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Today we are announcing $1.87 million in support to 12 art museums to explore new ways technology can connect people to art.These days, technology and digital communications permeate almost every corner of our lives, from the time we scroll through the morning’s newsfeed until we set an alarm on our phone to wake up the next day. As a result, cultural organizations are being challenged to respond to new audience expectations and behaviors brought about by an always-connected society. On the flip side of these challenges is real opportunity, for museums to use digital means to reach visitors beyond the walls of their institution, to delight people in new ways and to create tools that help researchers. -
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Art critic JJ Charlesworth recently shared a sentiment that caught my attention, one I believe is important to any artist who works in and for their community:“If art’s engagement with society is to mean something credible, it’s time to have a conversation – to speak, and to listen.” -
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Who doesn’t like to experiment and have the opportunity to engage in binge watching? Would you do it around opera? -
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Above: Inside|Out Detroit, courtesy of the Detroit Institute of Arts. I love having a chance encounter with art, especially in unexpected places. You turn a corner, or look around and see something that captures your attention because it’s so out of context. What is a framed piece of art doing out on a trail, on the side of a building, at a racetrack, under a viaduct or in an outdoor market? Why that specific work of art for that particular location? What’s the significance and how does it relate to me? InsideOut is a program created by the Detroit Institute of Arts to make art a part of our everyday lives, by installing framed reproductions of its collection out into the community. Because it’s a perfect fit for Knight’s mission, last year we funded museums in Akron, Detroit, Miami and Philadelphia to implement the program in their cities, and make the art hanging inside more accessible to people. A group of recently-arrived immigrants to the United States tour InsideOut Akron as part of their English class. Photo courtesy of the International Institute of Akron. And then the magic began to happen. Because of InsideOut, neighborhoods, entire communities have started to talk about art. In each city, people have really gotten in to it – organizing everything from bike tours, wine tastings and even a zombie run around the locations. They have begun to think about art museums in a different way as they start to see how a collection has personal relevance. -
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Today, Knight Foundation is announcing $2.5 million in support for Opera Philadelphia’s innovative, new opening festival. Below, Vice President for Arts Victoria Rogers explains why. Opera Philadelphia’s first “O,” a 12-day urban opera festival, debuts in September 2017, and I, for one, can’t wait. Think about the fun of binge-watching seven seasons of “West Wing,” all six of “Downton Abbey,” past episodes of “Orange Is the New Black”or “Game of Thrones.” Now, imagine 12 nights of live, innovative opera with Philadelphia as the stage and you have O17, an opera happening. This new business model is the result of five years of data analysis; an honest recognition of what wasn’t working; an ongoing commitment to artistic excellence; and, a passionate belief in opera as a living, breathing, and relevant art form. -
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In Sunday's New York Times Elaine Glusac wrote, "The Miami area may once have craved culture, but new institutions, with more on the way, have helped it reach critical mass." For any arts ecosystem to be successful, it needs a plethora of artists and makers, organizations both small and large, performing arts centers, buyers and funders. However perhaps most importantly, it needs champions. Tonight, in addition to announcing the 53 winners of the Knight Arts Challenge South Florida, Knight President Alberto Ibargüen honored four champions for their contributions to the arts. They have supported the next generation of makers, broadened our understanding of the world around us through access to independent film, and provided insight into a diverse array of emerging contemporary visual artists through curated exhibitions and lectures. The 2015 Knight Art Champions are Kareem Tabsch and Vivian Marthell, co- founders of O Cinema, Alex Gartenfeld, interim director and chief curator at ICA, and Rosa de la Cruz, gallery owner and philanthropist who created a travel program for young art students at Design and Architecture High School (DASH) and the New World School of the Arts so that they can study art in New York and Europe. -
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Above top: Haleem Rasul of Hardcore Detroit, credit Leena Lee. Video: Acres of Diamonds, The Story of the Knight Arts Challenge in Detroit. As the lights were lowered in the performance hall of the Masonic Temple, a collective state of excitement took hold. The sound of a growing, rhythmic cadence filled the air. Seated with colleagues from Knight in a box above the stage, we had a bird’s eye view of the dancers, their sound suits swirling in response to their movements as they strutted down the center aisle. Nick Cave’s Here Hear was in the house and the crowd went wild. That’s just one of the magical movements that comes to mind when I think about the more than 100 winning projects the Knight Arts Challenge in Detroit has funded over the last several years. In 2012, Knight launched a three-year, $3 million per year Knight Arts Challenge in Detroit, part of a nearly $20 million, two-pronged investment for both local institutions and more grassroots efforts. The first three years of the challenge were, in some ways, an experiment. Would the challenge add to the momentum organically emerging in Detroit’s arts community? Given the city’s economic climate, would winners be able to raise matching funds? Our experience exceeded expectations. Detroiters responded to the contest in droves, submitting more than 3,500 ideas reflective of the spirit of Detroit. Our winners, 114 so far, have fueled the artistic excellence and ongoing growth of the local cultural community. Many of them received national and international press coverage. This summer an article in The New York Times made reference to four separate Knight Arts Challenge winners and their projects, including local artist Olayami Dabls’ lifelong labor of love, the MBAD African Bead Museum, and Cranbrook Art Museum's “Nick Cave: Here Hear.” Its no wonder the Detroit Free Press has called the first group of contest winners the “soul of Detroit.” -
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At Knight, our goal is not to just fund artistic excellence, but to seek out projects that authentically engage their communities. Each year, we fund projects big and small that experiment with ways to reach new audiences, and to keep the current ones wanting more. Today, I’m excited to share that we are funding 17 organizations in San Jose, Calif., both large institutions and grassroots groups that strive to put the community at the center of their work. Together, they are receiving $630,000 for their efforts. In the list below, you’ll find some theater groups that are experimenting with new technologies and strategies. City Lights Theater Company, for example, had a character in a play this spring created through artificial intelligence, and projected on stage with animation. Opera Cultura invited the community to participate in a staged reading of an experimental opera based on the Mexican classic “Bless Me, Ultima.” And next fall, Naatak, one of the country’s largest Indian theaters, will present a new Hindu work on the often sensitive subject of Indian widowhood. We’re excited by several projects too that are invigorating public spaces by turning them into their stage. San Jose Taiko, for example, which tours nationally, is playing to the home crowd with free pop-up performances citywide. And The Commons will continue its immersive performances in the city’s parks. You can catch them on June 24 at St. James Park for a blend of big band jazz and a quilting bee. The Silicon Valley Ballet also is planning an exciting collaboration this fall – one of the largest between Cuban and American performing arts organizations since the revolution. The ballet will be the first American company to present Cuban choreographer Alicia Alonso’s “Giselle,” and programming will contextualize the recent opening of relations between the two countries. I’ll be in San Jose over the next few days, meeting our grantees and getting to know the cultural community better. I’m excited to see many of these projects develop, and the opportunity to learn from their progress.
