• Article

    Sweat with Miguel Rodríguez Sepúlveda

    Published September 11, 2014 by

    We all sweat. It's the body's way of cooling us down, especially on those lovely August days in Miami when there are no clouds in the sky and the sun can have its way with us. However, for Mexico City-based artist Miguel Rodríguez Sepúlveda, sweat serves a higher cultural purpose....
  • Article

    Finding the sweet spot for libraries in the digital age

    Published September 11, 2014 by

    Photo: Kids at the San Jose Public Library. Source: San Jose Public Library on Flickr.com. 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, Jill Bourne, director of libraries for the city of San Jose, writes about the role of libraries in the digital age. There’s nothing so rewarding in this world as making stuff, especially stuff that makes you more free. –  “Little Brother,” Cory Doctorow The ability to engage freely and equitably with knowledge and with each other is critical for a democracy. It’s a belief long embodied in the work of our public libraries, which have provided everyone with access to information sources and a safe space to engage with and around those sources. Access begins with free speech and the right to make that speech available to others, but it doesn’t end there. When access is paired with the tools and skills for understanding and using that information, you build agency - the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own choices. This pairing of access + agency = a sweet spot for libraries.   
  • Article

    ‘Knight Cities’ podcast: Arts leader Deborah Cullinan leads community change

    Published September 10, 2014 by

    Can a major art institution lead a city in the exploration of its most urgent economic and community development questions?  If you talk to Deborah Cullinan, executive director of San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the answer you get is a resounding “yes.” Deborah is using the contemporary arts center she leads to shape San Francisco’s future.  And it’s not the first time Deborah has used her role as arts leader to change a community.  She previously served as executive director of Intersection for the Arts, an arts-focused community development organization committed to radical partnership across sectors to achieve equitable community change. Intersection played a lead role on the 5M Project, a four-acre prototype for the next generation of urban development, in downtown San Francisco’s Tenderloin District.
  • Article

    Knight News Challenge: Libraries closes Sept. 30

    Published September 10, 2014 by

      Our latest Knight News Challenge closes at 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014. The question is: “How might we leverage libraries as a platform to build more knowledgeable communities?” We’re seeking projects that build on the transformational power of libraries and use their ideas, principles and assets in innovative ways to help people learn about the world around them and engage in the places they live. We’ve committed $2.5 million to fund the best ideas that reimagine the role of libraries in the digital age, and we’ll announce the winners early next year. They will join a growing network of past projects that includes  DocumentCloud, MapBox, Safecast, Wikipedia and the New York and Chicago public libraries.
  • Article

    Creating a more connected Charlotte, N.C.

    Published September 9, 2014 by

    A cyclist rides through a bike-friendly intersection in Copenhagen, Denmark. Photo by Flickr user Justin Swan. In August, 34 officials and community leaders from nine Knight communities traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark, and Malmo, Sweden, to study how to make their cities more livable. The trip was organized by 8-80 Cities and sponsored by Knight Foundation. The Charlotte, N.C., team members who traveled to Scandinavia had a range of experience on bicycles; they identified themselves as a mountain biker, a neighborhood rider, an up-for-anything gal and two haven’t-done-this-since-childhood worriers. We all left Copenhagen with a new appreciation for what a cycling city feels like. We experienced cycling in rain and in sunshine, on a lazy Sunday afternoon and during a hectic morning rush hour, on separate bike lanes and in the middle of cars and pedestrians. In Copenhagen, bikes and cyclists surrounded us. Our team: Crescent Communities CEO Todd Mansfield,  Foundation for the Carolinas Executive VP Brian Collier, City Councilmember Vi Lyles, Assistant County Manager Leslie Johnson and me.
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    Jude Broughan plots her ground

    Published September 9, 2014 by

    Jude Broughan's "Cam II." You would not be off base if you got the feeling that the works of New Zealand-born Jude Broughan, now showing at Dimensions Variable, had a kinship with another exhibition up right now, that of Adler Guerrier’s solo outing at PAMM. In...
  • Article

    Weekend wrap-up: fall arts-a-go-go!

    Published September 9, 2014 by

    With Labor Day out of the way early this September, the fall lineup has come in with a roar, during a weekend full of classic Detroit revelries and new classics in the making. The unsinkable Dally in the Alley survived its 37th year, notwithstanding a transformer fire that cut the...