AKRON, OHIO – Oct. 26, 2016 – From a hip-hop festival to folk music in the Akron Art Museum’s galleries, and a series that blends art and science, 19 winning ideas were announced today as winners of the Knight Arts Challenge Akron.
A program of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the challenge funds the best ideas for engaging and enriching Akron through the arts. The projects will be celebrated Wednesday night at an event at the Akron Civic Theatre, which will present a world music series with challenge funds.
Many of this year’s winning ideas are in the performing arts, with a concentration in dance, reflective of the discipline’s strength in Northeast Ohio. Support will go to a dance-focused Fringe festival, for residencies that will bring professional dancers to local high schools, and for one of Akron’s summer highlights, the Heinz Poll Dance Festival.
Other ideas will explore the city’s history through the arts, including a theatrical reflection of Akron’s relationship with the rubber industry, the performing of songs and stories of the Ohio & Erie Canal and by a commemoration of the groundbreaking 1928 concert for the Tuesday Musical Association by noted African-American tenor Roland Hayes.
“Wherever you go in Akron, we’d like for you to have an encounter with art,” said Victoria Rogers, vice president for arts at Knight Foundation. “Knight Arts Challenge winners help make that possible. In them, you’ll find a range of voices and neighborhoods, and projects that delight, challenge and inspire us to think differently about the city and our lives.”
The full list of the projects is below and at knightarts.org.
The Knight Arts Challenge has only three rules for applying: 1) The idea must be about the arts; 2) The project must take place in or benefit Akron; 3) Winners must raise matching funds in order to receive their grants.
The challenge is part of Knight Foundation’s $11 million investment in the Akron arts community since 2014. It includes $3 million in support for three years of the Knight Arts Challenge; a $3 million commitment to five respected institutions to better engage the public; and $5 million to establish the National Center for Choreography at The University of Akron.
“We launched the arts challenge in Akron because our survey found a significant demand for more arts and cultural experiences in our city,” said Kyle Kutuchief, Akron program director for Knight Foundation. “The city has embraced the challenge, and we’re looking forward to seeing how these latest projects unfold.”
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. For more, visit knightfoundation.org.
###
Contacts:
Alan Ashby, WhiteSpace Creative, 330-762-9320, [email protected]
Marika Lynch, Knight Foundation Communications Consultant, [email protected], 305-908-2677
2016 Knight Arts Challenge Akron Winning Ideas
World Music@The Civic
Applicant: Akron Civic Theatre
Award: $25,000
To honor the city’s cultural diversity through a world music series that celebrates traditions from cultures around the globe
“MUSIC ALIVE!” Folk + Baroque Concerts at the Akron Art Museum
Applicant: Apollo’s Fire Baroque Orchestra
Award: $65,000
To bring new audiences to music with a series of free baroque and American folk music concerts programmed around spaces and art at the Akron Art Museum
Were You There? – An Interactive Experience in Spirituals
Applicant: Carla Davis Music
Award: $3,900
To share spirituals, the stories they tell and how they influenced today’s music through a series that commemorates tenor Roland Hayes’ groundbreaking 1928 concert for Tuesday Musical Association
The Akron Summer Arts Experience
Applicant: City of Akron
Award: $143,000
To provide free dance and music performances during the Heinz Poll Summer Dance Festival
The Devil’s Milk – All Over Akron
Applicant: New World Performance Lab
Award: $30,000
To explore Akron’s relationship with the rubber industry through three new plays titled “The Devil’s Milk Trilogy”
Made-up With Danny Volk: The Akron Sessions
Applicant: Danny Volk
Award: $12,500
To promote local artists through an Akron-based season of “Made-Up w/ Danny Volk,” a performance project where Volk interviews artists about life and art while they create art on his face using make-up.
Blue Is More Than a Color
Applicant: David Morgan
Award: $35,000
To bring attention to Akron’s jazz scene with a concert and recording of a local composer’s work performed by a local jazz ensemble and guest artists
Akron High Arts Festival
Applicant: Downtown Akron Partnership
Award: $154,000
To elevate and celebrate Akron’s arts community by expanding the Akron Art Prize into a 30-day festival featuring local artists chosen through a competitive process
Akron LGBT Film, Music and Arts Festival
Applicant: Dylan Yellowlees
Award: $21,000
To bring the LGBT voice to the community through a festival of film, music and other genres of art
Storefront Echoes
Applicant: East Akron Neighborhood Development Corporation (EANDC)
Award: $34,398
To transform a slice of East Akron by commissioning a local artist to convert an underused parking lot into a vibrant space
When the Rubber Hits the Road: The Creative Path
Applicant: Inlet Dance Theatre
Award: $15,650
To demonstrate the possibilities of careers in the arts with two-week residencies at two local schools where students create and perform new pieces alongside professionals
If This Wallpaper Could Talk
Applicant: Karen Starr and Shane Wynn
Award: $23,081
To celebrate the quirky style, history and people of Akron through a book of portraits and stories exploring the relationship between Akronites and their wallpaper
The Annual International Hip-Hop Preservation Project
Applicant: Keepers of the Art
Award: $69,100
To use hip-hop culture as community-based and authentic arts education and youth development – and to counteract the commercialization of rap music – through a weeklong festival
Canal Stories Through Song and Illustration
Applicant: Laurie Caner
Award: $22,897
To celebrate Akron’s heritage by creating a book and CD of original illustrations and songs based on stories about the Ohio and Erie Canal
Lose Your Marbles: A Dance-centric Performance Art Fringe Festival
Applicant: Neos Dance Theatre
Award: $100,000
To encourage new voices and risk-taking art by launching an Akron Fringe Festival that showcases visual and performing arts
Decompression Chamber
Applicant: Tuesday Musical Association
Award: $40,000
To help ease workplace stress with this music series that will bring free mini-concerts to employees and clients
Live at Lock 4
Applicant: The Devil Strip
Amount: $35,000
To showcase local musicians and bring more people to cultural events downtown by strengthening a free summer music series at Lock 4
The 330 Road Show
Applicant: The Summit WAPS-FM
Award: $16,058
To promote local and regional musicians with the “330 Road Show,” a series of pop-up concerts in neighborhoods around Akron featuring the artists who are streamed on the Summit’s new online “330” channel
Synapse: Steam Into Stem
Applicant: The University of Akron – Synapse
Award: $20,000
To explore the connections between art and science by bringing nationally recognized artists to Akron to explore the power of biomimicry, art and design that takes inspiration from nature