BIG UPS: 2012 Knight Foundation Arts Challenge winners

Ice Cube columnist A.D. Amorosi with a list of this year's Knight Arts Challenge winners.

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BIG UPS: 2012 Knight Foundation Arts Challenge winners

POSTED: Wednesday, April 25, 2012, 10:00 AM

Filed Under: Arts | Big Ups

Left to right: Georgia Guthrie (The Hacktory), Lucas Rivera (AMLA), Sarah Stolfa (Philadelphia Photo Arts Center), John Jarboe (The Bearded Ladies Cabaret)

A lot of artists made a lot of money at the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Monday night and they didn’t have to hang things on the wall. The Knight Foundation Arts Challenge, which has already bestowed some $5.4 million in grants, dropped another $2.76 million on local arts organizations on Monday. Thirty-five local winners selected from some 1,200-plus submissions got cash from Donna Frisby-Greenwood, Knight Philadelphia program director.

Some were individual artists with singular goals. Yellow Rage poet/performance artist Catzie Vilayphonh got $25K for “Laos in the House,” a Lao-American writing/performance/filmmaking workshop. Installation artist/videographer Sean Stoops got $20K for creating video events and projections on buildings and random stages.

Some winners were larger companies and arts organizations. The Arden Theatre got $50K to present performances along with gallery events on First Fridays. The Asian Arts Initiative got $45K to create site-specific art installations for nontraditional local hot spots. The Bearded Ladies Cabaret got $30K to further its cabaret series into late-night affairs. The Art Sanctuary snagged $100K to develop their Hip H’Opera.

The complete list:

Project: Arden Festival Fridays
Recipient: Arden Theatre Company
Award: $50,000
Mission: To diversify artistic offerings by presenting multidisciplinary performances alongside gallery events during Old City’s monthly First Fridays

Project: AMLA Flash Jazz Mobile
Recipient: Artists and Musicians of Latin America
Award: $35,000
Mission: To cultivate new audiences for Latin jazz by presenting “pop-up” performances by local artists using a portable stage

Project: Hip H’Opera
Recipient: Art Sanctuary
Award: $100,000
Mission: 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

Project: Neighborhood Spotlight Series
Recipient: Asian Arts Initiative
Award: $45,000
Mission: To provide everyday artistic experiences by creating site-specific works for nontraditional places like restaurants, storefronts and public plazas

Project: Bearded Ladies Cabaret Revolution
Recipient: Bearded Ladies Cabaret
Award: $30,000
Mission: To attract new audiences to theater – using the medium to explore social issues with sparkle – through a series of original, late-night cabarets

Project: Black Pearl Pops!
Recipient: Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra
Award: $50,000
Mission: To showcase diverse cultures by transforming a symphonic “pops” concert into a celebration of world music

Project: Campus Philly’s Passport to the Arts
Recipient: Campus Philly
Award: $100,000
Mission: To foster a lifelong appreciation of the arts by offering free or discounted admission to venues and performances for college students

Project: Laos in the House: Voices from Four Decades of the Lao Diaspora
Recipient: Catzie Vilayphonh
Award: $25,000
Mission: To promote storytelling within the Lao-American community through a writing, performance and filmmaking workshop

Project: New Public Art at Dilworth Plaza
Recipient: Center City District
Award: $400,000
Mission: 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

Project: In the Light: A Skyspace by James Turrell
Recipient: Chestnut Hill Friends Meetinghouse Project
Award: $80,000
Mission: To offer visitors a contemplative art space by incorporating the work of internationally acclaimed light artist James Turrell into a new facility

Project: Site and Sound Gardens
Recipient: COSACOSA art at large
Award: $75,000
Mission: To transform abandoned spaces into “sacred” art parks for the community by engaging residents to create visual and sound gardens in the Nicetown-Tioga neighborhood

Project: Small-But-Mighty Arts Grant
Recipient: Erica Hawthorne
Award: $60,000
Mission: To give a boost to local artists by creating a mini grant program to help finance their art making with awards ranging from $50 to $1,000

Project: ColorWheels: Delivering Creativity to Your Community
Recipient: Fleisher Art Memorial
Award: $50,000
Mission: 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

Project: Skateable City
Recipient: Franklin’s Paine Skatepark Fund
Award: $100,000
Mission: To help transform West Philadelphia neighborhoods by turning blacktop lots into art-laden skate parks

Project: Philly Urban Theatre Festival
Recipient: GoKash Productions
Award: $20,000
Mission: To promote original plays through a free theater festival dedicated to multicultural themes

Project: Midnight Madness
Recipient: Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation
Award: $350,000
Mission: To engage younger audiences in the visual arts through a series of simultaneous late-night happenings at three of Philadelphia’s premier art museums

Project: Underground Residencies at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
Recipient: Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
Award: $150,000
Mission: 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

Project: Little Berlin Fairgrounds
Recipient: Little Berlin
Award: $10,000
Mission: To help transform the East Kensington neighborhood by turning an empty lot into an event space for musicians, art fairs and children’s workshops

Project: Urban Drive-In with DIY Food Culture
Recipient: The Galleries at Moore College of Art & Design
Award: $20,000
Mission: To introduce the work of local visual artists and filmmakers to a wider audience by establishing an outdoor independent film series on the Parkway

Project: Drum Line
Recipient: Musicopia
Award: $90,000
Mission: To empower and inspire Philadelphia’s youth through their participation in an indoor percussion ensemble by providing weekly drumming lessons and performing opportunities

Project: New Music Celebrations of the Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Recipient: Orchestra 2001
Award: $40,000
Mission: To celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Orchestra 2001 will present a concert featuring a new concerto based on the civil rights leader’s life

Project: Philadelphia Theatrical Design Center
Recipient: Partners for Sacred Places
Award: $180,000
Mission: To expand the capacity of the city’s theater community by providing a new space for theater designers and visual artists at a re-purposed local church

Project: Bring to Light: Philadelphia
Recipient: Philadelphia Photo Arts Center
Award: $35,000
Mission: To encourage broader audience participation in the city’s visual arts by expanding Philly Photo Day, where everyone is invited to take a picture on the same day for an exhibition

Project: Animated Architecture: 3D Video Mapping Projections on Historic Sites
Recipient: Sean Stoops
Award: $20,000
Mission: To support an innovative form of 3D digital animation by creating site-specific video art events screened on local buildings

Project: Outside The (Black) Box
Recipient: Swim Pony Performing Arts
Award: $50,000
Mission: To weave the arts into the community by presenting original, contemporary plays in nontraditional spaces, including Eastern State Penitentiary and the Academy of Natural Sciences

Project: Henry “Box” Brown - The Escape Artist
Recipient: The Brothers Network
Award: $25,000
Mission: To introduce diverse audiences to the performing arts by creating a multidisciplinary festival that features black men as thinkers, artists, choreographers, dancers, composers and more

Project: Made in Philly
Recipient: The Center for Emerging Visual Artists
Award: $25,000
Mission: 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

Project: Guerilla Mug Assault
Recipient: The Clay Studio
Award: $15,000
Mission: To explore the relevance of handmade ceramic objects in the 21st century by providing a handmade mug to people leaving coffee shops and encouraging them to post about their experiences on the Web

Project: Performances at the Icebox
Recipient: The Crossing
Award: $50,000
Mission: To introduce a wider audience to contemporary choral music by establishing a series of new works designed specifically for a nontraditional venue – the recently restored Crane Arts’ Icebox

Project: Daniel Arsham: Performative Architecture
Recipient: The Fabric Workshop and Museum
Award: $80,000
Mission: To create a sculptural intervention by artist Daniel Arsham within The Fabric Workshop and Museum that will include a live performance to explore the boundaries between museum and theatrical spaces

Project: Corps of Interactive Artist Teachers
Recipient: The Hacktory
Award: $40,000
Mission: To promote the use of technology in the arts by developing an intensive tech/art curriculum for local artists who will share their knowledge with Philadelphia students

Project: Creative Incubator
Recipient: The University of the Arts
Award: $120,000
Mission: To promote economic stability for the city’s cultural community by offering support to emerging creative businesses with pre-seed funding, mentorship programs and workshops

Project: ARTward Bound: a creative orienteering adventure
Recipient: The Village of Arts and Humanities
Award: $60,000
Mission: To develop young people’s awareness of the city’s vibrant cultural scene through interactive scavenger hunts led by local artists

Project: Creating a Common Artistic Voice
Recipient: The Wilma Theater
Award: $60,000
Mission: To enhance training for local actors by creating a series of master classes

Project: A Permanent Place for Temporary Art in University City
Recipient: University City District
Award: $120,000
Mission: To establish a new outlet for public art that showcases temporary installations at The Porch at 30th Street Station

For more detailed project descriptions, visit knightarts.org.

Photo by Susan Beard

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