AKRON, Ohio – Nov. 14, 2017 – The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation named 17 winning ideas in the 2017 Akron Knight Arts Challenge, a community-wide initiative funding projects that engage and enrich Akron through the arts.
The winning projects, granted a total of $743,000, will share Akron’s stories through a range of voices.
“Whether they contemplate Akron’s rubber-fueled past, or its arts-filled future, these 17 Knight Arts Challenge winners will bring the city’s unique stories to life and inspire us to think more deeply about the people and places of Akron,” said Victoria Rogers, vice president for arts at Knight Foundation.
The winners were announced at a celebration event tonight at the Akron Civic Theatre. Winning projects include experiences designed to ignite conversations and share immersive stories, celebrations of Akron’s diverse heritage and history, and ambitious commissions bringing new work to the city. They explore black manhood, highlight the music of Akron’s immigrant communities, and provide a behind-the-scenes look at life in Akron’s factories during the 20th century.
This is the third year of the Akron Knight Arts Challenge, which has invested nearly $2.7 million to date for projects that answered one question: “What’s your best idea for the arts in Akron?” The challenge is part of a two-pronged strategy that supports established arts institutions to help them better engage the public, and funds grassroots initiatives of individual artists and organizations, so that everyone has a chance to make their idea a reality.
“Each year, our winners dig deeper for their best ideas. We couldn’t be more pleased with the results, and what they will do to help create an even more vibrant city,” said Kyle Kutuchief, Akron program director.
The Akron Knight Arts Challenge is open to anyone and applicants are asked to follow just three rules: 1) The idea must be about the arts; 2) The project must take place in or benefit Akron; 3) The grant recipient must find funds to match Knight’s commitment within one year. Applicants propose their idea in a user-friendly 150-word application.
A complete list of the 2017 winners is below and at knightarts.org.
For Knight Arts Challenge updates, follow #knightarts and @knightfdn on Twitter and Instagram, and Knight Foundation on Facebook.
Contacts:
Anusha Alikhan, Communications Director, Knight Foundation, 305-908-2646 [email protected]
Morgan Lasher, Partner, Amp Strategy, 330-714-4833, [email protected]
Photos available upon request
The 2017 Knight Arts Challenge Winning Ideas
Cultural Liaison Program
Recipient: ArtsNow
Award: $100,000
To support individual artists in Akron with a service that helps them improve their online imprint, boost traffic through social media, connect them with learning opportunities and more
Bechdel Fest
Recipient: Brittany Charek
Award: $48,000
To highlight films that pass the “Bechdel Test,” which brings attention to gender inequality in film and fiction, at a festival that features works made by female directors, producers and actors
QuTheatre Ensemble: Akron’s LGBTQ Youth Take the Stage
Recipient: Center for Applied Theatre and Active Culture/New World Performance Lab
Award: $50,000
To form QuTheatre, a training-based performance ensemble, that will create and present a series of events based on the experiences of LGBTQ youth and adults in the region
Nine Lives
Recipient: Christopher Coles
Award: $45,000
To ignite conversations on racial inequality and empathy through Nine Lives, an interdisciplinary piece that immerses the audiences in the story of nine African-Americans killed in 2015 at an evening prayer service in Charleston, South Carolina
Love Across the USA
Recipient: Cindy Michael / Harps & Thistles Yarn Emporium
Award: $16,000
To create a large-scale, public crochet installation of an historic figure as part of a national project by Polish-American artist Olek on how women have shaped history
Akron’s Rubber Industry, a personal photographic essay
Recipient: Daniel Mainzer
Award: $11,000
To tell the story of Akron’s rubber industry in the 1970 and 1980s, exploring themes of work, immigration, integration and loss through a photo collection taken by the former in-house tire company photographer
FRONT Triennial at Akron Art Museum
Recipient: FRONT Exhibition Company
Award: $100,000
To bring a cutting-edge installation of public art to the Akron Art Museum’s garden as part of the inaugural edition of FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art in July 2018
Action/Reaction
Recipient: GroundWorks DanceTheater
Award: $27,000
To initiate a dialogue about creative expression through movement workshops where community members can experience and react to the dance company’s artistic process
North Hill Music Festival
Recipient: Himalayan Music Academy
Award: $15,000
To celebrate the music of Akron’s immigrant communities through a music festival in North Hill that will be professionally recorded
As a Community We Lift You
Recipient: Kent State University Foundation
Award: $11,000
To beautify a county building with stories of hope and change by creating a new mural based on the stories of a range of culturally diverse Akron residents
…Or Does It Explode? (SHOW2GO)
Recipient: Ma’Sue Productions
Award: $25,000
To explore race and identity in Akron by touring a production of “Or Does It Explode?” which uses stories from the city to examine black manhood through dance, poetry, and rap
44 Inch Chest
Recipient: none too fragile theatre
Award: $75,000
To bring to the stage the world premiere of a play based on the British indie film, 44 Inch Chest.
Shakesqueer
Recipient: Rubber City Theatre
Award: $30,000
To adapt two of Shakespeare’s works into a modern musical and play with themes and characters that reflect Akron’s LGBTQ+ community
Akronstein VR·Animation Lab
Recipient: Anthony Samangy and Eric Vaughan, Red Point Digital
Award: $85,000
To provide educational opportunities for Akron’s present and future animation artists by creating a studio for stop-motion and 3D virtual reality animation
Crocheted Tires and Rubber Quilts: Crafting Family from Appalachia to Akron
Recipient: Sherry Simms
Award: $15,000
To celebrate the history of Akron’s industry in handicrafts through sculpture that celebrates the heritage of the artist and the city in rubber, tires and polymers
Prelude: A Musical Bridge Across Time and Culture
Recipient: Tuesday Musical
Award: $10,000
To mark the organization’s 130th anniversary by commissioning a new piece by South Africa-born and University of Akron lecturer and composer James Wilding
Urban Troubadour
Recipient: Urban Troubadour
Award: $80,000
To create artistic and social synergy while showcasing Akron’s hidden gems through a roving concert series that takes place in the city’s galleries, restaurants, office and loft spaces, brew pubs, wineries, bakeries and more
About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation is a national foundation with strong local roots. We invest in journalism, in the arts, and in the success of cities where brothers John S. and James L. Knight once published newspapers. Our goal is to foster informed and engaged communities, which we believe are essential for a healthy democracy.