Knight Arts Challenge

 nominees on  Phila Art Museum steps

Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. It is the belief of the founders that democracy thrives when people and their communities are both informed and engaged. Since 2007, Knight has invested more than $100 million in new technologies and techniques, including in more than 200 community news and information experiments. The Knights Arts Challenge was open to anyone with a great idea for the arts.  There were only three caveats.  The idea must be about the arts. The project must take place in or benefit the city of Philadelphia and the recipients must find funds to match the Knight’s commitment. With over 1260 submissions, the 2012 winners represent a wide range of  creative thinkers. Thirty five ideas for the arts in Philadelphia have received a total of $2.76 million as winners of the 2012 Knight Arts Challenge. The challenge began in Miami in 2008. Philadelphia is only the second city to which Knight has offered this program. There were a myriad of ideas and prizes ran the gamut from a $10,000 award to Little Berlin to help transform the East Kensington neighborhood by turning an empty lot into an event space for musicians, arts fairs and children’s workshops to the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation’s $350,000 award to engage younger audiences in the visual arts through a series of simultaneous late-night happenings at three of Philadelphia’s premier art museums. The Arden Theatre Company was awarded $50,000 to diversify artistic offerings by presenting multidisciplinary performances alongside gallery events during Old City’s monthly First Fridays. Congratulations to all thirty-five winning recipients of the Knight Arts Challenge. Dennis Scholl, Knight Foundation's vice president for the arts specified, “We hope the Knight Arts Challenge and its winners provide an added spark that inspires the community to build a better future together.”