Hundreds of volunteers from around the Detroit region participated in four KaBOOM! playground builds Saturday.  Two sites, Starlight Baptist and Jude Baptist, are faith-based organizations with strong community ties.  The Jude playground is connected to a community center that includes a daycare for residents on Detroit’s east side.

Focus Hope chose Paul Robeson Academy to partner with and the place was packed with children from the school doing their part in the build.  The school band entertained the volunteers and the cheer team motivated folks to proceed even with the threat of inclement weather. Congressman John Conyers told a story about knowing Paul Robeson, the actor and political activist for whom the school was named.  Other elected officials were in attendance including Wayne County Commissioner Keith Williams.  Commissioner Williams contributed the match funds to support the project build.

At ACCESS in Dearborn, the build had a hip hop flare.  The music kept the volunteers in an upbeat mode while their spirit for supporting their community was shared by all.  Mothers brought food and a local firefighter brought the fire trucks and entertained the small children.

Some of the people who volunteered got so excited they volunteered to do more for the organizations building the playgrounds.

Knight Foundation is funding volunteers to build 13 playgrounds in five cities this year in an effort to engage residents in strengthening their community.

Dennis Scholl

Great news for the national arts scene: Dennis Scholl, Knight Foundation’s Miami program director and a longtime arts advocate and philanthropist, will head up Knight’s new national cultural arts efforts. Dennis was just named vice president/arts for Knight Foundation. He’ll work with arts leaders in different communities around the country where the Knight brothers owned newspapers – from Detroit, Akron, Charlotte and Philadelphia to Macon, Miami, San Jose and St. Paul – to promote the arts and find innovative cultural programs that enrich people’s lives. He has already has helped transform the South Florida arts scene with Miami’s Knight Arts Challenge, $40 million initiative that aims to unite the region through the arts (finalists will be named in May in the contest’s third round).

With one of the top contemporary art collections in the US and experience leading local and national philanthropic efforts in the visual arts, Dennis’s passion and energy for the arts makes him particularly well-suited for his new post at Knight. He has also ventured into the role of creator as writer and co-producer of a short film, Sunday’s Best, which was just shown at the Aspen Shortsfest 2010. Besides his broad involvement in the arts, Dennis co-founded Betts & Scholl, an international wine venture, and has practiced law, worked as a CPA and restored Art Deco properties on South Beach. We at Knight are looking forward to continuing to transform communities with Dennis’s leadership.

This morning, Knight announced more than $5 million in grants to spur new economic foundations for Detroit by boosting the city's Creative Corridor, increasing job training, and providing digital access to underserved communities.

Here are details on the six grants from the press release:

• $1.08 million to the Cranbook Educational Community to strengthen Detroit’s Creative Corridor by creating a partnership between the Cranbrook Educational Community and the Arts League of Michigan. Together they will host joint exhibits and programming.
• $1.025 million to the Detroit and Southeast Michigan Fund for Innovative Workforce Solutions to train workers for skilled jobs in the region’s health and green sectors by creating a new funder’s workforce collaborative, managed by the United Way of Southeastern Michigan.
• $1.01 million to the College for Creative Studies to help create an art and design campus at the new Taubman Center, a former General Motors design facility.
• $866,000 to the Detroit Public Library to help meet Detroit’s information needs by expanding free Internet access at the Parkman Branch library through a new technology and literacy center.
• $810,000 to the Detroit Connected Community Initiative to enhance residents’ ability to use the power of the Internet to improve their lives by providing high-speed Internet access to two low-income Detroit neighborhoods, Central-Woodward-Northend and Osborn-Northeast.
• $500,000 to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra to expand and diversify its audiences by launching a community concert series at places of worship, schools and malls.

You can read more about the initiatives in the press release, and in this article from Crain's Detroit Business.

A few years ago, Knight supported Detroit with a technology center at their downtown YMCA and youth programming. The YMCA centers developed the YArts program and have launched a refreshed Web site for the Detroit creative community: thedetroiter.com

The site is featuring artist Tristan Eaton, who contributes to the Detroit art scene and whose work has appeared on posters for the Obama campaign (below is his "gas pump" poster).

Eaton's work was part of the Manifest Hope: DC Gallery exhibit this week at 3333 M Street NW during the Inauguration festivities.

The full interview on the YArts site here with an image of an Obama mural by Eaton unveiled this week.

What do you think about the Obama campaign art? And how can we strength art communities in cities like Detroit?