For the 11th year, Miami Art Week kicked off with the announcement of the winners of the Knight Arts Challenge. This year, 44 artists and arts organizations shared more than $1.8 million to bring their ideas to life. During a celebration at the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation also honored 21 community leaders as champions of the arts, empowering them to direct $10,000 each to local artists and arts organizations they want to support.
The Knight Arts Challenge and Knight Arts Champions reflect Knight’s belief that arts can strengthen communities. Knight also supports Miami’s burgeoning tech entrepreneurship sector and journalism nationwide to advance its mission of fostering informed and engaged communities.
The Knight Arts Challenge is a community-wide search to find and fund the best ideas for engaging and enriching Miami through the arts. This year’s 44 winners represent a broad variety of disciplines, including visual art, theater, music, and dance.
Some of the winners had ties to PAMM, including:
Fringe Projects ($100,000)
Foresight
A two-year thematic program and biennial-style exhibition of public art interventions and performances that explore the question, “What might a Caribbean future look like?” This initiative will collaborate with the newly-founded Caribbean Cultural Institute at PAMM.
Miami Light Project, Inc. ($25,000)
ScreenDance Miami Festival
An annual festival including feature-length films, curated collections of short films, media installations, panels, and workshops that support dancers, choreographers and filmmakers who are forging a bold new art discipline, dance on film. Part of the ScreenDance festivities will return to PAMM on January 18.
Also, Knight honored the 2019 Knight Arts Champions for their dedication to the local arts scene. The 21 Knight Arts Champions are local leaders who have played key roles in building South Florida’s rich and diverse cultural community will each direct that $10,000 be contributed to a local artist or arts organization of their choice.
The 2019 Knight Arts Champions and their recipients include:
Dejha Carrington, co-founder, Commissioner; VP of external relations and communications, National YoungArts Foundation
Recipient: Loni Johnson – visual arts national selection panelist and visual arts co-director, National YoungArts Foundation, who is also a PAMM teaching artist.
María Elena Ortiz, associate curator, Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM)
Recipient: The Mujerista
Rose Ellen Greene, philanthropist and PAMM Board Member
Recipient: New World Symphony College Track Program
Tom Virgin, artist, Extra Virgin Press
Recipient: Marie Vickles, director of education at Pérez Art Museum Miami and curator
The full list of Knight Arts Challenge winners and Knight Arts Champions can be found here.