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    Art over at the high end

    Published February 1, 2012 by

    Mexican gallerist, curator and dealer Nina Torres has a new home on Biscayne Bay, a stunning waterfront art center on North Bayshore Drive opened up during Art Basel. Torres, for the most part, globetrots the world putting on shows and exhibiting...
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    ‘Open Journalism’ – has the time finally arrived?

    Published January 31, 2012 by

    Miami’s winter holiday breezes are usually refreshing, but this year, particularly so, thanks to a discussion paper we saw in December from Melanie Sill for the University of Southern California.  Finally, influential journalists are talking more seriously about a basic question of the digital age: How can they go beyond just informing communities to actually engage them? Former Sacramento Bee editor and senior vice president Sill concludes that professional journalism can indeed be “transparent, responsive and enriched through vibrant two-way connections with a networked universe.” In “The Case for Open Journalism Now,” she details open, collaborative approaches gaining use at news organizations across the country. Eric Newton, Senior Adviser to the President at Knight Foundation What’s Open Journalism? I’d describe it as trading up from the industrial age one-way assembly-line idea of mass media to the 21st century, computer-age, two-way networked system of communication, the information world that is the one most of us really live in.  The open approach turn lectures into conversations. It means we celebrate not just our nation’s need to know but its need to tell. And newsrooms define communities not as “the great unwashed” but see them as a collection of many voices struggling to be heard.  
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    Red Hook gets a little rural with Lauren Ladner

    Published January 31, 2012 by

    This past Friday at Red Hook Coffee and Tea was the opening of a show by artist and designer Lauren Ladner. There was also a live performance by blues musician Matthew “Mule” McKinley, for whom she designed the artwork on his just-released album, “Alone on the Orange Floor.” [caption id="attachment_32245"...
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    Knight Community Info Challenge winners reflect a broad range of ideas and projects

    Published January 31, 2012 by

    What is the Knight Community Information Challenge looking for? So far, the contest, offering matching funds to community and place-based foundations, has funded a wide variety of ideas – and Knight is always looking for fresh approaches. In general, Knight is looking for projects that help fill community information needs, foster community engagement and help residents participate in the creation and sharing of news and information.  It may be helpful to browse previous winners. But keep in mind that Knight is not wedded to any particular models of news and information. This challenge also is not designed to help community or place-based foundations improve their media relations and marketing, or expand their own Web sites, important though these might be. Here are examples of 10 types of projects the Challenge has funded:
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    The Michigan Arab Orchestra performs at Wayne State

    Published January 31, 2012 by

    With considerable shame, I must confess my experience with “Middle Eastern music,” if such an enormous and diverse cultural heritage can be reduced to that designation, comes almost entirely from brief fragments heard through tinny radios in the back of specialty grocery stores or as ambience in the background of...
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    Art is part of healing Charlotte’s chronic homeless

    Published January 30, 2012 by

    Yesterday celebrated a milestone in the fight to end homelessness in Charlotte. Moore Place is a brand new community of one-bedroom efficiency apartments with on-site special services for individuals with a history of chronic homelessness. Jan. 29 was its grand opening and community open house. Moore Place will utilize a...
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    Teaching digital literacy through game design

    Published January 30, 2012 by

    This Wednesday marks the first-ever Digital Learning Day, a nationwide celebration of innovative teaching and learning through digital media and technology. World Wide Workshop, a Knight supported project, is partnering with the day’s organizers, Alliance for Excellent Education, to celebrate innovative teaching practices that make learning more engaging for students.   Middle school students create original games around civics-related issues as they develop science, technology, engineering and math knowledge, and digital literacy skills.  Specifically, World Wide Workshop’s Globaloria Learning Platform is the first and largest social learning network for developing digital literacy, science, technology, engineering, and math knowledge (known as “STEM” learning) and global citizenship skills through game design.
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    Community Foundation of Greater South Wood County changes name to reflect the scope of its work

    Published January 30, 2012 by

    What’s in a name? Plenty for one foundation that is revolutionizing its approach to leadership in its community. That’s why the Community Foundation of Greater South Wood County in central Wisconsin has a new name: Incourage Community Foundation. “Our work has grown and adapted to changes in our community in the last decade,” said Kelly Ryan Lucas, president and CEO of the foundation. “We’re really a community development organization that uses philanthropy as a tool to foster civic engagement and community improvement.”
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    Alice gets around

    Published January 30, 2012 by

    We all think we know the spunky English girl who falls down a rabbit hole and emerges in a trippy dream world. Fernando Calzadilla, who co-wrote an adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic English fairy tale "Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland" with Stephanie Ansin, agrees that the actor is “an athlete of...
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    Introducing the Heritage Spotlight Series at HistoryMiami

    Published January 30, 2012 by

    By Michael Knoll, South Florida Folklife Center, HistoryMiami The South Florida Folklife Center (SFFC), a division of HistoryMiami, is pleased to announce the launch of the Heritage Spotlight series, an annual artist-in-residence program. The series showcases local traditional artists, cultural expressions, and the area’s diversity. Over the course of 2012,...
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    The transporting power of Philadelphia Theatre

    Published January 30, 2012 by

    By Ned Warwick, Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia It is awfully easy to take for granted the cultural riches that abound in Philadelphia. Vaguely, we assume they have always been here—a natural and inevitable part of our heritage—and that every community is similarly blessed. But listening in for the past...
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    An artist who sets the stage

    Published January 27, 2012 by

    Miami native and now New York-based artist Daniel Arsham is having a pretty good week nationally, as works that reveal his broad reach into artistic exploration will be on show from coast to coast. Arsham's first Los Angeles solo...