Last night, thirty-one South Florida art projects were awarded grants in the first year of the Knight Arts Partnership, a $40 million effort to bring South Floridians together through the arts. Winning projects include a two-year residency program for up-and-coming artists, a Little League-like network of children’s choirs, and giant, inflatable sculptures in Bayfront Park.

Onajídé Shabaka of Miami Art Exchange and artist Daniel Arsham were in attendance and offered their thoughts on the current Miami art scene:

Watch video of Miami Program Director Lorenzo Lebrija as well as videos of the winners and details for each grant on the Knight Arts site and in the press release.

As we’ve previously blogged, one section of Knight’s annual progress report asks what you think about the Miami arts scene and the new Knight Arts Partnership, a $20 million matching challenge to fund individuals and organizations with ideas for the future of arts in Miami.

I asked Rick of the South Florida Daily Blog (SFDB), who summarizes area blogs, to help us identify art bloggers whose audiences might be interested and have ideas for arts in Miami.

Rick posted an entry on SFDB yesterday (thank you, Rick), asking his readers which art blogs they followed.

The readers suggested a few in the comments (TuMiami, ArtLurker, a new Miami Art Exchange url). We plan to follow up with these blogs, and we’ve noted Roger L’s comment that summer isn’t, perhaps, the liveliest season of the Miami art scene.

What you think about the Miami arts scene? Other Miami art blogs you follow?

Tell us in the comments below or on the annual report site.

Part of the annual progress report, Knight Foundation asks what you think about the Miami Knight Arts Partnership.

Bonnie Clearwater, executive director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, explains some of their recent work in this video:

“We’ve gone from about 100 arts groups to more than 1,200 in the past two decades,” said Lorenzo Lebrija, Knight’s Miami program director. “It shows a real growth and maturing of Miami’s creative community.”

What do you think about arts in Miami? What would you like to see funded in the Knight Arts Partnership?

Leave a comment below or on the progress report site.

Editor’s note: Lorenzo Lebrija is the Program Director for the Knight Foundation community program in Miami and manages the Knight Arts Partnership, a new experimental art contest for South Florida, where the Knight Foundation is based.

The Knight Arts Partnership began with a simple premise: we don’t know all the answers, and great ideas are in the community. So, let’s ask for them. In the end, we received 1,643 applications with ideas for the arts in South Florida.

Yesterday, we announced to the community the 77 finalists for the Knight Arts Partnership. Our next step is to see whether the ideas, when explained further, are as good as the quick descriptions. Are the groups or individuals right to carry them out? Do they have a plan to raise the match of our funds? We’re excited to find out.

Not all 77 finalists will secure grants (we only have $4 million!), but we have a good pool from which some ideas, when fully developed, will stand out.

It’s going to be an interesting summer!