DETROIT – Nov. 8, 2015 – The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is deepening its commitment to the Detroit arts, with $9 million in new funding to extend the Knight Arts Challenge through 2018. Begun three years ago, the challenge is an open call for ideas that engage and enrich Detroit through the arts.

Knight launched the challenge in Detroit in 2012 to amplify the creative momentum on the ground, and to bring new energy and encouragement to the artists and residents driving the city’s future. The challenge is designed to offer a chance for anyone – individuals, organizations or businesses – to make their art idea a reality, beginning with a simple, 150-word application. Applicants only need to follow three rules: 1) The idea must be about the arts; 2) The project must take place in or benefit Detroit; and 3) The grant recipients must find funds to match Knight’s commitment.

Detroit’s response has exceeded Knight’s expectations, with more than 3,500 ideas submitted over three years. So far, the 114 winners are helping to bring high-quality arts experiences more deeply into Detroit’s neighborhoods. The 2015 winners will be announced at an event the night of Monday, Nov. 9.

“Art binds people to place when it’s good art and when it’s authentic.  Knight Arts Challenge winners represent dozens of projects that will use art to define and lift the soul of the community and will help bind us all to Detroit,” said Alberto Ibargüen, president of Knight Foundation.  “If you think about a community where art is general and available to everyone, you begin to describe a community where we’d all want to live.”

Past winners whose projects have engaged and captured Detroit’s imagination include Hardcore Detroit, which screened its documentary on the Detroit dance craze, The Jit, at a community celebration at the Detroit Institute of Arts; Nick Cave’s “Here Hear,” which was presented by the Cranbrook Art Museum and engaged a large swath of the city over six months; the Secret Society of Twisted Storytellers, which puts true Detroit stories onstage; and “From Detroit to Baghdad: Al Mutanabbi Street Starts Here,” an exhibit and festival highlighting artists’ books and letterpress broadsides commemorating the 2007 bombing of the famed street of Baghdad booksellers.

The support brings Knight Foundation’s total investment in Detroit to more than $110 million since 2008.  This includes a nearly $20 million investment in the arts in 2012, part of a two-pronged approach to help larger institutions better engage the public, and to fund more grassroots efforts through the challenge. At that time, Knight committed $10.25 million to some of the region’s premiere cultural institutions: the Arab American National Museum, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit School of Arts, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Michigan Opera Theatre and the Sphinx Organization.

“These first few years of the challenge have shown what Detroiters are capable of, but we are just getting started,” said Victoria Rogers, vice president for arts at Knight Foundation. “If you have an idea, please submit it next spring, and we hope all of Detroit will come in droves to support these amazing organizations.  We need your voices in the ongoing cultural conversation.”

For more on Knight Foundation’s arts initiative, visit knightarts.org. Connect on Facebook and  Instagram and via @knightfdn and #knightarts on Twitter. For more information about Knight Foundation’s arts program, visit knightarts.org.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. We believe that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit knightfoundation.org.

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Contact:

Peter Van Dyke, Berg Muirhead and Associates, , [email protected], 313-872-2202

Marika Lynch, Communications Consultant, Knight Foundation, [email protected], 305-908-2677