19 groups get $780,000 in Knight Arts funding

Three rounds of Knight Arts Challenge grants have helped Philly cultural organizations create new programs and bring art to broader audiences. Now the Knight Foundation announced $780,000 in new funding to 19 Philly artists and groups, largely toward previous challenge-grant winners looking to scale up projects or try something new.

Among these winners are several that promise to turn “everyday moments into artistic experiences.”  Here are five highly public projects we’re excited to experience:

Andy: A Popera

Bearded Ladies Cabaret ($75,000) will create and produce “an interactive, pop-up opera inspired by the life and legacy of Andy Warhol.” While it’s a work in progress there will be pop-up performances in everyday places, like parks. Opera Philadelphia will provide an opera chorus for the show’s run at The Wilma Theater.

Particle Falls

Chemical Heritage Foundation ($60,000) will interpret urban air quality through a public art project by digital media artist Andrea Polli. Polli will create a 60-foot video projection on the façade of The Wilma Theater visualizing real-time air quality data.

psychylustro

Philadelphia Mural Arts Advocates ($50,000) will go towards the huge site-specific installation at seven spots along the Northeast Corridor railroad tracks in Philadelphia by German artist Katharina Grosse. The splashy artwork is intended to be viewed through window of a moving train. It’s a “real-time landscape painting that explores shifting scale, perspective and the passage of time.”

Subway zoetropes

Sean Stoops ($27,000) will turn subway tunnels into an art canvas. Stoops will install a series of large images, sequenced like a giant flipbook, in Center City subway tunnels, which will use the speed of moving trains to create the illusion of a moving image.

40-hour Open House + Mug Assault

The Clay Studio ($25,000) will hold a 40-hour open house in celebration of its 40th anniversary, including hands-on workshops, demonstrations, and presentations. Twenty artists will create 200 custom coffee mugs, which will be given away to strangers in a “Guerilla Mug Assault.”