Miami – The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation today announced the finalists in an experimental arts contest designed to help transform the South Florida Community.

The 77 finalists in the Knight Arts Partnership contest include painters, performance artists, symphony orchestras and high schools. They rose above a field of 1,643 contestants. Knight Foundation will announce the winners in fall. They stand to receive a total of $4 million in matching arts grants.

“Think of this contest as an experiment to connect with talent, create great art and, ultimately, transform our community,” said Alberto Ibargüen, president and CEO of Knight Foundation. “A turnout of more than 1,600 applicants and the range of ideas represented among the 77 finalists make me optimistic that this new mechanism may actually work.”

The complete list of finalists is below.

The Knight Arts Partnership contest offers the South Florida arts community $20 million in matching grant money over the next 5 years. There are only three rules: the ideas must be about art, the projects must take place in South Florida, and the idea must find funding to match Knight’s $20 million commitment.

About Knight Foundation

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes journalism excellence worldwide and invests in the vitality of 26 communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation supports ideas and projects that create transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.

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• Arsht Center for the Performing Arts
  • Create a weeklong, Art Basel-like Hemisphere Festival celebrating performance arts.
• GableStage
  • Introduce students and their families to the universal and timeless messages in theater through free weekend performances across the county.
• Miami Light Project
  • Expand the Here & Now Festival to develop more original, locally produced performance art.
• Naomi Fisher
  • Design outdoor performance art projects featuring Miami’s unique landscape incorporating dance, film and photography.
• Oleg Kheyfets
  • Bring great stage performances outdoors through the Miami Festival of Outdoor Theatre.
• Tarell McCraney
  • Create the Winter in the Park festival featuring free, open-air performances in downtown Miami.

• 9.5 Fingers/Submarino
  • Produce Submarino, a feature film comedy about three post-Mariel Cuban engineers in the 1980s who try to leave Cuba by building a submarine out of scrap parts. 
• Broward County Film Society
  • Celebrate diverse cultures with “Around the World in 80 Nights,” a festival screening free films from 80 countries over 80 nights.
• Clifton Childree
  • Produce Chicken Foot, the final piece of a trilogy of dark comedy feature films.
• Florida Film Institute Inc.
  • Develop next-generation Oscar winners by providing hands-on workshops to middle and high school students.
• IndieMia
  • Create an organization to unite and support local filmmakers.
• Kareen Tabsch
  • Give a home to cutting-edge films in Miami by establishing an art-house cinema.
• Patrick de Bokay
  • Make Miami a hub of global cinema through an institute that will attract top filmmakers to work with local film industry talent.
• WPBT/Channel 2 and Good Cop Bad Cop Productions
  • Cultivate the growth of the professional film industry in Miami by establishing a film incubator akin to the studio system.

• ArtCenter/South Florida
  • Create a publicly accessible, state-of-the-art computer center for the arts.
• Artformz LLC
  • Bring together 10 celebrated artists to create a first-of-its-kind outdoor exhibit of giant, inflatable sculptures.
• Bas Fisher Invitational
  • Support free gallery space to promote young, unrepresented artists.
• Bass Museum of Art
  • Exhibit the works of Cuban-born painter Cundo Bermudez.
• Boca Museum of Art
  • Create an Artmobile – a mobile museum to bring art directly to public schools.
• Ceramic League of Miami
  • Expand outreach, classes and programs for one of the oldest arts organizations in South Florida.
• City of Miami
  • Develop EsplanArt, an open-air sculpture garden featuring public art along Miami’s waterfront.
• City of Miami Beach
  • Create a public sculpture park through a series of permanent installations.
• ConservArt Inc.
  • Create an art conservation center in South Florida.
• Design and Architecture Senior High
  • Help high school students “take a parking lot and put up a paradise” – a public art space.
• Erin-Marie Wallace
  • Help patrons to navigate Gallery Nights in greater Miami’s four main arts districts through poster maps.
• Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs
  • Increase access to the county’s art in public places through digital technology.
• The Moore Space
  • Expand a residency program allowing Miami artists to live and work overseas and bringing international artists to Miami.
• New World School of the Arts
  • Create ARTSEEN, a space dedicated to student artists in the Wynwood Arts District.
• The Patricia and Philip Frost Art Museum
  • Install a permanent exhibition of figurative art at the only museum space located in West Dade.
• Paul Wiseman
  • Bring art to students on the lunch trays in public school cafeterias.
• Philip Brooker
  • Create a distinctive annual poster for the City of Miami through a competition.
• Rubell Family Collection
  • Expand a visual arts job training and placement program for local students.
• Rubell Family Collection
  • Open the Collection’s contemporary art library to the general public.
• Scott Murray
  • Provide emerging artists space to display their works during Art Basel.
• Shulman + Associates
  • Design a print and digital Miami Metropolis Map to showcase the city’s architectural history.
• Trendy Studio LLC
  • Celebrate graffiti art in the Wynwood Arts District with the Street Art Awards.
• University of Miami School of Architecture
  • Display, discuss and publish the architectural renderings of a plan to connect the public waterfront spaces in downtown Miami.
• Young At Art
  • Expand the Young At Art Children’s Museum, an art museum uniquely aimed at children.

• Chris Chrebet
  • Establish a competition for electronic music composers.
• Concert Association of Florida
  • Create a Miami Summer Pops series.
• Concert Association of Florida
  • Create an affordable Young People’s classical music concert series.
• Arsht Center for the Performing Arts
  • Present free, late-night live performances targeted at young audiences.
• Arsht Center for the Performing Arts
  • Create “Jazz Roots,” an in-depth concert series and education program.
• Arsht Center for the Performing Arts
  • Present free performances by local and national gospel artists.
•  Gold Coast Jazz Society
  • Establish First Friday Jazz Jam, a monthly live performance where students play alongside professionals.
• Miami Beach Cultural Arts Alliance
  • Establish an annual Lincoln Road Gospelfest.
• Miami Downtown Development Authority
  • Create a new downtown concert series.
• Miami Lyric Opera
  • Help an established presenter of affordable opera expand its presentations.
• Miami Music Project
  • Develop an annual “Lausanne” style music festival and orchestra, featuring a year-round classical music education program.
• Sant La
  • Create a Haitian musical concert series.
• Seraphic Fire
  • Create youth choirs in greater Miami neighborhoods.
• The South Florida Boys Choir Inc.
  • Recruit local children to participate in classical, gospel, and pop musical experiences.
• St. Martha Concerts
  • Expand the grassroots St. Martha concert series to wider audiences.
• WDNA 88.9 FM
  • Launch a Miami tropical jazz festival.
• WholeProject
  • Form a Miami-based center for electronic music.

• AMS Planning and Research
  • Develop a pilot project to research the impact of performance art centers on local communities using the Arsht and Broward centers as examples.
• ArtsUnited Inc.
  • Establish a gay and lesbian literary arts festival.
• Back9 Inc.
  • Support the work of contemporary artists at the Upper Eastside Garden.
• Carlisle Development
  • Combine public art with affordable housing through an artists’ residence program.
• City of Miami
  • Convert a historic, abandoned firehouse into a cultural hub.
• City of Miami Beach
  • Expand the annual “Sleepless Night” celebration to new audiences.
• Classical South Florida/American Public Media
  • Build support for a nonprofit, all-classical public radio station.
• The Cleveland Orchestra Miami
  • Expand the contemporary music collaboration between The Cleveland Orchestra and the Museum of Contemporary Art.
• Gean Moreno
  • Develop a nonprofit publishing house in the region for art-based books.
• LegalArt
  • Create permanent, affordable work space and housing for local artists.
• Miami City Ballet Inc.
  • Develop a three-year artistic collaboration between the Ballet and The Cleveland Orchestra.
• Miami Overseas Chinese Association
  • Create the China Lantern Art Festival to celebrate Chinese art in South Florida.
• Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs
  • Secure a dedicated funding source for art programs in the county.
• Mystery Park Arts Company/SoBe Music Institute
  • Build a new institute for the arts in South Florida based on the Julliard model.
• National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts
  • Connect world-class architecture professionals and design students through a new educational program.
• National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts
  • Establish a program to help promising young artists pursue professional careers.
• Phil Chun
  • Provide financial planning assistance for artists, curators and art administrators.
• SocialMiami.com
  • Document Miami’s emerging art scene and its impact on the community.
• University of Miami
  • Incorporate the Henry Mancini Institute into Miami to prepare graduate students for successful careers.
• University of Miami
  • Bring major artists to live and work in Miami as part of a post-graduate program.
• Vizcaya Museum and Gardens
  • Reinvigorate Vizcaya, a national historic landmark, with updated cultural programming.
• WPBT/Channel 2
  • Develop ArtVu, an arts news service to promote engagement in the arts.