The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has announced grants totaling $2.5 million to forty-three projects in South Florida for bringing South Florida together through the Knight Arts Challenge. As in past years, grants were awarded to arts organizations and individual artists in support of projects that will help make art seen, felt, and heard throughout Miami’s many diverse neighborhoods.
In this year’s competition, recipients of grants include Arts For Learning, which will receive $80,000 for a project in which young artists from the Liberty City neighborhood study the remains of a “segregation wall” on Northwest 12th Avenue and create public art projects for the site; the Borscht Corporation, which was awarded $150,000 to expand its support for female-identifying filmmakers through its NoBroZone grant program; Dimensions Dance Theater of Miami, which will receive $150,000 to offer professional opportunities at Dimensions Dance Theater of Miami and establish a home at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center; and the Historic Hampton House Community Trust, which was awarded $100,000 to partner with Florida International University and the Miami Jazz and Film Society on a film and discussion series.
Recently the foundation named twenty-five arts and civic leaders as “Knight Arts Champions”, honoring them for their vision, courage, and tenacity in building Miami’s cultural community. Each of the leaders were given $10,000 to contribute to an artist or arts organization of their choice, include painter José Bedia, author Edwidge Danticat, and Miami-Dade mayor Carlos Gimenez.
According to the Knight Foundation president Alberto Ibargüen, “The Tenth Anniversary Knight Arts Challenge winners celebrate life and arts in Miami. They embody what the arts do, they inspire and create common experiences that connect us to each other and to home.
