• Article

    The new day of the residency

    Published June 21, 2014 by

    From Suzanne McClelland's 'ideal proportions' series. Wasn’t so long ago it seems that when artists talked about residencies, it was about far-flung places. Today, Miami has numerous possibilities for both local and national artists to spend some quality time delving into their craft. To name just...
  • Article

    Ordway Summer Dance – Thursday, June 19, 2014

    Published June 20, 2014 by

    By Renee Prola, Ordway Center for the Performing Arts There was a mantra going around earlier today…Rain, Rain Go Away! Unfortunatley, for the first Ordway Summer Dance of the 2014 season the rain continued. The festivities were moved inside to the Marzitelli Foyer at the Ordway. The Foyer provided a...
  • Article

    Public Pool goes “Banana!”

    Published June 20, 2014 by

    The art of banana splits vs. the art of "Banana!" Currently on-tap over at Public Pool art space in Hamtramck, a fun and free-wheeling group show that employs, as its theme, one of society’s most compelling and universal symbols: the banana. A staple of comedy and...
  • Article

    In Philly, an evolving art show attracts attention of rail riders with splashes of color

    Published June 20, 2014 by

    This article is cross-posted from KnightArts.org. Photos by Steve Weinik for the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. More pics on Flickr. The railroad corridor between New York’s Penn Station and Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station is well traveled with some 34,000 passengers daily. Typically there’s not much to look at, and riders sit immersed in laptops, newspapers or naps. But a striking new addition to the landscape is giving them a good reason to glance out the window: Intermingled with the graffiti, junk heaps and weedy slopes is a sequence of seven “murals,” together titled “psychylustro,” by the German artist Katharina Grosse. Vibrant orange intercut with white diagonal stripes covers the facade of a multistory building, while a shocking pink coats a tattered fence, bare trees and even the grassy ground of a hill. Another section of earth is saturated with a distinctly unnatural green. The overall effect is as if Mark Rothko had gone on an outdoor acid trip while toting a giant spray gun filled with Day-Glo paint.
  • Article

    4 Nights with Betsy by Oscar Fuentes

    Published June 19, 2014 by

    I met Oscar Fuentes a little over 1o years ago in a creative writing class at Miami Dade College led by teacher and poet Michael Hettich. Hettich, who has had a major influence on Miami's literary scene, helped propel Fuentes into the author, filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist he is today....
  • Article

    New report details rise of contests in the social sector

    Published June 19, 2014 by

    “Why Contests Improve Philanthropy: Six Lessons on Designing Public Prizes for Impact”  from Knight Foundation was released in 2013 and complements a new report “The Craft of Incentive Design.”  At Knight Foundation we’ve leveraged grantmaking challenges since 2007 to supplement our traditional funding and generate impact in the fields of journalism, arts and community engagement. In May 2013, we highlighted what we’ve learned from more than a dozen open challenges with $112 million in grant commitments in a report, “Why Contests Improve Philanthropy: Six Lessons on Designing Prizes for Public Impact.” Not only did we use the review of our challenge grantmaking to refine our approach, we also saw it as a small step for an emerging field in need of greater assessment and shared learning. Related Press Clipping  "Innovation Contests With Cash Prizes Attract More 'Average Joes' " in The Wall Street Journal (paid membership required) That’s why we welcome the release of a new report today, “The Craft of Incentive Design,” which explores the rise of innovation challenges in the public sector over the last five years. Commissioned by several foundations including Knight, the report captures lessons from an increasingly crowded landscape of contests and challenges about how they can be best used to address issues in the social sector. Both “The Craft of Incentive Design” and our 2013 report show how grant prizes and challenges surface ideas, people and organizations that traditional ways of awarding grants often miss. The reports taken together provide a comprehensive guide for organizations that want to create a successful challenge.