Fifty-five finalists were announced last week for the
Knights Arts Challenge Philadelphia, a three-year, $9 million community-wide funding contest for the most innovative local ideas in the arts.
Not surprisingly, there is a wide range of projects in the running. They stretch from Norris Square and East Kensington to Center City. They celebrate African, Latino and Asian culture. They are large organizations like Campus Philly and individuals like Katarina Dudas. Thirty-six winners will be chosen by the spring, the second round of funding after last year's debut.
"The diversity of finalists proves that good ideas really can come from anywhere," says Donna Frisby-Greenwood, Philadelphia program director for the Knight Foundation. "We're seeing ideas from across our many neighborhoods taht we believe will help bring us together through the arts."
The challenge is open to anyone with a great idea about the arts in or benefiting Philadelphia who can find funds to match Knight's commitment. Here's a complete list of finalists:
Artists and Musicians of Latin America
To cultivate new audiences for Latin Jazz by presenting "pop-up" performances of local artists using a portable stage
Arden Theatre Company
To diversify artistic offerings by presenting theater performances alongside the dozens of gallery events during Old City’s monthly First Fridays
Art Sanctuary
To celebrate two art forms that use the human voice to tell profound stories by creating a “Hip H’Opera” using the stories of urban life
Asian Arts Initiative
To provide everyday artistic experiences in Chinatown and South Philadelphia by creating site-specific works for nontraditional places like restaurants, storefronts and public plazas
Bearded Ladies Cabaret
To attract new audiences to theater – and use the medium as a way to explore politics, gender, sexuality and identity – through a series of original, late night cabarets
Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra
To showcase diverse cultures by transforming a symphonic “pops” concert into a celebration of world music
Brandywine Workshop
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of this printmaking institution by commissioning 10 emerging and established artists to create prints
Campus Philly
To foster a lifelong appreciation of the arts by offering free or discounted admission to venues and performances for college students
Catzie Vilayphonh
To promote storytelling within the Lao-American community through a writing, performing and filmmaking workshop
Center City District
To help transform historic Dilworth Plaza by commissioning internationally recognized sculptor Janet Echelman to create an artwork inspired by the site’s historic association with water and steam
Center City Opera Theater
To attract more Hispanics to the opera by launching a Spanish-language opera festival featuring a new piece by a Philadelphia-based Hispanic composer
Center for Emerging Visual Artists
To bring visual art to a wider audience by placing locally produced art in public advertising spaces in the same neighborhood where the piece was produced
Chestnut Hill Friends Meetinghouse Project
To spark dialogue about contemporary art by incorporating the work of internationally acclaimed light artist James Turrell into a new Quaker meetinghouse that is open to all
Community Cultural Exchange
To bring the South Street business district together through music and culture by introducing family-friendly street performances to the area
COSACOSA art at large
To transform overgrown and abandoned spaces into “sacred” art parks for the community by engaging residents to create visual and sound gardens in the Niceville-Tioga neighborhood
Crane Arts
To raise the international profile of local artists by organizing an artist and exhibition exchange between Crane Arts and London’s V22 Collection
David Clayton
To help residents fully experience the city’s two main waterways by creating a floating workstation along the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers where artists can interpret and explore the surroundings
Delaware River Waterfront Corporation
To use world rhythms – from cowbells to congas, beat-boxing to Bhangra – to learn about cultures at an interactive music and dance festival
Erica Hawthorne
To give a boost to local artists by creating a mini grant program to help cover their costs with awards ranging from $50 to $1,000
Fleisher Art Memorial
To engage the community in hands-on art making by expanding the reach of a mobile studio where participants create projects inspired by their neighborhoods
Franklin’s Paine Skatepark Fund
To help transform neighborhoods by turning blacktop lots into art-laden skate parks
Geoffrey Johnson
To foster appreciation for public art by covering publically displayed statues in the city for a month – and then unveiling them with fan fare at a festival
GoKash Productions
To promote original plays through a free theater festival dedicated to the contemporary African-American experience
Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation
To engage new audiences in the visual arts by launching With Art Philadelphia, a two-year joint marketing program that includes late-night happenings for younger audiences at local museums
Iron Age Theatre
To create new performing arts experiences through a series of live-streamed, mini movies that patrons can watch throughout the city by scanning QR codes on their cellphones
Katarina Dudas
To develop the next generation of visual artists by pairing children with local artists to create site-specific environmental art in the Kensington community
Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
To engage new audiences in the performing arts by creating a residency program in the Kimmel Center’s black box theater for innovative and emerging art groups
Little Berlin
To help transform the East Kensington neighborhood by turning an empty lot into an event space for musicians, art fairs and children’s workshops
Moore College of Art & Design
To introduce the work of local visual artists and filmmakers to a wider audience by establishing an urban drive-in movie theater on the Parkway
Music Row Philadelphia
To support emerging musicians and create a destination for live music by fostering the growth of music venues along Girard Avenue
Musicopia
To empower and inspire Philadelphia’s youth by providing them with weekly drumming lessons and performing opportunities
Norris Square Neighborhood Project
To preserve local Latino culture in North Philadelphia by creating a sound booth to record stories that will be featured in podcasts
Orchestra 2001
To celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by presenting a new concerto based on the civil rights leader’s life and featuring local performers
Partners for Sacred Places
To expand the capacity of the city’s theater community by providing a new space for theater designers and visual artists at a decommissioned church
Philadelphia Art Alliance
To re-imagine public space and civic life by organizing an all-night, free arts festival based on the Nuit Blanche/Bring to Light events in Paris, New York, Miami and other cities
Philadelphia Photo Arts Center
To encourage broader audience participation in the city’s visual arts by expanding “Philly Photo Day,” where the community is invited to take and submit a picture that is ultimately used in an exhibition
Philadelphia Theatre Company
To use the theater as a way to examine the United States’ education system with a work that actor/journalist Anna Deavere Smith will create during a two-year residency
Philadelphia Youth Media Collaborative
To support the emerging creative underground in Philadelphia by establishing a festival that highlights the next generation of filmmakers, visual artists, musicians and performers
Phillyjazz.org
To foster the development of local jazz artists by formalizing mentor relationships between established and younger musicians, where the elders teach life lessons, and emerging artists offer tips on using new media
RAIR, Inc.
To create awareness about sustainability through art and design by establishing a yearlong series of projects that allow local artists to experiment with recycled materials
Scribe Video Center
To explore the city’s relationship to mass transit by publicly displaying multiple digital video works in high traffic public sites
Sean Stoops
To support an innovative form of 3D storytelling by creating a series of outdoor video art events screened on local buildings
Sharon Torello
To engage younger audiences in classical music through the creation of a group with membership benefits that include discount ticketing and unique social gatherings
Sojourner Ahebee
To further cultural understanding by facilitating youth-led poetry workshops for Liberian teenage girls in Philadelphia and Liberia
Swim Pony Performing Arts
To weave the arts into the community by presenting revamped versions of plays in non-traditional spaces, including Eastern State Penitentiary and the Land Conservancy of Elkins Park
The Brothers Network
To introduce more diverse audiences to the performing arts by creating a multidisciplinary festival that features black male choreographers, filmmakers, actors, writers and composers
The Clay Studio
To explore the relevance of handmade ceramic objects in the 21st century by providing a handmade mug to people leaving coffee shops with disposable cups and encouraging them to post about their experiences on the Web
The Crossing
To introduce a wider audience to contemporary chamber music by establishing a series of new works designed specifically for a nontraditional venue – the recently restored Crane Arts’ Icebox
The Fabric Workshop and Museum
To create a new sculpture series by artist Daniel Arsham at the museum that will debut along with a live performance and explore the boundaries between the galleries and theater
The Hacktory
To promote the use of technology in the arts by developing a corps of interactive artist teachers who will share their knowledge and expertise in programming and engineering with Philadelphia artists
The University of the Arts
To promote economic stability for the city’s cultural community by offering support to emerging creative businesses with pre-seed funding, mentorships programs and workshops
The Village of Arts and Humanities
To develop young people’s awareness of the city’s vibrant cultural scene through interactive scavenger hunts led by local artists
The Wilma Theater
To enhance training for local actors by creating a series of master classes
University City District
To establish a new outlet for public art that showcases temporary installations to the city’s tens of thousands of daily commuters
Vic Reznik
To help promote the city’s cinematic identity by commissioning emerging filmmakers from Philadelphia to produce shorts for a new, local film festival