upcoming grant deadline: 05/15/2024
Knight Arts Challenge Winners promote wide range of creativity; bring art to neighborhood and unexpected places
PHILADELPHIA – April 23, 2012 – Thirty-five ideas for the arts in Philadelphia will receive $2.76 million as winners of the 2012 Knight Arts Challenge.
Now in its second year, the community-wide challenge funds the best ideas for engaging and enriching Philadelphia through the arts.
Emerging from more than 1,260 submissions, the 2012 winners represent a wide range of Philadelphia’s creative thinkers, including artists Erica Hawthorne and Sean Stoops, small organizations like the Bearded Ladies Cabaret and the Little Berlin collective, and established institutions with innovative ideas.
“The cities that succeed, that offer the greatest quality of life, view every single person as a creative being,” said Dennis Scholl, Knight Foundation’s vice president for arts. “We hope the Knight Arts Challenge and its winners provide an added spark that inspires the community to build a better future together.”
A full list of winners is available here.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter declared April 23 Knight Arts Challenge Day in recognition of the initiative’s impact and its support for a broad spectrum of the creative community.
To date, 71 ideas have been awarded $5.4 million. A third round of the Knight Arts Challenge will open in the fall.
“We asked the community for their best ideas – and received an overwhelming response, showing the strength of this city’s creative community,” said Donna Frisby-Greenwood, Philadelphia program director for Knight Foundation.
The Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia is open to anyone with a great idea for the arts. The challenge has just three rules: 1) The idea must be about the arts, 2) the project must take place in or benefit Philadelphia and 3) the grant recipients must find funds to match Knight’s commitment.
The Knight Arts Challenge began in 2008 in Miami, where the initiative is now in its fifth year. Philadelphia is the second city to which Knight has offered this program.
The Leeway Grantees are:
Jeri Lynne Johnson (LTA ’09, ACG ’07)
Project: Black Pearl Pops!
Recipient: Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra
Award: $50,000
To showcase diverse cultures by transforming a symphonic “pops” concert into a celebration of world music.
Catzie Vilayphonh (LTA ’10, ACG ’10)
Project: Laos in the House: Voices from Four Decades of the Lao Diaspora
Recipient: Catzie Vilayphonh
Award: $25,000
To promote storytelling within the Lao-American community through a writing, performance and filmmaking workshop.
About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. We believe that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.
Join a member of the Leeway staff for a one-to-one virtual application support session.
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