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    Call for submissions: LAB High School & LAB MFA

    Published March 29, 2014 by

    By Locust Projects Locust Projects announces an open call to South Florida High School and MFA students to participate in LAB (Locust Art Builders) exhibition opportunity. LAB SUMMER INTENSIVE Locust Projects, Miami’s premier non-profit exhibition space for experimental contemporary art, is pleased to announce its fifth annual Locust Art Builders...
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    Impressionistic rug expressions

    Published March 28, 2014 by

    "No Rain No Rainbows" rug from Agustina Woodgate. Agustina Woodgate works with found and everyday objects, with the way people interact with space, situations, location, but in a mundane way. Her sculpture and installation (and billboards) are not in-your-face, nor seemingly “imposed” on the surroundings —...
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    Learning and growing in Akron

    Published March 28, 2014 by

    Photo credit: Flickr user ThePlus. Akron is the birthplace of Knight Foundation. Brothers John S. and James L. Knight found their passion for journalism and communities in Akron, and their vision has blossomed into a national network that promotes the power of information to connect people and help democracy thrive. That’s why it’s always valuable to see what we can learn in Akron. I recently traveled there with Carol Coletta, our vice president for community and national initiatives. We met with some of the many individuals and organizations that are engaged in contributing to Akron’s success. It was a terrific opportunity to listen and learn from local leaders of various sectors. We’re eager to continue the learning. We’re especially interested in discovering and seeding more efforts in Akron that attract, retain and harness talent; expand opportunity by increasing entrepreneurship and economic mobility; and build Akron as a place that accelerates the growth of ideas and brings people from diverse backgrounds together.
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    The power of crowd wisdom in solving difficult medical cases

    Published March 27, 2014 by

    Photo credit: Flickr user Alex Proimos. Thomas Krafft is vice president of marketing for CrowdMed, which Knight Foundation supports through its Enterprise Fund. CrowdMed harnesses the knowledge of health experts online to collaboratively solve medical cases. After nearly three frustrating years, Carly was desperate for answers. She suffered from a serious medical condition, but more than a dozen doctors, countless medical tests and over $100,000 in medical bills still could not tell her what was wrong. Carly had once been a vibrant, healthy teenager, but now she could barely get out of bed. Her symptoms and the emotional stress were pushing her to the breaking point. Finally, after a rare opportunity to consult with a top-notch interdisciplinary team of medical experts from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, Carly received an answer: “Fragile X-associated primary ovarian insufficiency” (FXPOI)—a rare genetic mutation found in just one of every 15,000 people. Even more astounding, the treatment of Carly’s condition involved a simple hormone patch, which effectively eliminated all of her symptoms in less than one month. Today, Carly is fully recovered, with a new family of her own, and she is actively achieving all of her personal and professional goals. Prior to her diagnosis, Carly was starting to wonder whether her life was already over.
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    Knight internship unveils a network of opportunity

    Published March 27, 2014 by

    Above: Andries Vaisman. Knight Foundation’s summer internship program is currently accepting applications.  The foundation offers competitive internships in a variety of program areas that work to promote informed and engaged communities. Below, former intern Andries Vaisman shares highlights of his experience, how it influenced his career and what advice he’d give to incoming interns. You work now in partnership development at General Assembly in New York. What are your primary responsibilities? A.V.: I’ve been at General Assembly  - an educational institution that transforms thinkers into creators through education and opportunities in tech, business and design - for four months. Specifically, I work on building relationships with companies in the tech and business community in New York so that they can hire from our pool of talent. I’m also helping to manage our apprenticeship program. How did you first hear about Knight Foundation's internship program? A.V: I was a sophomore at Vassar College in New York and I was planning on being a lifeguard for the summer. Luckily, I met someone who worked at Knight Foundation who recommended that I apply and give it a shot. It turned out to be the perfect opportunity, as it was my first real experience working in a real professional setting. I had an awesome time.  
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    New digital tools every journalist should try

    Published March 27, 2014 by

    Captricity overview via YouTube When Charlie Beckett asked me to join the Polis journalism conference this week at the London School of Economics and Political Science, he showed the depth of his university by asking a surprisingly practical journalism question for a school ranked No. 2 in the world in the research-laden “communication and media studies” field.  Beckett wanted to know about the newest digital tools journalists are using to do accountability journalism (which some of us still call watchdog journalism). My first reaction was to mention some of the “golden oldies” Knight Foundation has funded and followed: the encryption software Tor; the investigative paper-tamer Document Cloud and its advanced story-finding cousin Overview; the visual storytelling tool Timeline JS; and the classic crowdmapping application Ushahidi. These are, all in all, used by thousands of journalists and newsrooms and are the subject of the regular digital tools tutorials supported by the American Press Institute, the Poynter Institute and Knight. But then I saw Jonathan Stray was coming to talk about Overview. You can’t top that. I say golden oldies because in digital years a lifetime for a product seems like about 21 months. “Moore’s Law”  predicted chip-processing power would double about every 18 months. It more or less has for decades, and each wave of chips remakes the digital world. In digital time, that means a tool born in 2012 was born a lifetime ago. There’s nothing wrong with the classic tools; they just aren’t the latest ones. So I turned to Ben Wirz, who a couple of digital lifetimes ago joined Knight as director of business consulting. Ben helps lead the Knight Enterprise Fund, which invests in startup companies.
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    Meet FGO Young Artist resident Adam Lau

    Published March 27, 2014 by

    “The Young Artist program was started at a time when many regional opera companies had decided to offer a training ground for young operatic talent,” said Julie Maykowski, head of the Florida Grand Opera's Young Artist program. “The growth we have seen from the Young Artists this season has been...
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    An 80th birthday that will help illuminate Detroit

    Published March 27, 2014 by

    Happy Birthday Alma Greer via YouTube  For Alma Greer’s 80th birthday, the retired educator didn’t want the typical celebration. “Scarves and perfume are nice,” Greer said. But using the event to raise funds for a project dear to her heart would make her birthday celebration even more special. In fact, her only birthday request was that guests donate from their heart to the Charles H. Wright Museum’s Shine a Light Project funded by the Knight Arts Challenge. The effort, in partnership with the Detroit Elders Project, will illuminate Detroit’s darkest streets with video art installations featuring and highlighting the legacy of the city’s elders. Her gesture was not only generous, but indicative of the importance of Shine a Light and the role of elders in society. Mrs. Alma Greer is one such elder. A retired teacher, principal and 30-year veteran of the Board of Education, she made it a point to bring her elementary classes to visit the International Afro-American Museum when Dr. Charles Wright and partners first opened it in 1965. Photo property of Alma Greer Greer’s 80th birthday celebration raised close to $16,000! It was an amazing kick-off event for Shine a Light organized by the citizenry of Detroit. At one point in the night, Mrs. Greer presented each of her guests with a gift: a miniature LED flashlight. In unison, all attendees flashed their lights onto the glass dome of the museum’s Rotunda to reveal a sublime sight reminiscent of a star-filled galaxy. We have already begun to identify communities without light. We will collaborate with neighborhood associations to talk with community members and collectively decide how best to light up Detroit and watch those stars among us shine their brightest.All donations help The Wright Museum match funds for the Knight’s Art Challenge grant, and this is only the beginning. The museum has commissioned distinguished filmmaker Julie Dash to create four to six large-scale video art installation programs and one mobile installation.  The large-scale video art programs will be designed to rotate between two long term-to-permanent locations in dark communities while the mobile installation will travel to various unlit communities.