A few years ago, Knight Foundation set out to bring art and culture into people’s everyday lives by presenting surprise opera and classical ballet performances at markets, parks and airports. More than 1,000 of these Random Acts of Culture took place in eight communities across the United States. The reaction each time was amazing to […]
Knight Foundation heads west today as VP/Arts Dennis Scholl joins Cleveland’s NPR station WCPN to discuss his Oct 25 appearance at the City Club of Cleveland. Click here to listen to the interview. Scholl is heading to the City Club of Cleveland to discuss what today’s audiences want from the arts. He’ll will give examples […]
Florida’s Singing Sons Boychoir. If you’re anything like me, the late Thanksgiving this year has meant that Christmas has crept right up on you and caught you nearly unawares. Musically, that has meant a great pile-up of holiday concerts in the past couple weeks, but even though the window is closing fast, there are still […]
Each of the objects placed into the small space of Rebekah Templeton Contemporary Art pines for the familiar and the accessible, but somewhere along the way, these creations lose their way. Artist Ryan McCartney impresses the weight of the banal upon the viewer with simplified process pieces that excel at innuendo without revealing their true […]
O, Miami, Miami’s first monthlong poetry festival, made the press this weekend. The Sun Sentinel’s Stephen Goldstein called the festival a revolution, writing: “It started in 2011, gained momentum this year, and has the potential to transform the region for the good beyond our wildest collective imaginations. And it’s all because of poetry.” Click here […]
Last week I was fortunate to be invited to speak at the Knight-sponsored SphinxCon event. A gathering of national leaders in Detroit to discuss the issue of diversity in the arts. Speakers ranged from Delroy Lindo to Maria López De León, the director of NALAC. Knight Foundation National Arts Advisory Committee member and Sphinx founder Aaron […]
Nonprofit Quarterly salutes O, Miami for “innovating with the unexpected.” Click here to read the entire piece and below for an excerpt… “Three years ago, I and a group of friends started to dream up what a lot of people considered impossible: a festival that would bring poetry to all 2.6 million residents of Greater […]
By P. Scott Cunningham, founder, O, Miami Festival Three years ago, I and a group of friends started to dream up what a lot of people considered impossible: a festival that would bring poetry to all 2.6 million residents of Greater Miami. At that time, Miami’s cultural scene was exploding. Art Basel was in full force, and […]
Related Links O, Miami: How a festival infused a city with poetry, an in depth report on the inaugural festival By P. Scott Cunningham, founder, O, Miami Festival Three years ago, I and a group of friends started to dream up what a lot of people considered impossible: a festival that would bring poetry to […]
I was recently invited to be a keynote speaker at the International Downtown Association. For the first time in my life I was introduced with a haiku! Sam Grabarski, legendary Minneapolis leader welcomed me with the following: “His thoughts are droplets They combine as torrent To flood with culture” Then in the middle of my speech […]
By Caroline Murray, Miami City Ballet On October 13, Wynwood Art Walk goers were minding their business at popular spot, the Wynwood Walls. No one expected a ballet dancer in street clothes to strike a pose right smack in the middle of the crowd as the DJ changed her tune to tango! That dancer was […]
In the sweltering heat of another muggy Miami afternoon, the exuberant teens from Project L.E.A.P. stormed Lincoln Road and performed songs, recited poetry and spoken word in a semi-random act of self-expression and self-empowerment. Project L.E.A.P. is a weekly dance and creative communications program for GLBTQ youth and allies ages 14–18, supported by the Miami […]
Knight Foundation is celebrating its 1,000+ Random Acts of Culture™ with four big, blow-out performances in San Jose, Detroit, Miami and Philadelphia. The fun kicked off Sunday, Aug. 5 with a 250-person surprise performance in San Jose, continued Friday, Aug. 10 with a 150-person performance at Detroit’s Compuware World Headquarters, hit South Beach Saturday, Sept 1 with a […]
Knight Foundation is celebrating its 1,000+ Random Acts of Culture™ with four big, blow-out performances in San Jose, Detroit, Miami and Philadelphia. The fun kicked off Sunday, Aug. 5 with a 250-person surprise performance in San Jose, continued Friday, Aug. 10 with a 150-person performance at Detroit’s Compuware World Headquarters and hit South Beach Saturday, Sept 1 with a […]
For the past two years two years, we’ve been hiding baritones in shoe departments, and rolling xylophones down supermarket aisles, surprising people across the country with Random Acts of Culture™. It all started as an experiment. With audiences for traditional performances declining, at Knight Foundation we were looking for a way to remind people of how important the […]