sleeps

    Published September 21, 2014 by

    By Mark Masuoka, Executive Director and CEO, Akron Art Museum Knight Foundation recently awarded the Akron Art Museum $1 million to engage the public with a series of groundbreaking exhibitions. Here, Executive Director Mark Masuoka writes about the museum’s new efforts and approach to community building. In a constantly shifting...
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    Innovation, creativity and art take over the streets of Detroit

    Published September 21, 2014 by

    A projection shines upon the Detroit Public Library during Dlectricity 2012. Photo by the Kresge Foundation on Flickr.  This is a big week in Detroit and a great week for several Knight Foundation-sponsored events.  It is a week to celebrate the creative and innovative elements of Detroit’s growth and revitalization—and to have fun. The Detroit Design Festival returns for its fourth year, beginning with a kick-off party on Tuesday evening and closing with Light Up Livernois on Sunday. The festival is a celebration of Detroit’s role as a global center of design and creativity, with over 500 designers, 25,000 attendees and 30 “Design Happenings.” One of the great parts of the Detroit Design Festival is its mix of national and “big” events and ideas with locally inspired happenings. My favorite part is always Eastern Market After Dark (presented Thursday night).  Expect 20-plus studios, shops and design happenings in Detroit’s historic and eclectic Eastern Market district. The entire schedule can be found here. This year, the Detroit Design Festival coordinated with the organizers of Dlectricity, a two-night festival of art + light. Thirty-five international, national and local artists will illuminate the Woodward Corridor Friday and Saturday nights, from the Detroit Institute of Arts to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, with cutting-edge installations of light, video, performance, interactive engineering and other unexpected works of art. Dlectricity was an inaugural winner last year of Knight Arts Challenge Detroit. Two years ago, despite the rain, these were two of the most magical nights I’ve ever seen in Detroit. And Dlectricity mixes big and small, national and local too. As Detroit builds its momentum as a bike city, the Saturday night Dlectricity Light Bike Parade will rival Detroit’s own Slow Roll. The schedule for Dlectricity can be found here.
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    A new arts initiative for Akron

    Published September 21, 2014 by

    Last year, Knight and the GAR Foundation released a survey on the arts in Akron that was telling. We found a real hunger for arts and culture in the city. People craved it. But we also found some gaps: African-Americans and young people in particular were having trouble finding programming that spoke to them. Related Link "Akron arts community receives $6 million boost from Knight Foundation" -- Press Release (09/21) I was impressed by how the arts community turned the information into an opportunity. They met, began to talk about what culture meant to them and the broader community, to look at strengths, opportunities and a way forward. To us at Knight, it was a great sign that Akron as a community was sitting down to reshape its cultural identity. Knight Foundation wants to play its part in helping Akron shape its new vibrant cultural community.  So today we’re excited to announce $6 million in new investments in the arts in Akron, funding we hope will build on this momentum.
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    Summer music enrichment program

    Published September 20, 2014 by

    By Peter E. Leggett, Walker West Music Academy After moving into the new Walker West facility at 760 Selby in June 2014, one of the most anticipated programs for Walker West faculty and staff was the 2014 Summer Music Enrichment Program. The Summer Music Enrichment Program is the Academy's annual...
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    DWNTWN Art Days are here again

    Published September 19, 2014 by

      Domingo Castillo piece for the Fringe Projects. The third annual DWNTWN Arts Days fair in downtown Miami starts today, running through the weekend, with almost 170 events (mostly free) taking place around Downtown in art galleries and cultural institutions, including bike and walking tours and...
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    Lesa Mitchell, Network for Scale: A new opportunity for libraries

    Published September 19, 2014 by

    Knight News Challenge: Libraries offers applicants a chance to share in $2.5 million by focusing on the question “How might we leverage libraries as a platform to build more knowledgeable communities?” Above, Lesa Mitchell, the founder of Network for Scale and an expert on the impact of the maker movement, discusses the role libraries can play as shared spaces where diverse members of the community teach, learn, perform, create and share ideas. To submit an entry or provide feedback on other submissions, visit newschallenge.org. You can join us for virtual office hours from 1 to 2 p.m. ET Sept. 23. Participants can access the meeting online (https://bluejeans.com/731675489/browser using ID 731675489), or participate via phone at 1-888-240-2560. Knight News Challenge: Libraries closes at 5 p.m. ET on Sept. 30. Winners will be announced in January.