• Article

    A deep breath for art

    Published March 13, 2012 by

    What a difference a space makes. When art works get enough room to breathe, to express themselves, sometime with rooms and walls all to their own, it changes the viewing experience dramatically. The temporary "pop-up" gallery that...
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    Inside the Art Blog’s First Friday Art Safari

    Published March 13, 2012 by

    By TheArtBlog.org staff On Friday March 2, theartblog.org launched its brand new First Friday Art Safaris which seek to expose audiences to the far-flung art around Philadelphia that they may otherwise not be aware of. With galleries and underground locales dotting the city, many of these spaces are difficult to...
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    Akron Art Museum’s 90th anniversary celebration

    Published March 13, 2012 by

    By Antoinette George, Akron Art Museum On February 1, 1922, the Akron Art Museum opened its doors as the Akron Art Institute in two borrowed rooms in the basement of the city’s public library. In the past 90 years, the museum has survived and grown despite significant hardships including the...
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    At SXSW, Rishi Jaitly shares insights as to what makes community philanthropy work

    Published March 13, 2012 by

    Video: The Urban Innovation Exchange is chronicling small-scale community projects making a difference in Detroit. “One big question we constantly ask as we think about community grantmaking is how do we go from pockets of impact to real strategic change?” Rishi Jaitly, program director/Detroit at Knight Foundation, asked this morning at a SXSW panel. He posed the question during a discussion focused on the new face of philanthropy and community grantmaking, and how it can best engage new people to contribute to local projects. Citing Knight Foundation-supported initiatives like Kiva Detroit, the BME Challenge, Urban Innovation Exchange and Hatch Detroit, Jaitly shared that in his experience, the best community philanthropy projects have the potential to create strategic change if they focus on and are successful in the following three key areas:
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    Election Perceptions, 3: As the Internet goes, so goes the anti-Putin vote?

    Published March 13, 2012 by

    Today’s is the final of three posts looking at the media, data and elections. This time, Russia is the topic.    First, it’s hard to know if last week’s election numbers are solid. The western press writes of election fraud. Some problems are admitted. Other reports say all was well. Yet we have the numbers we have, mapped in this post by Knight News Challenge winner Aaron Presnall and his nonpartisan Jefferson Institute, so let’s take a look. President Vladimir Putin’s victory was substantial – but here’s an interesting point: the data seem to say that his results were related to Internet penetration levels.  Here are two rather extreme examples: In the North Caucasian Federal District, Internet penetration is a low 34 percent and the pro-Putin vote was a high 83.1 percent; In Moscow, Internet penetration is strong at 64 percent and Putin is weak at 47.3 percent. I’m not arguing that the Internet by itself caused Putin’s lower total in Moscow. It was one of several factors.  Elections are complex. You have candidates, issues, process, existence of or lack of peace and prosperity and the general mindset of the people.
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    Ryan Hinkel’s “Skyscapes” at the Traction Company

    Published March 13, 2012 by

    The windows of the Philadelphia Traction Company — a collaborative workspace and art center in West Philly — have just begun the newest chapter in their lives courtesy artist Ryan Hinkel. The nine, four-by ten-foot covered spaces and two, seven-foot squares, which now house prints, have been transformed into “Skyscapes”...
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    Knight News Challenge tip: do your research

    Published March 13, 2012 by

    Note: To apply for the News Challenge, and read our FAQ, visit NewsChallenge.org. Improve your Knight News Challenge application and your chance of becoming a finalist by doing some basic research. Make sure you do the necessary research to show that you have a unique idea or a project that combines things that already exist to provide a product, process or service in a totally new way. You want to demonstrate that your project is better, more efficient or different from what already exists. The main goal is for you to know and be able to convey that you are not reinventing the wheel. And in this round of the challenge you want to demonstrate that you are using networks and tools that already exist to inform and engage users. You will have a great advantage in the contest if you are able to show that: • You know the landscape of the field and the project you are proposing to do. • You are able to explain why your idea/project is different or better than everything else that is out there.
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    Three finalists named in News Related Technologies track of SXSW Accelerator Competition

    Published March 12, 2012 by

    SXSW Accelerator Judges for News Related Technologies Track (l to r): Ben Huh, CEO of Cheezburger Network, Tony Conrad, co-founder about.me and partner, True Ventures and Adam Ostrow, SVP content & executive editor Mashable. Today, three innovative, news-related technologies were selected as finalists in the SXSW Accelerator Competition. Of the eight startups vying, three - Ad Glue, the Funf Project and Umbel - were selected to move on to the second and final round of judging, scheduled for tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m. Here’s a bit more about each of them, from their morning pitches and materials: Ad Glue is an advertising platform that allows publishers to instantly “glue” or place advertisements next to content they like.  It allows users to reach customers  in three steps - by creating an ad, choosing when it gets seen and seeing it stay put for a full 30 days. There are no dashboards, no need for graphic designers and publishers can change their messaging and artwork as often as they need.  Funf Project is a social and behavioral sensing framework for Android devices. It provides an open source, reusable set of functionalities, enabling the grassroots collection, dissemination, and sense-making of rich data about individuals, their devices and their environment. It can be used by researchers, self-trackers or anyone interested in collecting and exploring information related to mobile device, its environment, and its user’s behavior. The project was developed at the MIT Media Lab. Umbel empowers publishers, advertisers and agencies with a deeper understanding of audience engagement, by using large amounts of aggregated, real-time social data. The knowledge and insights it provides to clients helps them research and plan their media placements more effectively. The company says that selling inventory with Umbel data yields eight times more return when compared to ad network revenue.
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    ‘Local heroes’ win awards for keeping public information in the people’s hands

    Published March 12, 2012 by

    Joel Chandler believes that open government is not an accident – and he should know.  Chandler – a businessman, not an attorney – has filed and won more than two-dozen lawsuits forcing governments to comply with open records laws. Along the way the Lakeland, Fla. resident has helped keep school districts from selling the personal information of their employee’s minor dependents, fought excessive fees for residents seeking public records and helped South Florida residents fighting a private prison planned for their neighborhood by exposing contract violations. Today, for his efforts, Chandler is being named the winner of the 2012 Sunshine Week Local Hero Award, honoring people using publically-available information to make a difference in their communities. The honor is announced at the start of a week-long initiative on government transparency at all levels. The American Society of News Editors and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press co-sponsor the event, with support from Knight Foundation.  
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    Amy Toscani’s sculptural, pop-cultural play

    Published March 12, 2012 by

    I’ve been eager to see Amy Toscani’s new show at St. Kate’s University, “Everyday Epic.” I’ve long admired her large-scale public art: a grand, candy-colored “Molecule” on the grounds of the University of Minnesota’s East Bank; the whimsical, many-armed “Rocco,” installed at the wonderful Franconia Sculpture Park; the latter calls...