The Knight Arts program is now seeking grant opportunities in Detroit that can create transformational and sustainable change through artistic excellence and collective cultural experiences. If you’re interested in learning more about working with Knight in the arts, please contact Program Director Brenda Price.
By Eric Woodhams, Detroit Symphony Orchestra Hands-down, the best part of working at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra is hearing our amazing musicians perform in Orchestra Hall. The intimate connection between the stage and audience, the beauty and history of the building, and its acoustical warmth make every concert a joy to be a part of. As [...]
Detroit native Andrew Krieger was, until recently, a fulltime carpenter, but he returned to making art after a two-decade absence following a revelation of sorts — that his avoidance of art making was actually the symptom of something deeper, an evasion from some fearful element he’d been unwilling to confront. That sounds rather serious considering [...]
With considerable shame, I must confess my experience with “Middle Eastern music,” if such an enormous and diverse cultural heritage can be reduced to that designation, comes almost entirely from brief fragments heard through tinny radios in the back of specialty grocery stores or as ambience in the background of restaurants. This is why I [...]
The Packard plant, at one point the most advanced automobile plant in the world, was shuttered and abandoned in 1958, and since then has become one of the more notorious ruins in the country. A vast and sprawling structure, it remains a definitive symbol of Detroit’s economic decline. It has been thoroughly explored and photographed, [...]
The Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID) sits as the sole remaining building on its block at Warren and Rosa Parks, in a seemingly abandoned neighborhood in a city that, until very recently, had been all but forgotten beyond its borders. A fitting venue for “The Apocalypse Show,” a wild assortment of media and performance-based [...]
Ben Bunk is a local working artist. Having grown up in New York, he left home at the age of 18, bouncing around the country before landing in Detroit a few years back. I caught up with Bunk at his home, which is also his studio. Over an afternoon of beer and coffee, our conversation [...]
One of our more exciting Detroit projects has been to fund Live From Orchestra Hall: The digital live simulcast of performances by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. The energy is amazing and you feel like you are there. The next simulcast, French Masters: Franck, Saint-Saëns and Debussy, is Sunday, Jan 22 at 3pm EST- click here to register and [...]
By Matthew Jaber Stiffler, Arab American National Museum In early December 2011, I spent two days meeting with Muslim American groups in Grand Rapids, Michigan. First, I met with the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at Grand Valley State University (GVSU) to learn about their programs and events. Every February they hold an Islam Awareness Week on [...]
By Beth Stewart, Michigan Philharmonic The Michigan Philharmonic received a grant from Knight Foundation to help fund a two-day festival as part of a multi-cultural program celebrating the Music of “Bollywood”. The grant brings together orchestra musicians from the western classical music tradition and Indian singers and musicians. The final result will be an outstanding, [...]
On one of the first legitimately cold and snowy nights this Detroit winter, I had the pleasure of attending the opening reception of Carrie Dickason’s “Second Nature” at A Public Pool, the Hamtramck-area gallery. The work on display was a colorful and lively grouping, comprised mainly of discarded materials, such as plastic containers that once [...]
