Guitarist and composer, Mesut Özgen, who graduated with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in guitar performance, was recognized as one of the Knight Arts Challenge award winners at the Knight Foundation's ninth annual celebration at the New World Center in Miami Beach on November 28, 2016. Özgen founded the Miami International GuitART Festival at the Florida International University School of Music, where he is the director of guitar studies, in February 2016.

After the success of MIGF in its first year, Özgen will be awarded a $55,000 grant from Knight Foundation, as part of its Knight Arts Challenge, to honor Miami's Cuban heritage by dedicating the Miami International GuitART Festival to Cuban music and creating cultural exchanges between Havana and Miami guitar orchestras. In addition to the Knight Arts Challenge, Özgen and the MIGF have also been awarded an Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

More Arts, humanities and education

 

Man speaking behind lectern to group of male inmates wearing orange jumpsuits

ASU professor, Arizona inmate work to rehabilitate the 'imprisoned mind'

An Arizona State University professor has collaborated with an Arizona inmate on a book that examines why investing in healing…

Two men gaze upon a screen displaying points of moving white light.

Illuminating legacy at ASU

In 2020, the ASU Art Museum unveiled a groundbreaking installation, "Point Cloud (ASU)," by renowned artist Leo Villareal. The…

High school students working together with colored post-its at a table in a classroom

Name change for ASU's Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College reflects college's mission

Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College has a new name: the Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning…