• Article

    New Boon(e) and the realm of high (school) art

    Published August 5, 2014 by

    It's hard being an artist early in their career and only a few years out of college. It's the worst, right? Maybe. What about the hormonal, judgmental halls of high school? Well, New Boon(e) is exploring the art of members and friends made back in those not-so-distant days of yore...
  • Article

    The Charlotte Ballet’s upcoming season

    Published August 5, 2014 by

    Dancers Rebecca Carmazzi and David Ingram perform a pas de deux from Dangerous Liaisons. Photo by Peter Zay With fall just around the corner, the performing arts organizations in the Queen City are gearing up for exciting new seasons. The Charlotte Ballet 2014/2015 season tickets just...
  • Article

    Expanding Bragg Jam in Macon, Ga., features bigger bands, ambitions

    Published August 5, 2014 by

    Above: The Blind Boys of Alabama performing in Macon at Bragg Jam. Credit: Molly McWilliams. For 15 years, summer in Macon has been synonymous with Bragg Jam, a music festival that uses multiple stages and venues to celebrate the lives of two local musicians, Brax and Tate Bragg. A tragic car accident in 1999 took the lives of the Bragg brothers and left a hole in Macon’s music scene that friends and fellow musicians believed could only be filled by playing music in their honor. Each year they gathered to remember and share songs, and each year the festival grew. Now Bragg Jam brings roughly 5,000 people to the concert-crawl style festival to enjoy a day filled with music and fun. A recent two-year, $30,000 grant from Knight Foundation helped push Bragg Jam into the ranks of larger music festivals that are able to draw more recognizable acts. The six-time Grammy Award-winning Blind Boys of Alabama became a viable option; in previous years the musicians would have been out of reach.  Knight support enabled organizers “to bring a noteworthy performer with national recognition who aligned with a broader demographic,” said Bragg Jam Entertainment Chair Sean Pritchard, about the most recent festival held late last month.
  • Article

    Circ X auditions local talent

    Published August 4, 2014 by

    The beautifully bizarre and deliciously deranged Miami-based traveling troupe and performance company Circ X wants you. The Knight Arts Grantee seek fearless and committed artists – dancers, clowns, circus acts, burlesque and cabaret performers – to become part of its upcoming performances at the Fillmore Miami Beach on September 20th,...
  • Article

    ArtWorks: creating a cultured workforce

    Published August 1, 2014 by

    Today is the last day that I will lead the creative writing co-op as a Master Teaching Artist (MTA) at ArtWorks, a paid summer internship program in the arts for high school students. It will be the hardest day of my teaching/mentoring career because the job allowed me to be...
  • Article

    Throw your hat in the residency ring

    Published August 1, 2014 by

    Cannonball residencies' cool digs in downtown Miami. These have been a couple of eventful and expansive years for Cannonball, for 10 years known as LegalArt, which rebranded itself and with a Warhol Foundation grant has been growing its offerings and services. In June it hired well-known...
  • Article

    Vote now for the Detroit Knight Arts Challenge People’s Choice Award

    Published August 1, 2014 by

    This article is cross-posted from KnightArts.org.  In Detroit, we’re seeing art and artistic performances pop up all around us.  Some of them have long been fixtures in the community and yet previously unrecognized outside of small circles.  Some of them are entirely new, attracted to a Detroit artistic scene and opportunity that is becoming nationally and internationally known.  At Knight Foundation, we strive to find innovative projects that engage and enrich Detroiters through the arts.  We recently announced 87 finalists for the 2014 Knight Arts Challenge.  While the finalists’ proposals are reviewed and winners are selected, we are taking an opportunity to shine the spotlight on five small arts organizations – an emerging drumline academy, two dramatically different dance efforts, a growing center for African culture and site-specific theater performers.