By Pat Loeb

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – An unusual town hall is scheduled for this Wednesday at the Philadelphia Center for Architecture on Arch Street. It’s a chance to find out how to get in on a three-Million dollar giveaway for art projects that benefit the city. The meeting is sponsored by the Knight Arts Challenge, now in the last year of a three-year project to jump start local creativity.

The Knight Foundation put up $9 million for the project. In the first two years, it’s awarded $5.4 million, funding 71 projects, ranging from the renovation of Dilworth Plaza at City Hall, to a digital camera giveaway for a community photo project.

Program director Donna Frisby-Greenwood says there are just three criteria: “if it’s about art and it takes place in or benefits Philadelphia and you think you can go out and get funds to match what you ask us for, then apply.”

Frisby-Greenwood says the application process is just as straightforward.

“The process is so simple: 150 words and a title. A lot of times people just don’t really believe it, so,” she says the Town Hall is really meant to reassure applicants it is that easy.

With past winners including a free outdoor viewing of the opera Carmen, the dynamic light show currently illuminating the Parkway and an after-work play that came with a slice of pizza and a beer, Frisby-Greenwood says, “it’s hard to say what’s going to appeal to this year’s group of judges.”

But, she says, “I will say we look for new and innovative ideas — things that haven’t happened before in Philadelphia or that have happened on a smaller scale and might be able to be taken to a larger scale, things that connect new audiences to the arts.”

The application deadline is October 15th.

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