Knight Arts Challenge People's Choice Award voting begins

One Detroit arts organization to be awarded $20,000

DETROIT – Voting for the Knight Arts Challenge People's Choice Award has begun.

You can decide which of five up-and-coming arts organizations should receive $20,000 to help them further their role in the Detroit arts scene.

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To learn more about the five nominees, you can watch their videos online at http://www.knightarts.org/peopleschoice and then text their number to 22333 through August 9.

The nominees are:

  • Complex Movements: An artist collective that expresses the connections between science and social justice through hip-hop, art installations, interactive performances and technology; (Text ART1 to 22333)
  • East Side Riders: A group of artists who customize bikes as their means of creative expression; (Text ART2 to 22333)
  • Lo & Behold! Records & Books: a Hamtramck store that celebrates Detroit's musical traditions through a monthly folk blues night; (Text ART3 to 22333)
  • Mt. Elliott Makerspace: a village workshop providing a place where people can create, tinker and learn together; (Text ART4 to 22333)
  • The Secret Society of Twisted Storytellers: a curated, monthly event where Detroiters tell their true stories live on stage; (Text ART5 to 22333)

Launched in Detroit earlier this year, the Knight Arts Challenge is a community-wide contest supporting the best ideas for the arts. Sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the challenge seeks out ideas that both engage and enrich Detroit communities.

Each People's Choice nominee is one of 84 finalists in the 2013 Knight Arts Challenge and is still eligible for a challenge grant from the Knight Foundation.

Winners of both the challenge and the People's Choice Award will be announced in September.