I recently hit the road to see and discuss all things Knight Arts. I first went to Akron, then it was off to St Paul where I was joined by Knight Foundation St Paul program director Polly Talen, program associate Stuart Kennedy and assistant Delta Giordano for two days of visits with potential arts grantees.

While in town, I gave a talk at the Walker Art Center, one of the country’s finest contemporary art museums. Invited by my longtime friend Walker executive director Olga Viso, I spoke to around 130 local business leaders about Knight Foundation’s “Soul of the Community” study, and why the arts matter to a community that is trying to create a sense of place. After the talk I joined a panel that included Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak, who was effusive in his support of the arts as an integral part of his community.

Next, we headed to Springboard for the Arts, an artist service organization led by Knight Foundation national art advisory committee member Laura Zabel. We met with Laura to discuss the upcoming launch of Knight Arts’ new “Community Supported Art” program, coming soon to a Knight community near you.

I started my second day in St Paul by giving another speech, this time to a group of St Paul arts leaders gathered by Laura and Sharon DeMark of the St Paul Foundation. Like Laura, Sharon has been an amazing resource for Knight in St Paul for all things arts.  As longtime arts leaders, the audience was vigorous and thoughtful in giving feedback on Knight initiatives like Random Acts of Culture™ and the Knight Arts Challenge.

Then it was another day of meeting new potential arts grantees.  We got to visit 2010 grantee Tu Dance’s new studio, way to go Toni and Uri!

We ended our visit with a meeting with St Paul mayor Chris Coleman and his director of arts & culture Joe Spencer. The mayor believes strongly in the concept of integrating the arts into the fiber of the community and he and Joe have been working hard on a new downtown arts district with live music and some interesting retail ideas.

Then it was on to the Ordway Performing Arts Center, home of the Arts Partnership, a consortium of resident companies that present in the hall. The Partnership oversees our Random Acts of Culture® effort in St Paul, which we hope to see a lot more of as the snow melts. We were at the Ordway to see the Minnesota Opera production of Wuthering Heights. The performance we attended was being filmed in HD for theatrical release later this year. This Knight-funded project presented Hitchcock’s musical master Bernard Herrmann in his first and only opera. It was also only the second time the opera had been produced. The score had all the classic Herrmann Hitchcock-like moments and the use of video projection on the stage made for a compelling multimedia presentation.  The hall was filled and included David Devan, head of the Opera Company of Philadelphia, our Random Acts of Culture® partner in Philly. After watching the first act from the orchestra seats, Stuart and I snuck into the production truck and watched the director shoot the second act. With eight cameras filming at once, it felt like we were watching the super bowl of opera being recorded.