The grants, totaling $482,500, are the first in Knight Foundation’s new nationwide arts initiative, focusing on eight communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers.
In Charlotte, Knight Foundation is targeting programs with the potential to inspire community engagement and transform the region’s cultural arts scene.
The wide-ranging projects are designed to spark conversations around the region’s diversity, open an important art collection to new audiences and strengthen both established and emerging institutions.
“All residents can become more engaged in their community through a vibrant arts scene,” said Dennis Scholl, who was recently named Knight Foundation’s vice president/arts. “We looked at projects that could lift these organizations to the next level.”
The recipients are:
McColl Center for Visual Art: to raise the center’s profile by bringing nationally renowned contemporary artists into its artist-in-residence program ($80,000);
Bechtler Museum of Modern Art: to increase the young museum’s reach by creating a digital library of the rarely-seen 1,400 piece collection ($107,500);
Arts & Science Council of Charlotte-Mecklenburg: to fill the gaps in local cultural programming by investing in emerging arts organizations ($60,000);
WDAV Classical Public Radio: to engage the area’s growing Hispanic community by developing Concierto, a nationally syndicated Spanish-language classical music service expected to launch in 2011 ($55,000);
Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture: to bring alive African-American arts and history by creating a dynamic educational outreach program at the center’s new facility ($50,000);
Levine Museum of the New South: to engage a broad audience and spark dialogue by creating innovative programming for the return of the nationally acclaimed Civil Rights exhibit, COURAGE: The Carolina Story That Changed America ($50,000);
Arts & Science Council of Charlotte-Mecklenburg: to showcase the areas’ cultural vibrancy by creating a series of public “random acts of culture” ($30,000).
About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation: The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote informed, engaged communities and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.