• Article

    Inside CEZ’s pop-up park

    Published July 3, 2014 by

    By Jack Becker, Forecast Public Art After months of planning with dozens of artists and creative business leaders in the neighborhood surrounding Forecast Public Art, the Creative Enterprise Zone (CEZ) was transformed on June 14 into a one-day pop-up cultural park to celebrate the launch of the new Green Line...
  • Article

    Refresh Miami helps keeps ideas flowing during summer doldrums

    Published July 3, 2014 by

    RefreshMiami meetup at the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science in Miami. Photos by Carolina Wilson. Summer may tempt even the most dedicated entrepreneurs to take a break, but Refresh Miami attempts to keep them engaged in building and improving their businesses through a “summer startup series” of educational events. On Tuesday evening, the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science hosted Refresh Miami’s “Bringing Your Ideas to Life” event, sponsored by Wyncode, a coding bootcamp. “Our purpose here at Refresh is to foster the growth of South Florida’s tech and entrepreneurial communities,” said Brian Breslin, founder of Refresh Miami, which Knight Foundation has funded as a means of supporting and growing the Miami entrepreneurial and technology community. “Tonight’s going to be all about how to bring your idea to life.”
  • Article

    Don’t miss Big Night in Little Haiti on July 18

    Published July 3, 2014 by

    By The Rhythm Foundation One of Haitian music’s true ‘super groups’, Nu Look, headlines an evening full of big news. Celebrate the long-awaited opening of the Caribbean Marketplace, adjacent to the Cultural Center’s plaza, and enjoy music and specialty crafts vendors in Little Haiti’s iconic building. In the gallery, enjoy...
  • Article

    Announcing 2014 LAB High School & LAB MFA Artists

    Published July 3, 2014 by

    By Angelica Arbelaez, Locust Projects Locust Projects selects twenty-five South Florida high school students to participate in the 2014 LAB (LOCUST ARTS BUILDERS) program: LAB 2014Image courtesy of Locust Projects, MiamiImage Credit: Marilyn Loddi Kristen Baldaccini, TERRA Environmental Research Institute, David Baptiste, Miami Beach Senior High,...
  • Article

    Creating attractive and vibrant places for the upcoming 75 percent

    Published July 2, 2014 by

    Photo: Bradenton farmers' market. Credit: (cc) Cat Winterfox on Flickr. Morgan J. Bettes is an executive and creative associate at Realize Bradenton, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting the arts, culture, heritage and sports in Bradenton, Fla., a Knight community. Things to do this year: Transform Bradenton—or insert your city—into a vibrant area, attract and engage the millennial generation, connect the area’s physical and cultural assets, and the list goes on. Sound easy enough? Well, no, but as a 25-year-old professional I am more than eager to make a big difference in my small but forward-thinking community. Representing Realize Bradenton at the “The Doable City” forum in the heart of downtown Chicago recently, my mind was steamrolling from Day One. Supported by Knight Foundation and hosted by 8-80 Cities, a nonprofit dedicated to transforming cities into vibrant places, the forum gathered civic innovators from 19 communities around the U.S. to discuss and share issues that we face in creating lively areas that engage residents.
  • Article

    Poetica creates simple way to get feedback on your writing

    Published July 2, 2014 by

    Above: Henry Thoreau on writing. Credit: (cc) Kathleen Conklin on Flickr. Knight Foundation supports Poetica through the Knight Enterprise Fund, which provides early-stage venture funding for media innovation. James Weiner is co-founder of Poetica. Poetica is a browser-based editor and Chrome extension that makes it simple to get easy-to-understand feedback from your team on anything you’ve written, anywhere on the Web and across any device. We've just left a “beta” phase and have opened our doors to everyone, with investment from a group of angel investors, including Knight Foundation’s Enterprise Fund.  At Poetica, we believe that it’s time for a reinvention of the tools that help us work together on words. Starting with a deep understanding of the user, our team has already built a powerful editing experience that looks and feels like editing on paper. The intention is to make something that's not only beautiful but completely intuitive - partly because the interaction is based on how we’ve always written, even before computers made it easy to copy and paste.
  • Article

    Meditating on community in Macon, Ga.

    Published July 2, 2014 by

    Photo by Molly McWilliams Wilkins. The brick pattern on the ground at Mulberry Street United Methodist Church in Macon, Ga., may strike many people as just a clever design, but the purposeful lines in gray and tan are so much more: a call to slow down and to share a common experience with neighbors. Last week the Macon League of Creative Interventionists invited local residents to take a break from the frenetic pace of their daily lives to explore the stone labyrinth. The chapter formed earlier this spring during a Knight Foundation-supported visit by artist Hunter Franks, who founded the League of Creative Interventionists, an international network that aims to break down social barriers within communities. Each month the league celebrates a global theme. For June it was “slow.” “Life gets busy. We get so wrapped up in day-to-day responsibilities; we forget to take time to slow down and relax,” said Deonna Belcher, a member of the Macon League who assisted in organizing the event. “Everyone needs down time, time to simply be and breathe.” The labyrinth offers people a chance to do just that. Last year when the church needed to repair a patio, they decided to build the labyrinth as a replacement and open it for community use, said Ann Smith, the church’s spiritual director.
  • Article

    DANCECleveland kicks off its 59th season

    Published July 1, 2014 by

    By Sarah Hricko, DANCECleveland From America's majestic West, to a kibbutz in Israel, to the Carnival spectacle of Brazil, DANCECleveland's 59th season will continue a tradition of bringing companies noted for unique artistic voices and distinctive styles to stages in northeast Ohio. The 2014-15 performance season will feature five extraordinary...
  • Article

    BalletX presents Summer Series 2014

    Published July 1, 2014 by

    By Allie Vanyur, Ballet X BalletX, Philadelphia’s premier contemporary ballet, presents Summer Series 2014 featuring a world premiere full-length ballet by Co-Artistic Director Matthew Neenan. Inspired by the true story of Captain Edwin Musick, an American pilot who dared to cross the South Pacific, Sunset, o639 Hours is a celebration...
  • Article

    Caribbean film punctuates museum’s art series

    Published July 1, 2014 by

    a still from Oneika Russell's "A Natural History." You don’t have to leave Miami to visit our southern island neighbors this summer, thanks to all the amazing offerings centered on the art and culture of the Caribbean that the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) is delivering....