• Article

    Seven ways the Detroit arts scene has changed – and transformed the city

    Posted on October 31, 2018 by

    Knight believes the arts have the power to inspire, challenge, bring wonder into our lives, and ultimately connect us to each other and the cities where we live. A thriving arts ecosystem requires talent and collaboration, as well as investment and community support. In charting the journey of arts in Detroit and supporting its growth, we hope to contribute to a stronger future for the city’s great art and artists.
  • Article

    Experiments in museum tech: Framework and lessons

    Posted on May 17, 2018 by

    In 2017, Knight Foundation began work with four museums to deepen their use of technology to attract and engage audiences. The museums—Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Akron Art Museum, The Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, and the Barnes Foundation—went through a year-long process to research, develop ideas, prototype and launch pilot technology projects.
  • Article

    On art and technology: The power of creating our own worlds

    Posted on March 2, 2018 by

    What are the opportunities for technology in the arts – and what threats does it pose? Knight Foundation, which recently launched an open call for ideas to use technology to connect people to the arts, asked leaders to answer that question. Here, artist and researcher Mimi Onuoha talks about the possibilities the arts and tech offer to create new worlds.
  • Article

    Navigating the intersection of art and technology

    Posted on February 28, 2018 by

    What are the opportunities for technology in the arts – and what threats does it pose? Knight Foundation, which recently launched an open call for ideas to use technology to connect people to the arts, asked leaders to answer that question. Here, artist and author Ingrid Burrington offers her views on how the field, and its taxonomy, should evolve.
  • Article

    Tech and the fine art of complicity

    Posted on February 21, 2018 by

    What are the opportunities for technology in the arts – and what threats does it pose? Knight Foundation, which recently launched an open call for ideas to use technology to connect people to the arts, asked leaders in the field to answer that question. Here, Jer Thorp, a data artist and innovator-in-residence at the Library of Congress, answers with his own, provocative inquiry.
  • Article

    How can we use technology to connect people to the arts? Knight seeks ideas

    Posted on February 15, 2018 by

    Sometimes it is hard to find the poetry in technology. Though most people use technology as part of their daily life, the coldness of machines makes it easy to overlook the richness of human culture that flows through their circuits. Yet culture can move quickly, aided by our devices, whether it’s a virtual museum tour, a live-streamed concert or crowdsourced poetry. And we’re only at the beginning of this curve. Technology offers a myriad of opportunities for art, expanding how it challenges us, triggers reflection, awakens empathy and connects us to our communities. Innovations have the potential to provide arts organizations with new ways to connect with audiences and create deeply engaging experiences that inform and delight.But how do we ensure that arts organizations, and artists themselves, take advantage of these opportunities, instead of lagging behind their audiences in the adoption of technology? Today, Knight Foundation is opening a call for ideas focused on this issue. It centers around a question:How might cultural institutions use technology to connect people to the arts?
  • Article

    Meet Akron’s 2017 Knight Arts Challenge winners

    Posted on November 14, 2017 by

    Tonight, we’re excited to announce the winning ideas in the 2017 Knight Arts Challenge Akron: 17 projects receiving a combined $743,000 to further Akron’s growth as a center for arts and culture in northeast Ohio. This cohort of winning ideas, the challenge’s third, brings world-class talent and cutting-edge projects to the city, while celebrating the creators and artists working locally.
  • Article

    29 Knight Arts Challenge winners flipping Detroit’s script

    Posted on October 25, 2017 by

    Detroit is a city characterized by transformation, but also reclamation. Through sheer creativity and grit, Detroiters flip the script on the city’s narrative and its physical spaces, building on the region’s cultural legacy while moving people to see Detroit with a fresh lens. Nowhere is this more evident than in the ideas proposed by the  29 winners of this year’s Knight Arts Challenge.
  • Article

    St. Paul’s first Youth Poet Laureate gets personal in new book

    Posted on August 29, 2017 by

    Watching clips of Donte Collins reading poetry online, the first thing that stands out is the straightforward beauty of the words, the carefully observed imagery and perfectly chosen descriptors that immerse the audience immediately in Collins’s world. The second thing that grabs the attention is the confidence and nuance of Collins’s stage presence. The poet generates a captivating aura that befits a long-time veteran of literary performance, and is well beyond what some people might expect of a reader young enough to claim the title of St. Paul Youth Poet Laureate.