Knight Foundation supports WPBT2/Community Television Foundation of South Florida to produce original content about the regional arts scene. Below, Cammy Richards, director of communications for WPBT2, writes about the anniversary of the series “Art Loft,” which first aired Feb. 5, 2013, and a new series of profiles.

Funding from Knight Foundation, both old and new, is helping us broaden our storytelling. With an eye on the emerging local arts community we are looking at this critical time to both promote and preserve the moment.

Our weekly series “Art Loft” celebrates its anniversary on Feb. 5. It’s been a full year of documenting South Florida’s arts scene that’s also provided honors for our efforts.  The Suncoast Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awarded “Art Loft” with its first Emmy Award in the arts/entertainment program category for 2013. Paired with our recent Knight Arts Challenge award to commission short films about emerging artists, we plan to build on this foundation to connect artists and their work to the South Florida community.

The Emmy-winning episode included segments on the inaugural Humphrey Bogart Film Festival in Key Largo, a profile of artist Theaster Gates (produced by Knight Foundation during Gates’ installation at Locust Projects), Sweat Record’s annual Sweatstock Festival and an entry from the Borscht Film Festival called “A Toast (to Miami).” 

In its first year, “Art Loft” introduced its audience to some of the leading artists and art organizations who are shaping South Florida’s cultural scene, including many Knight Arts Challenge winners. Sometimes provocative, sometimes challenging, the stories we are able to tell bring our viewers closer to the minds of the artists, inside the artistic process, and encourage the community to experience art on their own.

The “Art Loft” production team includes Neal Hecker, chief content officer; Kandra Velez, producer; Yoandy Vidal, videographer/editor; and host Kalyn James.

But “Art Loft” is just one of the ways we’re helping South Florida stay abreast of what’s happening in local art. We recently received a $50,000 Knight Arts Challenge grant to provide more exposure for the region’s artists and to document our growing art scene. We plan to create a series of program-length profiles of 20 prominent local artists younger than 40. With the help of an advisory board, the project will pair local artists working in film and video production with subjects who embody the momentum in Miami’s arts scene. We hope this effort begins a long-running series that archives this moment in our history and can be shown by other public stations across the country. 

“We see this project as the next level for the arts community to tell their own story of the exciting growth of arts and culture in South Florida,” Hecker said. “The profiles will give South Florida a chance to meet some of the artists who are shaping the cultural future of the region and the world.”

To watch previous episodes of “Art Loft,” visit www.wpbt2.org/artloft.

Funding for “Art Loft” is made possible with support from Knight Foundation; Newman’s Own Foundation; Alvah H. & Wyline P. Chapman Foundation; Monroe County Tourist Development Council; and the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.