• Article

    Pig Iron’s drunken Shakespearean romp in “Twelfth Night”

    Published September 15, 2011 by

    Knight Arts grantee Pig Iron Theatre Company has been providing Philadelphia with quality, original theatrical performances since 1995. As part of this season’s Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe, another Knight Arts grantee, Pig Iron has tackled its first full-on interpretation of a “classic” script with its production of Shakespeare’s...
  • Article

    New ArtPlace initiative drives revitalization in cities and towns

    Published September 15, 2011 by

    In a unique private-public collaboration, 11 of America's top foundations - including Knight - have joined with the National Endowment for the Arts and seven federal agencies to establish ArtPlace, a nationwide intitiative to drive revitalization in cities and towns with a new investment model. The projects will integrate artists and arts organizations into key local efforts in transportation, housing, community development and job creation. First round grants will total $11.5 million and include 34 locally-initiated projects from Honolulu to Miami.
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    Why a community foundation took a leadership role in filling the void left by a shrinking local media

    Published September 14, 2011 by

      By Ellen Martin  Third in a series on “Opportunities for Leadership: Meeting Community Information Needs.” Read Day 1 and Day 2. July, 2008: The Star-Ledger in Newark, New Jersey announced it would force the early retirement of 25 percent of its staff  - many of them experienced reporters - to avoid selling the paper.  “They got rid of the education, environment and healthcare beats – issues that we cared about because they’re important to the health of our communities,” said Hans Dekker, CEO of the Community Foundation of New Jersey. The same story played out across the United States as the recession settled in and old business models faltered. But in Morristown, the Community Foundation of New Jersey decided to tackle the issue head on.  That fall, the foundation funded NJ Spotlight, a nonprofit news start up focusing on state policy issues. The foundation ultimately established a partnership with the group, becoming the site’s most significant investor and planning a founding role in the development of the enterprise. The community foundation also secured funding for the site through the Knight Community Information Challenge, in addition to attracting other significant funders.   
  • Article

    Artist Unknown/The Free World: A first look

    Published September 14, 2011 by

    The Art and Culture Center of Hollywood is delighted to announce it is the recipient of the $50,000 FAB! Knight New Work Award supported by Funding Arts Broward and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation for the exhibit Artist Unknown/The Free World, organized by artists John D. Monteith...
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    New young artists arrive at Florida Grand Opera

    Published September 13, 2011 by

    By Nabila Arbaje, Florida Grand Opera Unlike Broadway and theater, opera is an art form that requires highly-specialized training, typically formal education such as a Masters in Voice or higher degrees. Much like doctors, aspiring opera singers search for residency opportunities with established opera companies following graduation. Holding the development...
  • Article

    Bodies of painting

    Published September 13, 2011 by

    It seems official: Representational, or figurative, painting is making a big comeback. Not that other styles of painting are out or that installation and sculpture have faded. But a form that once looked on the verge of disappearing, that once seemed uncool and...
  • Article

    Good look at Red Hook

    Published September 13, 2011 by

    Down on South Fourth Street, there is a nook of a coffee shop called Red Hook that always has great art hanging from its walls and, sometimes, the chill beats of a DJ pumping out into the surrounding South Philly neighborhood. Not to mention its coffee, tea and freshly made...
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    How three foundations strengthened their leadership by investing in news and information

    Published September 13, 2011 by

    Crossposted from the Council on Philanthropy's blog. What does a foundation do when pollution poses an immediate health threat to the community – and the nonprofits there to help aren’t connected to each other? Consider what's happened in the Greater Buffalo area, a passageway for 20 percent of the world’s fresh water supply - and home to the first U.S. Superfund site. Due to the region’s industrial heritage, the area continues to fight contamination and a lack of green space, contributing to elevated rates of asthma, obesity and heart disease. The Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo saw an opportunity to make a difference. Already 150 nonprofits were working on environmental justice issues – but they weren’t working together, and weren’t making far-reaching progress. So the foundation decided to launch an information hub, funded through the Knight Community Information Challenge, where people and groups can share information for action. So far, the investment is paying off. We recently visited the community foundation, and two others, to see how their investments in news and information projects were transforming their communities and their foundations. The result is a new report we will be releasing over the next three days at informationneeds.org, called Opportunities for Leadership: Meeting Community Information Needs. The first installment is available here.
  • Article

    The new office of the Hygienic Dress League

    Published September 13, 2011 by

    We live in a world that is over-saturated with marketing images and materials. In a lecture that I cannot forget, Tom Wujec, a fellow at Autodesk and a leader of businesses visualization, explained that although the brain's ability to process information doubles only every 160,000 years, the amount of information...