This coming Sunday at 6:30 p.m., Detroit Soup will celebrate its two-year anniversary with a dinner at 2900 E. Grand Blvd., featuring a performance by The Detroit Flyhouse Circus School. There is quite a lot to celebrate. Begun by a handful of participants, the micro-granting dinner has undergone steady expansion, having now outgrown its previous location above the Mexicantown Bakery — a raw loft space they painstakingly converted into a cozy event spot — and having just received an operating grant from the Knight Foundation. I had the pleasure of visiting its newly opened Corktown office recently to talk with Amy Kaherl, the director of Detroit Soup — just back from delivering a TEDx Talk in California — and her collaborator, John Notarianni.

Detroit Soup's loft space above the Mexicantown Bakery.

Both the structure and function of Detroit Soup offer an elegant example of pared down simplicity. Participants contribute five dollars to a community pot, listen to presentations by groups vying for the amount collected that night, vote on which group they’d like to award the money to, then enjoy a volunteer-prepared dinner. The experience is radically different from donating to a large, amorphous charity. The funds raised at Detroit Soup have immediate, practical uses with hyper-local impact and have been awarded to an eclectic mix of artists and activists and entrepreneurs. It’s a crowd-sourcing event that — unlike online fundraising platforms like Kickstarter — occurs in real physical space, away from the computer screen. As Kaherl pointed out, awarding the grant is really only one aspect of the event, perhaps not even the most crucial one.

Detroit Soup creates a space that enables interaction among strangers, and something truly special happens when strangers group together under the aegis of collaboration and community involvement. It represents the opening of a closed, fixed equation to unknown variables of unlimited upside potential, the potential of other people — people with the desire to do something, people with unique talents and idiosyncratic perspectives and, most importantly, a desire to help. At Detroit Soup, designers meet writers, activists meet artists and abstract ideas become real.

Detroit Soup is a fine bellwether for the city of Detroit, and its progress similarly relies on the hands-on participation of neighbors. If nobody shows up, nothing happens. But they do show up. They show up in droves and with big ideas and a passion to contribute. That is the fundamental energy driving Detroit Soup: the conjoining of creative problem solving with the innate need to help others — the simple, sublime desire to be useful.

The next Detroit Soup event takes place this Sunday, Feb. 12, at 2900 E. Grand Blvd. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and presentations begin at 7:30 p.m.

The Center for Emerging Visual Artists (CFEVA) is currently showing “Introduction 2012” in the Widener Foundation Memorial Gallery at Moore College of Art & Design. The exhibit highlights works by the six new Career Development Program Fellows at Center for Emerging Visual Artists: Leslie Friedman, Daniel Gerwin, Rebecca Gilbert, Kay Healy, Heechan Kim and Johanna Inman.

Daniel Gerwin, "Passage," 2011.

Gerwin’s works are mottled mélanges of painted wood grain patterns. In his piece “Passage,” the segments are almost all painted, but at closer inspection, a tiny minority of the sections are in fact bare wood. The painted textures are in a way camouflaged to appear like sections of pressed plywood in shades of red, brown and yellow. Other works by Gerwin display these same areas over the reflective surface of a mirror, allowing thin cracks through which to see oneself.

Leslie Friedman, "Musophobia," 2010.

Prints by Friedman picture pop cultural and technological images, as well as nude female bodies with starbursts strategically placed as censor-bars. Their faces are also hidden since, in place of their heads, they have film projectors, monitors or microphones. In “Musophobia” (the fear of mice), a woman with a television head hugs her legs on a chair as she withdraws from a pile of computer mice. There are strong themes of technological fervor and gender identity in Friedman’s work, and her prints are by far the brightest colors in the entire gallery.

There is only one piece in the show by Healy, but it is also an entire living room (kind of). Healy creates large-scale, screen prints of furniture and domestic settings. Her stuffed living room hanging in relief on a wall is somewhat reminiscent of Claes Oldenburg’s soft sculptures. The work of Kim acts as a sort of polar opposite of Healy’s construction. Kim’s sculptures appear abstract and simple — strips of wood and metal wire — but deal with complex issues, such as individual and group identity. We are all bound together regardless of what we would prefer, and his basket-like sculptures represent these ties.

Rebecca Gilbert, "Building the Perfect Worm House," 2011.

Gilbert connects printmaking and science in her process through experimentation and trial-and-error. Some of her prints are parodies of superstition like horseshoes or lucky rabbits, but the most intriguing is definitely “Building the Perfect Worm House.” The two flat cutouts show a girl kneeling and placing sticks into a pile of dirt, presumably building some type of imaginative residence for some garden critters.

Using a scanner to capture old pages of books or paper, Inman blurs the line between the archaic and the technological. The prints are in sharp focus and color, but their glossy, photographic exteriors exist in place of the original worn and tattered bindings.

The “Introduction 2012” show is hopefully a precursor for a great 2012 season at Center  for Emerging Visual Artists. The show will be on display through Feb. 25 at Moore College of Art & Design, 20th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Center for Emerging Visual Artists is located at 237 S. 18th St., The Barclay, Suite 3A; 215-546-7775.

It’s not about black. And, it’s not about white or other. Johnson C. Smith University is about urban diversity, coming together for a better future of growth and success for its students and the surrounding communities. At the forefront of this change is its new arts curriculum and the “Arts Factory.”

Johnson C. Smith University is an “urban, independent university” a stone’s throw from uptown Charlotte. And, it is experiencing a renaissance. Like Charlotte’s own growing arts reputation, it’s fitting that the beginning of Johnson C. Smith University’s main campus expansion was the new off-campus arts teaching facility called the Arts Factory.

Arts Factory. Photo provided by Johnson C. Smith University

The Arts Factory is inviting and easily seen driving up W. Trade St. from I77. It is a 14,000-square-foot facility for students majoring in visual and performing arts and features a black box theater and dance studio, as well as work spaces for art and graphic design students. This is a new area of study for the university. The Visual + Performing Arts major has five areas of concentration: theatre, dance, graphic art, film and studio art.

With the guidance of the professional faculty and the new arts facility, students can perform, exhibit and produce their own artwork. During this spring semester, there are already collaborations underway with other arts professionals in the Charlotte area. Later this year, the community will be able to enjoy performances that will showcase the arts at Johnson C. Smith University.

Dr. Ronald L. Carter, the 13th president of Johnson C. Smith University, has been instrumental in this new direction. Carter originally envisioned the Arts Factory as being the launching pad for the revitalization effort of the Northwest Corridor of Charlotte. Driving up W. Trade, one can see this change, growth and diversity right before their very eyes.

Johnson C. Smith University received a $35 million grant from The Duke Endowment. In addition to ground-breakings for different campus developments, with this major grant, the university will be able to assist more students by extending $4.5 million in scholarship funds to international students, as well as those majoring in science, technology, visual and performing arts and social work.

With a history of being a predominately black university, Johnson C. Smith University has begun a major transformation. And, it’s bringing the surrounding neighborhood right up with it. The Arts Factory is only one of many physical transformations. The arts are an excellent manifestation of several core-guiding principles: Academic excellence, diversity, community engagement and distinctive student experiences.

In bringing these changes, the university is attracting students of different countries, races, ages and ideologies so its campus mirrors the diverse global community. By embracing diversity, Carter believes we can learn the qualities that attract people to a cause and use their engagement as a catalyst for our greater well being. The arts have a long history of bringing together communities and diverse populations, as well as problem solving around social issues.

Johnson C. Smith University
100 Beatties Ford Road
Charlotte, 28216
704-378-1000

JCSU Arts Factory
1545 W. Trade St.
Charlotte, 28216

Let’s face it. Miami is s expensive, especially if you want to hear live music during a night on the town. However, thanks to Miami Made Festival 2012: When the Sun Goes Down, March 1 through 4, 2012, you have the chance to listen to hip local bands do their thing Miami-style — for free. Bring friends, a date or go solo, head the Arsht Center, a Knight Arts grantee, and listen to The Hongs (Thursday), Crown Company (Friday) and Roofless Records (Saturday). All three bands are premiering new songs. Especially promising is Roofless Records (Saturday), “a music/theater/dance mash-up inspired by pop culture’s most beloved variety shows.”

Daniel Bourgouin | ©2011RosieHerrera | Adam Reign

And that’s not all that Miami Made Festival has to offer. Even if you’ve seen the festival in years past, the coordinators have some surprises in store. The chosen artists are loosely tied by this year’s theme of Miami after dark. Miami is a city we know as vibrant and multicultural, a city that heats up once the sun goes down and the lights come on. Although the festival is heavier on theatrical performances than in years past, the 10 artists included in the festival promise to please any aesthetic taste.

They offer diverse and exciting performances, which range from experimental theater and dance to a photography exhibit. Miami Made Festival has never showcased a photography exhibit, but these photographs are special. In a “behind-the-scenes look,” Richard Martinez photographed Ana Mendez’s creation of her piece “The Body is Present” for the 2011 Miami Made Festival. So, not only is this an original exhibition created for this year’s festival, but it’s also reminiscent of last year’s. Other highlights of the festival include: Rosie Herrera’s “Dining Alone,” The TM Sisters’ “Shimmer,” The Project [theatre]’s “Beer Samplers,” Paul Tei’s work-in-progress “RPM” and Mark Della Ventura’s one-man-show “Small Membership.”

M. John Richard, president and CEO of the Adrienne Arsht Center, says of the festival, “Miami heats up when the sun goes down and this expanded, nighttime version of the Arsht Center’s Miami Made Festival is an opportunity to experience the inventive, cross-pollination of creativity germinating throughout South Florida. The entire community is invited to dive into the newest, groundbreaking work coming out of Miami’s vibrant cultural scene.”

Miami Made Festival 2012, “When the Sun Goes Down,” March 1 through 4, 2012, Carnival Studio Theater, Tickets: free. Free “First-Access Tickets” will be available beginning at noon on Monday, Feb. 27, at arshtcenter.org or in person at the Box Office (limit four per person). The passes provide patrons with guaranteed admission to the theater for individual performances. *$35 VIP festival passes are available now and guarantee priority access to the theater and guaranteed seating to every event. Arrive 15 minutes before performance begins.

In the wake of a 2007 economic impact study of individual artists, which revealed that Minnesota artists are twice as likely as the general population to be uninsured, Springboard for the Arts (a Knight Arts grantee), under the direction of Laura Zabel, decided to do something about it. The organization decided to approach the issue of health care accessibility for arts workers from a new angle; with the help of a task force of professionals working in medicine, insurance and the arts, Springboard launched a series of health fairs, for which hundreds of local artists turned out with their families to receive care. Given the demand and armed with some grant money and an array of new partnerships with area clinics and care providers, Springboard soon expanded its health service and information offerings. The resulting program, Artists’ Access to Healthcare, developed into a multi-pronged approach to assisting uninsured artists in navigating community medical and dental resources — the organization still provides periodic health fairs, but also free clinic days and health care vouchers artists can redeem at various doctors’ and dentists’ offices and community clinics for greatly discounted clinic visits and preventative care. There’s even a relief fund artists can tap for help paying an unexpected emergency medical bill, as well as detailed information and applications to apply for low-cost health insurance for themselves and their families. Artists’ Access to Healthcare proves such an effective way of connecting artists with care providers and information, the program was adopted in 2010 by a partnering organization, the Artist Fund, to serve artists living in northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin, too; in a recent interview, Zabel indicated that Springboard has hopes of replicating the program throughout the Upper Midwest.

Laura Zabel is executive director of Springboard for the Arts and one of 12 "Minnesota Revolutionaries" recognized in the February 2012 issue of "Minnesota Monthly."

I mention all this because Zabel and Springboard’s groundbreaking Artists’ Access to Healthcare program received well-earned praise this month, in a “Minnesota Monthly” article recognizing 12 local “revolutionaries.” Thus far, the article isn’t available in full online, but copies of the February 2012 issue are on stands now. For a program this outstanding, that has done so much tangible good for more than 2,000 area artists, the whole staff at Springboard deserves a special congratulations — on a job well done and on some much-deserved recognition.

Visit www.springboardforthearts.org/health for more information about the Artists’ Access to Healthcare program.

By  Kelli Kavanaugh, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit

MOCAD’s winter exhibition is going to be outta-sight! Joshua White and Gary Panter’s Light Show is a new exhibition organized especially for the Museum by two great pioneers of multimedia art, and it opens this Friday, February 10. White and Panter have been working together since the late 1990’s, and this exhibition is their largest collaborative project to date.

Occupying nearly all of the Museum’s 22,000 square foot area, this immersive installation features a “permanent” lightshow designed by White (of Woodstock and Fillmore East fame) that will be on view through the entirety of the exhibition’s run.  Panter, whose prolific output is most recognized in the set design for Pee-wee’s Playhouse, will construct a fun-house of his imagination, with both sculptural and lightshow elements. Bridging these two worlds is a historical corridor, filled with ephemera illuminating the long-running careers of these two old friends. Materials from the archives of both artists will be on display to illustrate the range and depth of their work.

As intended by White and Panter, the exhibition will serve as a platform for performances by guests working in a variety of media and disciplines, including musicians, video artists, comedians and engineers, who are invited to interact with the work and activate the space.

Also opening on February 10 is the inaugural DEPE Space (Department of Education and Public Engagement) Residency featuring Chido Johnson, head of sculpture at the College for Creative Studies and a 2009 Kresge fellow. Johnson will be installing his “love library” — a collection of artist-designed romance novels that will be on display during the month of February. Leading up to his Family Day on February 19, the installation of the love library will feature talks with library contributors, as well as a “love librarian” to discuss the project — and, of course, love! — with visitors.

This season promises a jam-packed schedule of insightful, creative and family-friendly activities—from a drive-in radio theater in March, performances by the likes of Kimya Dawson and Van Dyke Parks, and a comic jam with Gary Panter, we have high hopes that this season will draw an invigorated and lively audience into the Museum.

Stay connected through our website, Facebook page and by checking out our new Vimeo channel!

Cape Coast Castle, a departure for the slave trade. Photo by Edmund Abaka

A couple of museums have shows that tell a little off-the-beaten path tale about the histories of the people who make up Miami today. Rather than huge exhibits trying to cover broad topics, the Jewish Museum of Florida and the University of Miami have bitten off a few interesting pieces that nonetheless let us in on a whole.

At the Jewish Museum, “Wooden Synagogues of Poland and the Florida Connection” may at first seem esoteric, but aside from being fascinating, it’s far more wide in scope in its relevant history. The area once called the Pale of Settlement, the territories to the west of Imperial Russia where Jews were only allowed to live, incorporated most of today’s Poland and Lithuania. It was an impoverished land spotted with small, Jewish-majority villages, the shtetls, and which would become home to the largest percent of population of the Jewish diaspora and, eventually, the ancestors of most American-Jews (about 80 percent).

Wooden synagogue, Zubludow, Poland.

In the shtetls, synagogues were built from the easiest and most accessible material, wood. They would come to express the local folk art in their designs, a unique Eastern European Jewish hybrid. But wooden structures in general don’t last, and after the Holocaust they were either left to decay or intentionally destroyed, yet a few do remain. At the museum, models of some made by Peter Maurice are on display, along with photos and artifacts from Floridians whose relatives once hailed from that Pale.

On Feb. 8, University of Miami’s Department of Art & Art History and Africana Studies kicks off Black History Month with the “Slavery to Self Determination” exhibit. But again, rather than taking a broad brush, this show features the works of five African-American artists, whose search for an identity in the past and as a modern self takes place in a visual arts form. It will include a series of lectures during its run.

“Wooden Synagogues of Poland and the Florida Connection” through March 18, Jewish Museum of Florida, 301 Washington Ave., Miami Beach; www.jewishmuseum.com.

“Slavery to Self Determination” has a special opening on Feb. 8, and panel discussion on Feb. 14, 6 to 8 p.m., at University of Miami’s College of Arts and Sciences Gallery, 1210 Stanford Drive., Coral Gables; 305-284-2543.

By Laura Zabel, Springboard for the Arts

One of the most enjoyable aspects of working with the Community Supported Art program in the past year has been seeing the various ways it’s been adapted for different cities. Since our replication program launched a year ago, we have worked with over thirty organizations to help them bring CSA to their communities. With the support of Knight Foundation, all eight Knight communities will have the opportunity to launch CSA programs. They’ve been all over the map, literally: on the west coast and east coast, in the south and the Midwest, in small towns and large cities, with economic development organizations, galleries, art centers, and even individual artists. Each individual CSA program is an enticing little peek into its city’s art community.

Fish print by CSA artist, Jason Hedges

Particularly in the midst of a Midwestern winter, it’s been enjoyable to see the work being done with CSA in Miami. Now on sale, Miami’s CSA shares feature work by nine very talented South Florida artists working in a range of mediums. Some of the work is a direct reflection of Miami itself:  Jenny Brillhart’s mixed media work incorporates images of the places around town she sees in her daily travels, and Jason Hedge’s fish prints (pictured) are an amusing reminder of the relationship between Floridians and the food that comes directly from the waters that surround them. Similarly, Julie Friel’s books incorporate the visual language of graffiti, exactly of the sort that one comes across navigating the urban landscape.

Other pieces of work in the share make use of broader themes and inspirations less specific to Miami. In particular, Michelle Weinberg’s witty, text-enhanced encaustic tiles would be received well in any community. Drawing on fine art, advertising, design, and decorative arts, her pieces are a perfect example of the sort of work CSA programs make available: accessible, well-made, one-of-a-kind, and directly from the studio of a nationally recognized artist, with no middleman.

Nine pieces of this caliber by nine great Florida-based artists for only $450 is a real bargain – a great way to either begin an art collection, or add to the one you’ve already started.

It’s really easy to get involved. For more information, contact Dominique Breard at 786-347-2360 or dominique@legalartmiami.org. Or you can click here and buy a share.  The delivery of your art will take place in three monthly deliveries. Starting in February, each delivery will be held at a different location, where you will be able to meet the artists included in your share.

Help support the great art scene that makes Miami a national destination for artists! Only a few shares remain, so sign up for CSA today.

By Alejandra Serna, Florida Grand Opera

Verdi’s Rigoletto, one of the world’s most beloved operas, centers on a lurid plot of lust and revenge. Yet, even the darkest story has a soft glimmer of light. In this smash-hit production by Florida Grand Opera, light comes to the stage in the form of Rigoletto’s innocent daughter, Gilda, brilliantly portrayed by Ft. Lauderdale native Nadine Sierra.

The 23-year-old soprano does an outstanding job as the beautiful, convent-raised daughter of the despised court jester, Rigoletto. Not only does she embody the angelic character to perfection, but also sings the part to critical acclaim. Nothing describes her performance better than this review from the Sun Sentinel:“The respiration-stopping moment occurred when Nadine Sierra, as the title character’s daughter, lies on her back to wax romantically about her new-found love in the aria ‘Caro nome.’ Her trilling up and down the scale gently exhaled notes into the air above her as if she was playfully keeping a feather aloft above her with every breath.”

Nadine Sierra as Gilda and Mark Walter as Rigoletto. photo by Gaston de Cardenas, Florida Grand Opera

Sierra began her operatic training at 14 years of age, when she joined Palm Beach Opera’s young artist program, making her debut as the Sandman in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. She continued her education at the Mannes College of Music in New York and Music Academy of the West, becoming the youngest person to receive the Marilyn Horne Foundation Award. In 2009, she achieved the high honor of becoming a Grand Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera’s prestigious National Council Auditions and won first prize in the junior division of the Young Patronesses of the Opera/Florida Grand Opera Voice Competition.

Next up for Sierra is the prestigious stage at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, where she will perform on May 11, 2012. The young singer is well on her way to realizing a life-long dream that began at the age of 10 with a VHS recording of the Metropolitan Opera’s Madame Butterfly.

“I wanted to create that kind of magic on stage. There is so much beauty and pain that goes into performing … you touch people’s hearts with this glorious music, [but] you also leave a part of yourself behind,” said Sierra in an interview with Uptempo Magazine.

Sierra continues to sing the role of Gilda in Rigoletto at the Adrienne Arsht Center through Feb. 11 and then at the Broward Center through Feb. 18. For date and ticket information, please visit the Florida Grand Opera website or follow the company on Twitter and Facebook.

By Susan Jedrzejewski, McColl Center for Visual Art

As one of McColl Center for Visual Art’s Knight Artists-in-Residence, Margarita Cabrera is currently conducting her community outreach project entitled Space In Between. In conjunction with FLORESCA, a corporation founded by the artist in 2010, she has invited members of the Charlotte-based immigrant community to collaborate in a sewing and embroidery workshop. The title derives from the term “neplanta,” which, in the Nahuatl Aztec language, connotes the “space in the middle.” It refers to “marginalized cultures and their resistance strategies of survival;” thus serving as a key concept in interpreting the work produced in the workshop.

Carbrera works with Latin American immigrants in the Charlotte community during a sewing and embroidery workshop.

In Space In Between, Cabrera works with a group of local immigrants to create sculptural replicas of desert plants indigenous to the most frequently traveled route of immigration into the United States. Because many of these journeys are made by foot, the relationship between man and the natural environment becomes particularly significant in the greater scope of the work. Using border control uniforms to construct the plant leaves, the sculptures render the officers as important fixtures in the American landscape while simultaneously questioning their authority. Employing the traditional mural techniques of Tenango de Doria in Hidalgo, Mexico, each leaf is embroidered with colorful imagery, such as vegetation, religious icons and even some personal symbols. Whether interpreted individually or as a group, the narratives evoke the immigrant’s transformative experience. The work produced becomes a hybridized depiction of fine art, as the method of craft is elevated to high art status.

Cabrera in her studio at McColl Center for Visual Art

The project aims to build cultural bridges through working with immigrants on American soil while using a craft informed by Mexican tradition. Cabrera hopes that by bringing them into cultural conversation, she may impart an understanding about these social issues.