26 past winners of the Knights Art Challenge

By Metro Times editorial staff on Fri, Apr 14, 2017 at 2:29 pm

The 2017 Knight Arts Challenge, now in its fifth year in Detroit, is offering a share of up to $3 million to the best ideas for engaging and enriching Detroit through the arts.

A project of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the challenge has awarded $9.46 million in matching grants, bringing to life 222 successful arts ideas in Detroit since its inception in 2013.

Knight Foundation funds the arts because of their ability to inspire communities and connect people to each other and to their city. 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.

There are only three rules for submissions:

1) The idea must be about the arts. 2) The project must take place in or benefit Detroit. 3) The grant recipients must find funds to match Knight’s commitment.

Find out more at knightarts.org.

Tags:

Knights Art Challenge

Scroll down to view images

Page 2 of 2

The CAN Art Wind Turbine Project
Applicant: CAN Art Handworks
Award: $50,000
To engage Detroiters in a sustainability project in a playful manner by having artist Carl Nielbock create wind turbine sculptures in Eastern Market that power cellphone charging stations and help irrigate urban crops

21 of 26

Jazz Violin “The Detroit Way”
Applicant: Detroit Youth Volume
Award: $51,623
To inspire the young classical violinists training with this group to become jazz musicians by employing local jazz artists as teachers

22 of 26

Prisoner’s Song
Applicants: Greg Baise, Gelsey Bell, Erik Ruin
Award: $6,000
To explore the experience of the incarcerated and prison life in America through a multimedia performance presented at four neighborhood venues (Photo credit: Michael Yu)

23 of 26

Not In My House: A Performance Celebrating LGBT Identity
Applicant: Kristi Faulkner Dance
Award: $30,000 To explore themes of identity and gender with an original performance work created with LGBT youth from the Ruth Ellis Center (Photo credit: Michael Sobczak)

24 of 26

Detroit Storymakers Project
Applicant: WDET
Award: $100,000 To strengthen the craft of storytelling in Detroit by developing a network of multimedia artists and empowering them to share their stories with a wider audience – on the radio, online and in public spaces

25 of 26

On TAP Applicant: Young Nation
Award: $37,000
To support the development of local artists by turning garages into artists’ studios in addition to holding hip-hop arts workshops and experiences that culminate in a large public art project

26 of 26