By Taylor Waller

On October 20, the Knight Foundation announced $5 million in funding as part of a new Knight Cities Challenge program. Two of the 29 grantees will use grant dollars for programs in the Wichita area: The Mid-America Arts Alliance and the University of Vermont’s Center for Community News. 

Knight awarded both organizations $200,000.

The Mid-America Arts Alliance, which is based in Kansas City, Missouri, will use grant funds to “build a stronger, more coordinated voice for the arts,” said Claire Pfitzinger, communications manager for the Knight Foundation, in an email.

The goal of Engage Wichita: Arts Advocacy in Action is to bring participating Wichita organizations into an aligned arts force that shares resources and advocates for public support of Wichita arts and culture, according to its website.

“This program will give Wichita’s arts organizations the skills and shared voice to educate their communities about the impact of the arts, speaking as a united sector that belongs at the table alongside the city’s civic and economic priorities,” said Carris Adams, MAA’s director of organizational services, in a press release.

Engage Wichita is part of a broader program that provides assistance to arts and culture leaders in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Texas.

The University of Vermont’s Center for Community News will build 10 “university student-powered news programs” to support local media ecosystems in Knight cities, including Wichita. 

CCN helps university and local news outlets foster partnerships that expand coverage and give students a chance to work in the field.

The Knight Foundation funds programs in cities that once had a newspaper owned by the Knight Ridder media company. Earlier this year, Knight issued a call for applications for “community-driven ideas” that strengthen local information ecosystems, expand economic opportunity, and deepen community connection through arts and culture. 

A 2017 Knight Cities Challenge grant funded Horizontes, a project led by Armando Minjarez that commissioned artists to paint murals in Wichita’s predominantly Latino North End and predominately Black northeast neighborhoods. The project included “El Sueño Original” (“The Original Dream”), a massive mural painted by Columbian artist GLeo on the Beachner Grain Elevator in Wichita’s industrial corridor.  

Other Knight cities receiving funds from this grant round include Boulder, Colorado, Grand Fords, South Dakota, Duluth, Minnesota, and Detroit.

For the Boulder Flipside program, the Boulder County Arts Alliance, the City of Boulder Office of Arts and Culture, and Community Foundation Boulder County will collaborate to activate storefronts during the Sundance Film Festival. 

Two programs will work to preserve culture in Detroit. Detroit Hives will transform vacant lots into sustainable natural spaces for both pollinators and humans. A Detroit Sound Conservancy project will rehabilitate the Blue Bird Inn, “an epicenter of creative expression and schoolhouse of the Detroit sound.” 

In a media release, Knight said it received more than 3,000 applications for the first of two rounds of grant funding. The foundation plans for a second $5 million round. 

Learn more about the 2026 Knight Cities Challenge grant recipients and their programs on the Knight Foundation website.

Taylor Waller is a mixed-media artist, an art historian, a museum professional, a journalist, and the digital editor for The SHOUT. They love sharing stories about the art that helps people imagine a better existence and inspires change.

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