Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia Finalists Announced

The Knight Foundation today announced the 55 finalists in the Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia. These applications were chosen from the 1,267 application submitted. The ideas cover a huge range, and were submitted by arts organizations of all disciplines and sizes, as well as by many individual artists and creative business-people.

Collectively the ideas represent a great expression of the creative energy and entrepreneurial spirit in Philadelphia. With I think maybe one exception (Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra?), this is a totally new group of organizations and individuals from those selected last year. Would love to see ALL these projects happen, but each of these finalists now goes to the next round where they must submit a full proposal. If last year is a guide, roughly half of these projects will actually be funded.

The group ranges from pretty large scale - the Janet Echelman public art piece that will be integrated into the new Dilworth Plaza design - to an individual who proposes to create a micro-grant program for artists, to projects targeting such immigrant populations as Lao, Liberian and Latino.

You can access the full list of finalists here. Congratulations to all of them!

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