• Article

    By design: Teachers embrace the entrepreneur within  

    Published August 12, 2015 by

    Photo: Startup Summer mixer participants, including startup company founders and placement partners at The Idea Center at Miami Dade College. Credit: Teach For America-Miami-Dade. Kiesha Moodie is managing director, alumni and community impact, at Teach For America-Miami-Dade, which Knight Foundation supports to attract and retain talented people and expand opportunity in South Florida.  In 2014 Teach For America-Miami-Dade (TFA), in partnership with Knight Foundation and The LAB Miami, launched Startup Summer. I wrote about the 11 TFA corps members and alumni who worked as entrepreneurial interns with nine Miami-based startups here. At the time I knew great things were happening in those six weeks, and I dreamed big about the future, but I had no idea just how awesome things would get. The Startup Summer interns became incredibly inspired by their entrepreneurial experiences, and that, coupled with their long-term commitment to education and equity, led down some exciting paths. Some of our 2014 Startup Summer interns have gone on to found their own startups that focus on innovative opportunities for students: • Daniel Applewhite founded Agora, connecting students and travelers to worldwide cultural experiences.
  • Article

    Paul Bunyan, Jesse Ventura and Indonesian shadow puppets meet in new St. Paul production

    Published August 11, 2015 by

    Imagine a stage of Indonesian shadow puppets. Now throw in Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, Jesse Ventura and Paul Bunyan.  “Shadow Visitors” promises to be a true Minnesota adventure, when Sumunar, the Indonesian cultural group, and Green T Productions debut the production in September. Sumunar was looking for a way to draw Minnesota audiences into the traditional shadow puppetry when it applied for and won a Knight Arts Challenge grant, said the group’s Executive Director Mary Shamrock. “People come and watch with interest but a lot of the elements don’t really come across here. So, the idea was to do this but have a Minnesota story, with some Indonesian characters to still create that beginning and ending, but then let’s have a bunch of Minnesota characters, too,” said Shamrock The story is a true marriage of Indonesian story traditions of princesses and Minnesotan traditions of local government and pop culture. “It will start in Indonesia with a couple of Indonesian princesses being sent out to the forest to meditate so that they can become powerful. Some sort of storm comes up and they get sucked up into the air and they come down in Minnesota. They land at Lake Itasca and there’s the Mississippi and someone tells them they need to go down to St. Paul. There’s a wonderful dialogue between Mark Dayton and Jesse Ventura. And Paul Bunyan gets involved and Babe the Blue Ox and various Minnesota kinds of characters,” said Shamrock.
  • Article

    Bedrock of libraries has been shaken; what’s next?

    Published August 11, 2015 by

    Video: Michelle Ha Tucker, Library Innovation by Design. Photo of man studying by Chris Devers on Flickr. “We used to know how to know. We got our answers from books or experts. … In the Internet age, knowledge has moved onto networks. There’s more knowledge than ever, but it’s different. Topics have no boundaries, and nobody agrees on anything.” – David Weinberger “The real difficulty in changing any enterprise lies not in developing new ideas, but in escaping from old ones.” – John Maynard Keynes These two quotes must scare most librarians. Rightly so. They were among the provocations offered as an introduction to a group of experts gathered at the Aspen Institute in Colorado this week to consider the future of libraries. Not only must librarians adapt to an information world that is rocking with seismic upheaval, but as institutions funded by taxpayer dollars, public libraries face the challenge of dealing with internal cultures and bureaucratic systems that make institutional innovation difficult – plus scrutiny from the public that can make library leaders cautious. Monday was Day One (of three) of the Leadership Roundtable on Library Innovation, part of the Aspen Institute Dialogue on Public Libraries and supported by Knight Foundation. A good part of the day was spent examining the situation that libraries find themselves in, identifying opportunities and challenges. The event includes executives of several large metro public libraries, but also thought leaders and decision-makers from government, technology, business, civil society and academia. For the next couple days, roundtable participants have the task of identifying ways that libraries can restructure their work to benefit their communities while finding ways to innovate effectively and continuously. Libraries remain trusted community hubs and repositories of knowledge and information, but in an era where trusted knowledge is being replaced by amorphous information flows, innovation and change is required ahead. Here are some notable suggestions for and criticisms of libraries from roundtable participants, aimed at sparking useful discussion during the remainder of the event. (I will write an overview and report on the group’s recommendations later this week.)
  • Article

    And now This. Curation network brings you the best of the Web

    Published August 11, 2015 by

    Andrew Golis is founder and CEO of This., a Knight Enterprise Fund portfolio company. Photo: Less is more by Chuck Spidell on Flickr. First, the news. This. made a few big announcements today: We raised about $600,000 from some of the smartest folks at the intersection of media and tech, including Roger McNamee, Knight Foundation, New Republic Fund, Matter Ventures, former Tumblr President John Maloney, Fusion CTO Hong Qu, former Twitter VP of Media Chloe Sladden, and more. We formed a board of advisers including Maloney, Sladden and former Hillary Clinton adviser Peter Daou. We hired Zebulon Young to run engineering. We launched a new version of our iOS app to our beta community. We gave our beloved nightly newsletter of This. Editor’s Picks to everyone on the wait list, and everyone who joins them. (Join the wait list now to get it.)
  • Article

    Ohio Shakespeare Festival presents ‘Henry V’

    Published August 11, 2015 by

    In 2011, the Ohio Shakespeare Festival received a two-year Knight Arts grant for a project called Rare Works by Shakespeare, the goal of which was to stage “Love's Labour's Lost” and “The History of Richard III.” Since then, the Akron, Ohio-based company has continued to favor the Bard's lesser-known works. Its current production of “Henry V” marks the end of another two-year project to present overlooked Shakespeare plays to local audiences. For those not familiar with “Henry V,” the title character essentially sums up the plot with this proclamation: “No King of England if not King of France.”
  • Article

    ArtWorks, literally: Knight Arts Challenge winner vitalizes Miami community through art-making

    Published August 11, 2015 by

    In her role as executive director of Arts For Learning, Sheila Womble has led the organization through a period of tremendous growth that has had a lasting impact on the lives of 175 South Florida high school students. With a grant from the 2012 South Florida Knight Arts Challenge, Arts For Learning expanded ArtWorks, its summer internship program for high school students interested in artistic disciplines. ArtWorks, which has become one of the most important internship programs in South Florida, hires student interns to make and produce works of art in four areas: visual arts, creative writing, theater and dance. Throughout the six-week program, Master Teaching Artists Alejandro Bahia, Latrice Bruno, Yanira Collado, Jean-Paul Mallozzi and I facilitated the development of interns' creative, professional and, most importantly, critical thinking skills at satellite locations throughout Wynwood, including the Bakehouse Art Complex and Miami Light Project. The program culminated in two major events produced by ArtWorks interns—an art exhibition ("LEveLS") and a matinee and prime-time performance piece ("Influence")—where money was raised through ticket and art sales. When the program ended–well, it didn't really end. There's more ArtWorks to come this fall. This is what I learned when I  reached out to Womble to discuss the future of ArtWorks.
  • Article

    New journalism venture digs deep to explore policymaking in California

    Published August 11, 2015 by

    Above: CALmatters team photo. Kaizar Campwala is co-founder of CALmatters, a nonpartisan, nonprofit journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s Capitol works and why it matters. “I don’t even know who they are." That’s a phrase we heard a lot last year as we traveled up and down the state, asking Californians what they knew about their representatives in Sacramento. These same people engage with, and care deeply about, their communities. Their kids attend public schools and many are graduates of the state's higher education system. They enjoy and want to preserve California's rich natural resources, but also worry about how environmental policies will affect their lives. Immigration, health care, criminal justice, education -- the policy issues that are debated in Sacramento have a profound impact upon the lives of 38 million Californians, and beyond. We formed CALmatters because we believe that our team of experienced journalists, with the time and resources to dig deep, could better inform Californians about the players, politics and interests that shape these important issues. The need is more pressing than ever. Mirroring trends across the country, there has been a precipitous decline in the number of journalists covering the Capitol in Sacramento. This has meant fewer eyes on decision-makers, and reduced capacity of news organizations across the state to go beyond the daily headlines and truly unwrap and explain how important policy is made. Legislators themselves tell us that better reporting on what they do produces better policy outcomes, and can reward policymakers who try to do the right thing by highlighting their work to their constituents.
  • Article

    A new vision for local that starts with listening

    Published August 10, 2015 by

    Here are two  perspectives from two cities that are building community-wide listening posts using GroundSource, a community engagement platform founded in 2013 with support from the Knight Prototype Fund. The post was updated on Monday, Aug. 17, to add an email address for the New Orleans Listening Post. For generations, newspapers provided communities with the information they needed to make key decisions about their future. Television did too, though the newspapers tended to set the news agenda. But newspapers no longer hold the sway they once did, and their revenues are declining as rapidly as their reach. That leaves a gap, which -- viewed from another angle -- is an opportunity: to imagine an entirely new, local information ecosystem that aspires to the historical influence of local newspapers, yet redefines the relationship with the community from a “we give you the information we think you need / will click on” approach to “we build the news together, as a conversation.” This is “news as collaborative intelligence” as Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the American Press Institute, put it in his recent report for the Brookings Institution. It’s a new kind of local news service that can grow up to fill holes left behind by the decline of our traditional modes of community news -- and one that works across platforms and across media. “The great crisis for American journalism and democratic society shouldn’t be thought about at the platform level,” Rosenstiel writes, “newspapers versus online or television versus streaming, social media versus traditional. It should be understood at the civic and geographic level. The crisis is local.”
  • Article

    Everything you need to know about the Knight Arts Challenge Akron

    Published August 10, 2015 by

    Today, Knight Foundation is launching the first Knight Arts Challenge Akron, offering $1 million to the best ideas for the arts. It’s open to everyone in the city with an arts idea – be they a nonprofit, a business or an individual artist. To help applicants, I sat down with Arts Program Director Bahia Ramos to talk about what Akron residents can expect. (Above photo: YEPAW concert by Garrick Black.) Q. Knight Foundation has brought the Challenge to several cities. Why is Akron ripe for this kind of initiative? A. Akron has a great ecosystem of lovely anchor arts institutions, plus a lot of great cultural start-ups. We look at things like the Akron Art Museum and events like Porch Rokr, and you start to see people taking part at all levels in the arts in Akron. This contest starting now is a way to grow those opportunities for arts and culture. Q. Here’s the $1 million question: What kind of ideas are you looking for? A. We are looking for ideas that authentically represent Akron - as a place, as a cultural inspiration. We want projects that speak to the vibrancy we see building in the city.  It’s not about what I think – the whole premise of this challenge is that we’re looking for the voice of the community. Knight’s role is not to come in and dictate what projects should be. It’s about creating a vehicle for the best dreams of the cultural community to become reality, whether that’s coming from an institution, an individual artist, a business or a collective of artists. We are hoping this challenge inspires them to dream big and think how arts and culture weave into the fabric of the community and bring people together.
  • Article

    27 ideas advance in 2015 Knight Green Line Challenge

    Published August 10, 2015 by

    Photo credit: Michael Bolden. After reading every one of the 358 applications submitted for the $500,000 available in the 2015 Knight Green Line Challenge I can safely say that St. Paul isn’t lacking in ideas, or the passionate people who can make them happen. Today we announce the 27 projects that have been selected as finalists in this year’s challenge. The Knight Green Line Challenge seeks to spark community success by making the neighborhoods along the central corridor more vibrant places. Specifically we were looking for projects that tap into the potential of the Green Line to excite current residents – and attract new ones, to bring diverse groups of people together and fuel economic opportunity, and to build and sustain a strong culture of civic engagement. We know that those three drivers are key to St. Paul’s success and we saw a wide range of approaches in the pool of applications. The biggest theme in the applications – and among the finalists – was sparking a more vibrant and inclusive public life. Ideas selected as finalists range from providing, or testing, new spaces for people to mingle, encouraging exploration of local neighborhoods or even sparking a new selfie craze in front of local businesses. The finalists will gather next week with Knight Foundation and Saint Paul Foundation staff to discuss their proposals and receive feedback on why they stood out. They have a couple of weeks to answer additional questions and flesh out their ideas before their final proposals are considered by a panel of expert readers. The readers will review these final proposals on the same criteria as the first round. They’ll be looking for proposals that are innovative for St. Paul and that offer a new approach that could yield promising results. They’ll be looking for proposals that offer an opportunity for learning. They’ll be looking for proposals that the applicant can successfully execute within the 12-month grant period and that have a well-thought-out and reasonable budget. Most of all they’ll be looking for proposals that can leverage the potential of the Green Line and advance the three key drivers of city success mentioned above.
  • Article

    Summer workshops at Detroit School of Arts connect students to city’s creative community

    Published August 7, 2015 by

    Christopher Tiffany is the associate director of development, foundation relations at the University of Michigan School of Education. School is out for the summer, but student activities continue at the Detroit School of Arts. The performing and fine arts public high school won a Knight Arts Challenge grant to bring visiting artists to its classroom, after-school and summer programs. Starting on July 14, a six-week summer workshop brought in more than a dozen DSA students to explore communications through media arts.
  • Article

    Knight Prototype Fund winner Expunge.io inspires change in Illinois law

    Published August 7, 2015 by

    Above: Chris Rudd (second from left), director of the Juvenile Justice Council at Mikva Challenge, with other Knight Prototype Fund recipients. Photo by Michael Bolden. The stigma of having an unsealed juvenile record can hurt employment opportunity for youth even years later as an adult. And the legal process for expungement – or erasing that record – can be tedious in some states across the country. In 2013, the Juvenile Justice Council at Chicago-based civic education organization Mikva Challenge was examining ways to reduce recidivism in Cook County, Ill. The team’s research found that 25,000 young people in the area were arrested in 2012 and only 70 youth requested expungement. But all 70 were granted it. Looking at the high success rate at the time, the council wondered: Why weren’t more people filing for expungement? Chris Rudd, director of the Juvenile Justice Council, said they believed the existing expungement resources could be improved. That was when Expunge.io was born. Expunge.io is a free service to guide anyone in Illinois with a juvenile record through the expungement process. (Actual expungement in Illinois costs $124 for a single arrest, $64 for additional arrests; fee waivers are available for qualified individuals.) Rudd said sometimes the records aren’t even serious convictions: It could be that a youth was with friends, police stopped them, and officers just collected and recorded information. Expunge.io helps streamline the process to determine if someone is eligible for expungement via a questionnaire and provides access to a lawyer in the Cook County area to help guide through the legal process. Expunge.io received $35,000 in support from the Knight Prototype Fund in 2014 to further develop the service. The fund helps innovators take early-stage information ideas from concept to demo. Participants join a cohort of other projects, receive human-centered design training and typically spend six months developing their ideas. Rudd said that Knight funding helped with producing advertising material and with holding focus groups in three areas of Chicago that had the highest rates of youth incarceration. The team received feedback on what youth liked and didn’t like about the platform.
  • Article

    Awesome Foundation Miami exceeds $50,000 in funded ideas

    Published August 7, 2015 by

    Above: Code Fever was provided Raspberry Pi processors. Photo: Carolina Wilson. Natalia Martinez is a dean of  Awesome Foundation Miami, which Knight Foundation supports as part of its commitment to develop a network of innovators and entrepreneurs in South Florida. “Money is like manure; it's not worth a thing unless it's spread around encouraging young things to grow.” It may be crass, but we at Awesome Foundation Miami stand by this Thornton Wilder truism. From the first micro grant we awarded in January 2013, we stepped into Miami with incredible optimism. We had hoped that Awesome Miami would become the bridge that helps connect our neighbors to the resources they need, the opportunities they want, and a community at large that wants to know about them. Today, we are thrilled to announce that we have exceeded $50,000 in awarded funding for local projects. Small can be powerful Our informal guiding theory is that a rising tide lifts all boats. Larger, community-wide tipping points are the result of the gradual accumulation of individual tipping points, of people “turning on” to trust their own potential, and that of their ideas and projects. Over the past two and a half years, we have witnessed with great respect the talent and curiosity of Miami residents who have come across our radar in the form of applications for our grants. The people we interact with every month have a passionate sense of place and a desire to tackle problems, fix inequities and highlight beauty all around our communities. In response, our role has never been to generate these ideas, but rather to be the engine that helps make small, powerful.
  • Article

    [email protected] tackles lack of affordable housing in Silicon Valley

    Published August 7, 2015 by

    Silicon Valley Suburbia (cc) by Travis Wise on Flickr.com The cost of living in Silicon Valley continues to skyrocket: The median sales price has soared above $800,000 while the median rent is almost $2,900 in Santa Clara County, according to Zillow. New membership organization [email protected] is focusing on promoting more affordable housing in a region booming from a technology-driven economy. Launched this summer, [email protected] already has a number of organizational members on board, including Knight Foundation, Google and LinkedIn. The goal is to try and change the conversation around area housing so people understand its importance, says Executive Director Leslye Corsiglia. High land prices in the Bay Area are part of the region’s housing crunch, so Corsiglia hopes to push for increasing density and for subsidies. “We need to be able to bring in funds that can essentially write down those rents so that people can afford to live here,” she said.
  • Article

    International Taste of Soul in Macon raises funds, attracts visitors and flaunts culture

    Published August 7, 2015 by

    Like many nonprofits, the Tubman African American Museum in Macon, Ga., is challenged to come up with creative and fun ways to raise money. While organizing these fundraisers, the goal is also to create events that reflect the museum’s mission of educating people about African American art, history and culture. One of the Tubman's most popular fundraisers is the International Taste of Soul event, which serves as a way to connect people from different cultures using one common denominator: food. Soul food, to be exact. At the same time, this annual affair gives people an opportunity to check out the Tubman’s exhibits. This year's event should be particularly memorable, as it was just in May of this year that the Tubman Museum, a Knight Arts grantee, moved from its former 8,500-square-foot home to an expansive new 49,000-square-foot facility. Taste of Soul will likely be the first time that many attendees venture inside the new building.