The Circuit Clip from The Hinterlands on Vimeo. As an artistically-inclined child, Tatiana Hernandez gravitated toward dance. Flamenco and tap helped her find her own rhythm. Years later, her experience working with a group of local artists and performers ignited that same passion. “I wanted to know and do things that were joyous,” Hernandez said of her job with the Los Angeles-based Machine Project. “Art is joy.” Now as an associate in Knight Foundation’s arts program, Hernandez helps oversee grantmaking that uses the arts to both inspire and engage, reconnecting people to both their communities and their inner artists. She travels to eight communities - from San Jose, to Detroit and Macon, Ga. - looking for ideas big and small that involve audiences as more than just consumers, but as participants and creators. We recently sat down with her to find out more about what she has discovered traveling across the country, from arts innovation in Minnesota to the revival of the Jit in Detroit. You spent a lot of time in Detroit this spring helping launch the city’s first Knight Arts Challenge. What is unique about the city’s cultural community? T.H.: There is a wealth of opportunity right now in Detroit. Reinvention and adaptation are key. That’s an interesting space to be in artistically and creatively. And yet the artists attracted to that level of freedom are also well prepared to deal with any bureaucratic challenge they may face. Because everything is on the table, people are less inclined to hold on to old social or organizational structures that don’t make sense. They’re not tied to a certain way of doing things. It’s exciting because the rest of the county is also navigating a changing economy. Many are looking to Detroit to find new models of arts infrastructure.
