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    Exciting opportunity for young composers

    Published August 23, 2014 by

    By Austin, Next Notes intern The title of “composer” immediately evokes images of men in powdered wigs writing a strictly formulated sonata for the harpsichord. While this scenario does demonstrate the role of some composers, it all too often pushes young adults from this activity that defies the myriad assumptions...
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    How asking for just $1 can accelerate funding for local nonprofit news

    Published August 22, 2014 by

    Was it the novelty? Passion for investigative reporting? Unbridled bicycle mania? It took all three to inspire more than 1,000 people to back the San Francisco Public Press’ Kickstarter campaign for Pedal-Powered News — a quirky but popular initiative to use bicycle delivery to expand distribution of our local nonprofit newspaper to reach more subscribers, retail outlets and community centers throughout San Francisco. The Public Press has published independent public policy reporting at sfpublicpress.org since 2009 and produces a quarterly ad-free print edition. We always knew we needed to do something inspirational to expand our audience, so we highlighted a key operational need and built an engaging crowdfunding campaign around it. We raised  $21,328 outright — more than double our goal. But it would not have happened without the support of Knight Foundation, which worked in collaboration with the Investigative News Network to offer up to $10,000 in matching funds, based on our ability to recruit 1,000 donors. It was an experiment to see how nonprofit newsrooms could use crowdfunding to bring in new readers and expand their local donations.
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    Detroit Drumline Academy: Impacting Detroit with education and entertainment

    Published August 22, 2014 by

    This month, five Detroit arts groups are vying for the Knight Arts Challenge People’s Choice Award, a $20,000 prize the winner can use for a project of their choice. The award is one of the ways Knight aims to bring attention to small arts organizations and their impact on the city. Here, KnightArts.org has a quick word with Robert Gordon of nominee the Detroit Drumline Academy, a group that wants to prepare the next generation of percussionists by teaching and mentoring middle and high school students.To vote for them, text Detroit5 to 22333 and learn about the other nominees at knightarts.org/peopleschoice. Q. What do you love most about your arts group? A. What I love about my organization is our ability to affect our community using education and entertainment that gives our youth life skills and experiences they'll never forget. Q. What would you do with the $20,000 People’s Choice Award? A. If I win the $20,000 I am going to do three things: pay a portion of it to a few other music mentorship programs, develop an alternative music instructors group to provide instruction throughout Detroit, and throw the first Music Education Production & Business seminar at COBO Hall sponsored by my company Artisthead.
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    Fusion Interactive Team pushes boundaries of storytelling

    Published August 21, 2014 by

    Mariana Santos, the interactive and animation director for the Fusion Interactive Team, welcomes guests at the team's show-and-tell at Fusion's Doral headquarters. Credit: Carolina Wilson. Once upon a time, storytelling may have been defined by the use of words, images or video. But by using digital innovations such as games the Interactive Team at Fusion, a television and digital network, refuses to consider storytelling as creating content for mere consumption; the innovators want to change the way people interact with stories.   “As Fusion says, it’s all about the fusion,” said Mariana Santos, the interactive and animation director for the team. “We want to fuse some of the core principals of technology and an editorial and data team with design and narrative.” The interactive team is the newest addition to Fusion, a joint venture between Univision Communications and the Disney/ABC Television Network. Santos and her team shared updates on their latest projects during a Hacks/Hackers Miami Monday meet-up at Fusion’s Doral headquarters.
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    “Measure for Measure” closing soon

    Published August 21, 2014 by

    Gretchen McGinty (Isabella) in "Measure for Measure."Photo by Austin Caine This weekend is your last chance to see “Measure for Measure” produced by the Charlotte Shakespeare Festival. The final three shows are August 22 and 23 at 8 p.m., and August 24 at 3 p.m. at...
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    Educational, memorable and entertaining: the Ballet Folklorico Moyocoyani Izel

    Published August 21, 2014 by

    This month, five Detroit arts groups are vying for the Knight Arts Challenge People’s Choice Award, a $20,000 prize the winner can use for a project of their choice. The award is one of the ways Knight aims to bring attention to small arts organizations and their impact on the city. Here, KnightArts.org has a quick word with Maria Luis Carrillo of nominee Ballet Folklorico Moyocoyani Izel, which wants to bring the traditional dances of Mexico’s La Huasteca region to Detroit. To vote for the dance troupe, text Detroit4 to 22333 and learn about the other nominees at knightarts.org/peopleschoice. Q. What do you love most about your arts group? A. Performing and expressing through dance the rich culture and history of Mexico. Q. What would you do with the $20,000 People’s Choice award? A. Our goal is to increase our dance knowledge and in turn amplify our dance program and continue to take it to all pockets of the community and beyond.  This would be attained by inviting professional dance instructors from Mexico to come to Detroit and collaborating with our extensive folklore network.
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    Maggie Casey and art that all but makes itself at Napoleon

    Published August 21, 2014 by

    Hungry? Considering walking to the refrigerator for a midnight bite? Maggie Casey may have different plans for your snacking routine, but mostly for your art-viewing routine. At Napoleon, the sculpture and installation artist explores form and happenstance via an improvisational process that allows her objects to all but make themselves....
  • Article

    What open data can tell us about depression

    Published August 20, 2014 by

    Bob Filbin is the chief data scientist at Crisis Text Line, a winner of Knight News Challenge: Health. Every day, thousands of teens face bullying, abuse and family conflicts. Many struggle with depression, self-harm or even thoughts of suicide. Launched in August 2013, Crisis Text Line offers free, 24/7 text support to teens nationwide. Since then, teens have exchanged over 3 million messages with trained specialists about the crises they face. Crisis Text Line is the largest service for teens on the medium they use and trust the most: texting. Many teens who use Crisis Text Line are seeking crisis support for the first time. Others tell us they’ve tried other services that offer phone support or online chat, but they prefer texting. This means Crisis Text Line is collecting unprecedented data on the crises teens face. One way Crisis Text Line uses its data is to help provide the best possible experience to teens who use our service. For example, we can see when teens struggle the most with anxiety (7 a.m. during the school week), and schedule specialists to help them accordingly. But we also recognize our data, in the hands of citizens and journalists, has the potential to prevent crises from happening. That’s why Crisis Text Line developed Crisis Trends. Using data from specialist reports, Crisis Trends empowers journalists, researchers and citizens to identify trends in how teens experience crises over time and by state.