• Article

    New Boon(e) and the realm of high (school) art

    Published August 5, 2014 by

    It's hard being an artist early in their career and only a few years out of college. It's the worst, right? Maybe. What about the hormonal, judgmental halls of high school? Well, New Boon(e) is exploring the art of members and friends made back in those not-so-distant days of yore...
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    The Charlotte Ballet’s upcoming season

    Published August 5, 2014 by

    Dancers Rebecca Carmazzi and David Ingram perform a pas de deux from Dangerous Liaisons. Photo by Peter Zay With fall just around the corner, the performing arts organizations in the Queen City are gearing up for exciting new seasons. The Charlotte Ballet 2014/2015 season tickets just...
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    Expanding Bragg Jam in Macon, Ga., features bigger bands, ambitions

    Published August 5, 2014 by

    Above: The Blind Boys of Alabama performing in Macon at Bragg Jam. Credit: Molly McWilliams. For 15 years, summer in Macon has been synonymous with Bragg Jam, a music festival that uses multiple stages and venues to celebrate the lives of two local musicians, Brax and Tate Bragg. A tragic car accident in 1999 took the lives of the Bragg brothers and left a hole in Macon’s music scene that friends and fellow musicians believed could only be filled by playing music in their honor. Each year they gathered to remember and share songs, and each year the festival grew. Now Bragg Jam brings roughly 5,000 people to the concert-crawl style festival to enjoy a day filled with music and fun. A recent two-year, $30,000 grant from Knight Foundation helped push Bragg Jam into the ranks of larger music festivals that are able to draw more recognizable acts. The six-time Grammy Award-winning Blind Boys of Alabama became a viable option; in previous years the musicians would have been out of reach.  Knight support enabled organizers “to bring a noteworthy performer with national recognition who aligned with a broader demographic,” said Bragg Jam Entertainment Chair Sean Pritchard, about the most recent festival held late last month.
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    JusticeHack Miami sources local solutions for social ills

    Published August 5, 2014 by

    Above: JusticeHack group member Renita Holmes pitched her idea "Know your rights, show your rights," proposing the construction of a place where community members have access to resources on property ownership. Photos by Carolina Wilson.  What does it mean to “hack justice”? Community members gathered at The LAB Miami in Wynwood this past weekend for JusticeHack, a two-day workshop inviting activists, entrepreneurs and others to demand ownership and control of pressing local social justice issues. “Let’s get in the spirit of creativity,” Chris Sopher, founder of local nonprofit WhereBy.us and Knight Foundation journalism program associate, said as he welcomed the crowd. According to Sopher, the goals of the event were simple: to engage in conversation, identify local social justice issues and work on viable and creative solutions. Community voices—such as taxi drivers, youth of color and nursery workers—were invited to share stories of injustice and inspire those present to propose remedies.
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    Circ X auditions local talent

    Published August 4, 2014 by

    The beautifully bizarre and deliciously deranged Miami-based traveling troupe and performance company Circ X wants you. The Knight Arts Grantee seek fearless and committed artists – dancers, clowns, circus acts, burlesque and cabaret performers – to become part of its upcoming performances at the Fillmore Miami Beach on September 20th,...
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    Seth Flaxman: First statewide partnership brings voter registration services to 850,000 students

    Published August 1, 2014 by

    A TurboVote rally at Miami Dade College in April 2012. Credit: Miami Dade College This article is cross posted with permission from Democracy Fund. Back in January of 2012, TurboVote had one partner school, our first grant had only just come in, and I was struggling with how to run payroll for the first time. That month I hired a dynamic young organizer, Sam Novey, on one condition: fly to Miami for two weeks with no travel budget and get three colleges that are a little bit interested in TurboVote signed on as partners. Over a dozen trips to Florida later, we’ve come a long way. Last month, Senator Bob Graham announced in front of a packed audience of student affairs professionals from across the country that Florida was now “leading the charge” with 38 colleges and universities from across the state institutionalizing voter engagement with the help of TurboVote. He was sharing some breaking news. The Florida College System (FCS) had just announced a new partnership with TurboVote to bring our tool to 27 state and community colleges—making this is the first system-wide project of the FCS Civic Literacy Initiative, which aims to make civic engagement part of the experience of all 850,000 students enrolled in the system. Bringing this partnership to life required some serious teamwork. Our first few Florida colleges were all introduced to us through the Knight Foundation. Funding from Knight and the Democracy Fund helped us keep a team of talented organizers focused on this opportunity for over a year, and funding from the Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions at St. Petersburg College is what made the whole FCS expansion ultimately possible.
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    Lessons of a lifetime guide new Knight leadership in Akron, Ohio

    Published August 1, 2014 by

    Akron African-American Festival. Credit: Benjamin Lehman on Flickr.com Having the ability to support people who are doing good things in their community is most certainly a dream job. The feelings that can come from equipping people to take action on what they most care about can be incredible. The tough part is that needs always exceed what’s available and that the job of a grantmaker involves as much head as it does heart.  As I join a new team to serve and honor the legacy of the Knight brothers in their hometown, I am humbled by the task at hand. More than 30 years after his death, Jack Knight still looms large in the minds of many of the Akronites that I’ve already met.  Though Mr. Knight traveled the world many times over, he always returned to a two-mile corridor in Downtown Akron that stretches from the Beacon Journal to the Portage Country Club. By all accounts, Jack Knight loved Akron and always wanted the best for the city and its residents.
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    ArtWorks: creating a cultured workforce

    Published August 1, 2014 by

    Today is the last day that I will lead the creative writing co-op as a Master Teaching Artist (MTA) at ArtWorks, a paid summer internship program in the arts for high school students. It will be the hardest day of my teaching/mentoring career because the job allowed me to be...
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    Throw your hat in the residency ring

    Published August 1, 2014 by

    Cannonball residencies' cool digs in downtown Miami. These have been a couple of eventful and expansive years for Cannonball, for 10 years known as LegalArt, which rebranded itself and with a Warhol Foundation grant has been growing its offerings and services. In June it hired well-known...
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    Vote now for the Detroit Knight Arts Challenge People’s Choice Award

    Published August 1, 2014 by

    This article is cross-posted from KnightArts.org.  In Detroit, we’re seeing art and artistic performances pop up all around us.  Some of them have long been fixtures in the community and yet previously unrecognized outside of small circles.  Some of them are entirely new, attracted to a Detroit artistic scene and opportunity that is becoming nationally and internationally known.  At Knight Foundation, we strive to find innovative projects that engage and enrich Detroiters through the arts.  We recently announced 87 finalists for the 2014 Knight Arts Challenge.  While the finalists’ proposals are reviewed and winners are selected, we are taking an opportunity to shine the spotlight on five small arts organizations – an emerging drumline academy, two dramatically different dance efforts, a growing center for African culture and site-specific theater performers.