• Article

    Civic leaders offer ideas for revitalizing neighborhoods

    Published May 30, 2014 by

    Photo: A "Robust Engagement" workshop was part of the Civic Innovation in Action Studio, May 12-14. Photo by Tom Clark for Knight Foundation. Overview: Knight Foundation hosted 100 civic innovators at a Civic Innovation in Action Studio in Miami May 12 -14 to explore ways to harness talent, advance opportunity and promote robust engagement. If you spend any time at all reading about American cities and what is happening in them today, the word “gentrification” will certainly have bubbled to the top of your consciousness, usually in a negative context. There’s no question that as cities have regained popularity among more affluent and upwardly mobile Americans, gentrification – with its attendant ills of displacement and homogenization – can cause problems. The story that isn’t told as much is the one about how many places aren’t being gentrified -- the places where poverty is chronic and entrenched. According to a report on the nation’s largest metro areas from Impresa Consulting, of 1,100 census tracts with poverty rates in excess of 30 percent in 1970, 750 still had poverty topping that rate 40 years later. So what works to change the reality of entrenched disinvestment and poverty? As research for Knight Foundation’s recent Civic Innovation in Action Studio, we asked several civic leaders with a track record of successful redevelopment of disinvested neighborhoods for their thoughts on how to turn around troubled neighborhoods. Here are some of the themes that emerged.
  • Article

    Support the WordSpeak team before the Olympics of spoken word

    Published May 30, 2014 by

    Every year, Tigertail fosters the literary prowess of South Florida teens through WordSpeak, a “life-changing spoken word programs for 1,000 South Florida youth.” Through WordSpeak and SpeakOut, Tigertail's parallel LGBT spoken word youth program, the organization provides Miami students with access to prominent local spoken word mentor Teo Castellanos, as...
  • Article

    WDET dresses up Public Pool with “The Dress Show”

    Published May 30, 2014 by

    "Thasneen" (2014) by Karpov the Wrecked Train. Saturday, May 24th was the closing of The Dress Show, a collaborative effort between radio station WDET and Public Pool art space, and the first in WDET’s Gallery Takeover series. Produced by Courtney Hurtt, WDET created a segment that...
  • Article

    Music by Nature scheduled to return this summer

    Published May 30, 2014 by

    The city of Akron is set to come alive with music this summer. There is a free concert every day of the week somewhere in town. Outside the city limits, especially in the Cuyahoga Valley, the musical scene is shaping up as well. The Conservancy for the Cuyahoga Valley partners...
  • Article

    Apply for AMP Camp 2014

    Published May 29, 2014 by

    By Allied Media Projects AMP Camp is a retreat for Detroit-based artist-educators. It will take place Saturday, August 16 through Wednesday, August 20, 2014, at a group of beachside cabins in Silver Lake, MI. Now in its third year, AMP Camp is like an intense and intimate version of the...
  • Article

    Insights from civic innovation studio evolving into action

    Published May 29, 2014 by

    Photo: Participants at the Civic Innovation in Action Studio in Miami. Photo by Tom Clark/For Knight Foundation. Overview: Knight Foundation hosted 100 civic innovators at a Civic Innovation in Action Studio in Miami May 12 -14 to explore ways to harness talent, advance opportunity and promote robust engagement. We recently completed our Civic Innovation in Action Studio, a convening of 100 thought leaders from across the country; now the next phase of work begins. We’re honing ideas into experiments, developing ways to advance opportunity, harness talent in cities and make robust acts of citizenship normal. These experiments will be designed to help us understand how to get closer to some important goals that have proved elusive but are key components of our strategy here at Knight Foundation. For instance, to advance opportunity in our cities one area ripe for experimentation is to learn more about how neighborhoods can attract and keep families with widely different incomes. That doesn’t happen often in our cities today. Yet, new research shows that having people of different incomes living in close proximity to one another is key to upward mobility in America. To tackle the challenge, civic innovators considered the manipulation of local talent and asset inventories, public events, zoning and development, and civic amenities to alter the composition of neighborhoods.
  • Article

    Meetups and more connect, develop Miami’s startup community

    Published May 29, 2014 by

    RefreshMiami event shared by Alex de Carvalho on Flickr. It’s been an eventful year in Miami. We’ve had many successful events, from Startup City Miami to the MIA Music Summit and eMerge Americas Techweek, but there’s a lot more ahead. Over the next few weeks, check out these events Knight Foundation is supporting. 
  • Article

    DANCECleveland announces new season

    Published May 29, 2014 by

    Some old dance friends and some new ones are in the lineup for the newly announced 2014-2015 season of DANCECleveland, a Knight Arts grantee. First-timers for DC are an innovative ensemble led by French-Algerian choreographer Mourad Merzouki called Compagnie Kafig, and the newly-launched “Wendy Phelan – Restless Creature,” featuring the...
  • Article

    Words on paper in great art form

    Published May 29, 2014 by

    Text drawings from Michael Scoggins. Several months ago, the Brooklyn-based couple of Michael Scoggins and Alex Gingrow were playing with paper during their residency at the Fountainhead, paper that would be formed into works for their show that is now at Diana Lowenstein Fine Art, “Your...
  • Article

    “Van Gogh Alive” at Discovery Place

    Published May 29, 2014 by

    There's only one weekend left to experience the immersive “Van Gogh Alive” exhibition at Discovery Place. More than 3,000 of Vincent van Gogh’s artworks are on display in an unusual exhibition method that re-creates the paintings on digital screens in a synthesis of traditional art and modern technology. Visitors will...
  • Article

    15 minutes in 2014: Warhol’s legacy in a cabaret opera

    Published May 29, 2014 by

    Like many artistic collaborations, this one began over yoga, solidified over pizza and blossomed over chicken cacciatore. John Jarboe and his Philadelphia cabaret group, The Bearded Ladies, had an idea to create a performance piece on Andy Warhol. The idea intrigued David Devan, who was intent on rethinking the city’s opera company. After running into each other at yoga, the two Knight Arts grantees shared a meal and decided to partner in producing “Andy: A Popera.” Far from a Warhol biopic, the piece will explore a few essential questions: What is Warhol’s legacy, and how is his statement about everyone having 15 minutes of fame relevant today? Is immortality worth dying for? This pairing of people and ideas may sound unusual, but so is the creative process behind it. With Knight funding, the piece will be written and composed, tested before audiences at neighborhood pop-up performances, reworked with feedback and finally staged next March. It’s a Popera in three acts, literally fueled by food and community.
  • Article

    National Day of Civic Hacking enlists innovators to build community solutions

    Published May 29, 2014 by

    Developers worked in the office of one-time Beacon-Journal Publisher John S. Knight in Akron for #HackNEO in 2013. Photo by Persa Zula on Flickr. This weekend more than 120 events in more than 100 cities will observe the second annual National Day of Civic Hacking, an event open to everyone who has a passion for making constructive civic change. It’s for you, even if you don’t know how to code or wouldn’t dream of calling yourself a “hacker.” Last year more than 11,000 people participated and even more are expected this year. Participants will work together on hundreds of innovative projects that promote civic engagement and create a more open and transparent government. As part of our strategy examining the changing face of U.S. employment and how our communities can best adapt to and serve this increasingly fluid and independent workforce, Knight Foundation has posed a number of challenges that we invite participants to address. We’re asking civic hackers to think through the unique opportunities and issues that freelance and independent workers face.
  • Article

    Rare Mozart, in trio and Masonic style

    Published May 28, 2014 by

    The Amernet String Quartet. From left: Misha Vitenson, Michael Klotz, Marcia Littley and Jason Callaway. There never seems to be any end to Mozart, and in the next couple weeks Miami audiences can hear some relative rarities from this composer’s vast output. Amernet String Quartet: The...