• Article

    When your phone is the stage: new play takes place entirely via text message

    Posted on July 12, 2017 by

    Every morning during the usually merry month of May, I received a text message from a mysterious source asking me to draw a card. After exchanging pleasantries, this entity, named The End, would provide me with a password to enter a web portal. There, I’d find a link to a video of a New Orleans funeral, say, or to a portrait gallery of adults recreating decades-old photographs taken during their youth. Primed to muse on the special people, places and things in my life, I was ready to pursue a quest.
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    Arts groups help Detroit explore how the summer of 67 changed the city forever

    Posted on June 26, 2017 by

    Detroit.July 23, 1967.Twelfth Street and Clairmount.3:15 a.m.Police raid a speakeasy.An uprising breaks out.Rioting. Looting. Anger. Frustration. Fear.Forty-three dead; 1,189 injured.Five days.A city forever changed.Changed in the way you’ve heard – accelerated flight from the city, abandonment by a generation of Detroiters – but also in ways you may not. That night indelibly marked Detroit’s future as the city’s narrative cleaved in half.For some, a riot occurred. “Black power militants promoting a revolution,” as one man told the Detroit Historical Society in an oral history collected for the “Detroit 67: Looking Back to Move Forward” exhibit.
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    Meet the local winners of the 2017 #InsideOutUSA photo contest

    Posted on June 15, 2017 by

    Update: Congratulations to the winner of the national contest, @tistheseasontv of Akron, Ohio! See the winning photo, chosen by the participating museums, below.Instagrammers in five cities this week participated in the #InsideOutUSA photo contest, taking creative photos highlighting the national program that brings high-quality replicas of the art in museum’s collections into neighborhoods.Today, the six participating museums in the Knight-funded program – the Akron Museum of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Bechtler Museum of Modern Art and the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture – announced the winners.Together, they took pensive portraits, mixed tai-chi with their art, and used the natural foliage to enhance iconic works in museums’ collections.
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    Philly museum launches summer program to expand artistic literacy

    Posted on May 31, 2017 by

    What exactly is contemporary art? Although the inquiry is straightforward, it proves that directness doesn’t always parallel simplicity. Such a profound and open-ended question would likely yield responses so varied and complex that the casual art viewer, let alone an individual uninitiated in the arts, might abandon the answer altogether in exasperation. That is where Philadelphia’s Institute of Contemporary Art comes in. Supported by Knight Foundation, the institute plans to begin a new educational series, Extra Credit, this summer to bridge the gaps of understanding that tend to hold people back from a more full and rewarding appreciation of the art world.
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    Tips on applying to Knight’s Community Arts Grantmaking program

    Posted on May 31, 2017 by

    The June 16 deadline for arts funding in Macon, Georgia, San Jose, California, Philadelphia and Charlotte is fast approaching. I’ve loved hearing from potential grantees over the past two weeks during the open office hours and have received lots of great proposals across the four cities. We’re excited to read the applications. Through my conversations with applicants, several themes have arisen, and I wanted to share some important tips to help applicants submit a strong proposal. As I mentioned when we opened the application period for this program, one of our priorities is to make sure residents in our cities have access to and engage with high-quality arts experiences. We want to strengthen the overall arts ecosystem in these cities. Keep these two goals top of mind, in addition to the following tips.
  • Article

    HistoryMiami exhibit remembers Hurricane Andrew, 25 years after the storm changed Florida forever

    Posted on May 30, 2017 by

    Michele Reese is the marketing director for HistoryMiami Museum, a multiple winner of the Knight Arts Challenge. Hurricane Andrew. It struck South Florida 25 years ago this summer, and I can remember it like it was yesterday, especially watching meteorologist Bryan Norcross on television telling us to prepare for the worst.I was 11. It was my first hurricane, and I had no idea what to expect. As the night grew dark, the rain started, and the winds began to howl. Sheets of plywood started flying off my home, windows were opening, and I remember my parents using their strength to keep them shut. When the hurricane passed and I walked outside, I realized just how lucky we were. Our house survived, but I knew South Florida had changed forever. In the aftermath of the storm, though, one thing stood firm, the resilience of our community.
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    Miami’s Little Haiti Book Festival celebrates literature, culture and community

    Posted on May 25, 2017 by

    Jan Mapou sounds almost giddy when discussing the Little Haiti Book Festival—and with good reason. The event, which started with a Knight Arts Challenge award, is now in its fifth year. It has grown steadily and is now a partnership between Sosyete Koukouy of Miami, the Society of the Fireflies, the Haitian cultural organization Mapou founded in 1985, and Miami Dade College’s Miami Book Fair.The festival is Saturday and Sunday, May 27-28, at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex.“The Miami Book Fair is now the best book fair in the nation, but [in 1984] it also started small, as Books by the Bay,” noted Mapou with a smile.
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    New World Symphony and Seraphic Fire present final concerts of 2016-17 season

    Posted on May 24, 2017 by

    The New World Symphony and Seraphic Fire, musical institutions that have become truly emblematic of Miami, closed their 2016-2017 season with significant performances–significant in that they reflected both the merits and shortcomings of a city making musical progress despite an occasional step backwards. Though lacking a solid musical core for a city of its size, Miami is fortunate to call itself home to two organizations that transcend local borders. With both, exceptional quality is the norm, and hometown audiences benefit from supporting them.
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    Frost Science taps Leah Melber, Ph.D., as Knight Vice President of Education

    Posted on May 24, 2017 by

    The Phillip and Patricia Frost Science Museum is a classroom like no other. Some of the lessons come wrapped as popcorn-worthy entertainment in exhibits, laser light shows and planetarium events; others are part of  educational programs for both students and teachers, such as the Upward Bound Math and Science Center, which focuses on science, technology and marine science.Leah Melber, Ph.D., the museum’s newly appointed Knight Vice President of Education, is the key person in the future development of the museum’s education programs. The position is funded by Knight Foundation.
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    1 millionth viewer takes orchestra worldwide

    Posted on May 22, 2017 by

    The death of classical music is an evergreen story in music literature. Graying audiences and diminishing funding sources have been the subject of stories dating at least 90 years. As is often the case, technology has created new challenges, but also unexpected opportunities.The Detroit Symphony Orchestra has embraced them, and is now celebrating 1 million views of its “Live From Orchestra Hall” webcast, touted as the first from a major American orchestra, online, for free. The webcast is funded by Knight Foundation.
  • Article

    Museums & technology: New avenues for wonder

    Posted on May 18, 2017 by

    Today we are announcing $1.87 million in support to 12 art museums to explore new ways technology can connect people to art.These days, technology and digital communications permeate almost every corner of our lives, from the time we scroll through the morning’s newsfeed until we set an alarm on our phone to wake up the next day. As a result, cultural organizations are being challenged to respond to new audience expectations and behaviors brought about by an always-connected society. On the flip side of these challenges is real opportunity, for museums to use digital means to reach visitors beyond the walls of their institution, to delight people in new ways and to create tools that help researchers.
  • Article

    Ready for its close-up: Frost Museum of Science debuts its new home on May 8

    Posted on May 4, 2017 by

    The Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science, opening Monday in downtown Miami’s Museum Park, is serious fun.The stunning, 250,000-square-foot facility, divided into four interconnected buildings with nearly 360 degrees of spectacular views, includes an aquarium, a planetarium and a science museum comprised of a North Wing and a West Wing. But numbers can’t quite convey the experience of peering into the three-level aquarium, which includes a breathtaking underwater view through a 31-foot-wide oculus at the bottom; or walking around the interactive “Feathers to the Stars” exhibit, which tells the story of flight from feathered dinosaurs to space travel, or wandering into the “River of Grass,” an exhibit that captures the richness of the Everglades in real and virtual environments.Still, this is fun with a purpose.