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    Rock and roll with Wilco at Akron Civic Theatre

    Published August 27, 2014 by

    Follow up the Labor Day weekend with rock and roll by going to see the group Wilco (with warm-up act Bahamas) at the Akron Civic Theatre, a Knight Arts grantee. Wilco is an award-winning Chicago sextet led by founder and singer/songwriter and guitarist Jeff Tweedy, with bassist John Stirratt ,...
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    Free from labor, free to visit PAMM

    Published August 26, 2014 by

    Mark Handforth, "Western Sun." The forecast for Labor Day: still pretty hot and humid. It may be best to make plans indoors during the day and delay the picnic till evening. So it would be a good day to take advantage of PAMM’s Labor Day special....
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    Curator profile: art hero Andrew Thompson

    Published August 26, 2014 by

    I recently met up with artist Andrew Thompson (a.k.a. Andy T) during a visit to Paint Creek Center for the Arts in Rochester, where he was in the process of hanging and lighting “Break With Tradition,” a show curated by Thompson and featuring an array of local artists. Besides this...
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    48 projects advance in the Knight Green Line Challenge

    Published August 26, 2014 by

    Above: Polly Talen takes questions in a town hall meeting about the Green Line Challenge. Just a couple months ago we asked the community for their best project ideas to make the neighborhoods along the new Green Line even more vibrant places to live, work, play and visit. A remarkable 579 people, organizations and businesses shared their passion and projects with us. Today we’re announcing 48 finalists in the Knight Green Line Challenge.  Related Links "Knight Green Line Challenge names finalists" -- Aug. 26, 2014 press release Knight Green Line Challenge home page Our panel of 11 local readers—from a variety of communities and sectors—carefully reviewed the submissions before arriving at this list. We set out to attract projects from all neighborhoods along the Green Line. We wanted organizations, small businesses and individuals to apply. It was important that the projects truly reflect the people who live and work in St. Paul. And they do. From an expanded open-air night market in Little Mekong and Frogtown to a year-round community gardening effort, from a youth apprenticeship program in green transportation to an art exhibit of the faces and voices along the Green Line, the finalists proposed a range of ideas to benefit St. Paul neighborhoods. We’re thrilled with the results.
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    News Challenge winners gather in Kansas City, Mo., to share ideas, insights

    Published August 25, 2014 by

    John Bracken addresses 2013 Knight News Challenge Summer attendees at the Stanford d.school. Photo by Megan Zimroth.  Monday evening more than 80 Knight News Challenge winners, Knight staff and a team of our advisers, traveling from all across the country, will come together. For the second year in a row we’re bringing active News Challenge winners to one location to help them advance in their projects. We hope that by bringing them together they can benefit from being around one another, sharing challenges and opportunities. Last year we hosted our event in the heart of Silicon Valley at Stanford University’s d.school where we heard talks from people such as John Lilly, Megan Smith, Rick Klau and DJ Patil. This year we’re doing a couple things differently. First, we’re gathering in Kansas City, Mo. Although not as widely known, there are amazing entrepreneurial communities in various parts of the country and Kansas City’s is one of the most vibrant. This will expose the News Challenge winners, many for the first time, to innovation coming out of the Midwest. We’ll hear from Mayor  Sly James – known for helping develop “Silicon Prairie” and bringing Google Fiber to the region. Also, we will hear from Asim Pasha, the co-founder and co-CEO of Sporting Innovations. Sporting Innovations has made KC’s professional soccer stadium the most innovative fan experience in the country. Our host for the two days is the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which is known for its commitment to entrepreneurship. Kauffman will also run an event on Tuesday evening that will bring the Knight News Challenge and greater Kansas City entrepreneurial communities together--and host a 1 Million Cups event on Wednesday morning.
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    News Challenge to explore role of libraries in the digital age

    Published August 25, 2014 by

    Photo illustration made with images from Flickr users Thomas Hawk and Sourabh Rath. On Sept. 10, we’re opening the next News Challenge, on libraries. Our 12th News Challenge, it will build upon the 19 projects we funded with $3.47 million in June through the News Challenge that sought ideas to strengthen the Internet. That work, conversations such as the ones we recently had at the Aspen Institute this month and longstanding initiatives such as the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy have affirmed for us the centrality of libraries for building and maintaining an informed citizenry. Related Link "Share your inspiration for Knight News Challenge: Libraries" by John Bracken on Knight Blog We’re hoping to hear ideas for leveraging the assets that libraries have built: physical spaces open to anyone; professional staff trained in how to seek, retrieve and share information; and a legacy of aiding new readers, new entrepreneurs and new Americans. In recent years we’ve seen libraries leverage the Internet and digital approaches for education, entrepreneurship, the arts and “making.” In a digital age we see libraries--public, university, archival, virtual--as key for improving Americans’ ability to know about and to be involved with what takes place around them.
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    Study tour gets street-level view of how Copenhagen reinvented itself

    Published August 25, 2014 by

    A cyclist rides through downtown Copenhagen. Photographer: Torbjörn Larsson/Knight Foundation. Riding bikes through an unfamiliar city may be the easy part. Taking home lessons learned will take skill. Related Link "Does placemaking help democracy?" by Andrew Sherry, Aug. 29 on Knight Blog Thirty-four city officials and community leaders from nine U.S. cities have embarked on a five-day study tour of Copenhagen, Denmark, considered one of the world’s most livable cities for its pedestrian-friendly downtown, network of bike trails, ubiquitous urban green spaces and abundant public transportation. The tour, organized by 8-80 Cities and supported by Knight Foundation, will also cross the Oresund Bridge to Malmö, Sweden, a port city that reinvented itself as a hi-tech hub after losing its shipbuilding industry in the 1990s, winning back double the 50,000 jobs it lost. The participants include mayors, city council members, urban planners, engineers, leaders of community organizations and more from Akron, Ohio; Charlotte, N.C., Columbus, Ga.; Detroit; Lexington, Ky.; Macon, Ga.; Miami; San Jose, Calif., and St. Paul, Minn. They are viewed as civic innovators for leading potentially high-impact work in their communities, all cities where John S. and James L. Knight once owned newspapers. Knight Foundation and 8-80 Cities staff are also on the tour. 8-80 is dedicated to helping make cities livable for people from 8 to 80 by promoting walking, biking and public transit.
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    Paint parties for all ages

    Published August 25, 2014 by

    Whimsy & Wine Art Party supplies. It doesn't matter what kind of occasion is going on, Shelly English and Virginia"Ginny" Walker will find a way to incorporate paint into the program. They are a daughter and mother force dedicated to making sure people of all ages...
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    Inside WetLand

    Published August 23, 2014 by

    By Mary Mattingly, FringeArts.com Mary Mattingly and a group of artists, engineers, and environmentalists have been working together for the past two months constructing the floating, mobile habitat, and public art installation, WetLand. A completely autonomous ecosystem, WetLand has rainwater collection and purification, greywater filtration, dry compost systems, outdoor vegetable...