top of page

SFCPA and Maria Finkelmeier selected as 2024 Knight New Work Grantee

Updated: 5 days ago


Photos courtesy of Maria Finkelmeier


In Miami, Knight New Work allocated a total of $500,000 for six locally based artists and arts organizations who utilize technology in their practices to enhance the way art is created, shared, and experienced.


South Florida Center for Percussive Arts will commission and present a multimedia performance piece by Maria Finkelmeier incorporating digital projections and live music, creating a dynamic blend of physical and virtual storytelling entitled: Chameleon


We are thrilled to commission Maria Finkelmeier to write and direct a new work for a professional percussion quartet accompanied by the percussion ensembles from South Florida Center for Percussive Arts. Concurrent to the musical and narrative expression, each movement by the musical performers will be tracked using infrared cameras, and interpreted through code to present live generated visuals that enhance and support the experience, offering a multi-sensory and accessible artistic experience for audience members.


Maria has worked with Marc Aptikan, founder of MAD Labs and MAD Arts from Dania Beach for the past two years experimenting with Vicon motion tracking technology and code in Unreal Engine (a game design and development platform) to visualize Maria’s musical movement into 3D visual webs, representing her improvisatory music. Chameleon will take this research and current practice to amplify a larger scale work, including the excellent community ensembles from SFCPA and beyond. This will allow young artists, community musicians, and students to gain exposure and experience utilizing technology in the performing arts space.


The SFCPA has worked with Maria in the past to present a concert and masterclass, and are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with her for this project. Named a “one-woman dynamo” by the Boston Globe, she is an award winning percussionist, composer, and artist. She has transformed Fenway Park into a percussive playground and turned the Roebling Bridge into a sound and light instrument. She's used AI to investigate gender bias through music, flipped a bus into a mobile electronic bucket drumming program, and performed at iconic global venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Smithsonian, and Théâtre des Champs-Elysées.


Chameleon is propelled by a commitment to enrich storytelling, foster connections, and expand multimodal expressions in the arts. Embracing cutting-edge technology, the experience remains deeply rooted in preserving the human essence at the heart of every performance, ensuring that each technological advancement enhances, rather than overshadows, the artist's touch.


The narrative of the work will dive into the questions of how we, as individuals and communities, shift, transform, and blend to connect and fit in with different communities, identities, and trends. It is inspired by Maria’s experiences as an adoptee, with a mental weight of constantly needing to fit in. She imagines working with the students and community members in South Florida to further develop the story-telling by infusing the experiences of those performing in the work. 


The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation believes arts and culture are at the core of community, connecting people to place and to one another. Investing in arts and culture is central to Knight’s effort to build stronger, better informed and more engaged communities, which are critical for a more effective democracy. Knight Foundation funds the application of technology to enhance the creation, dissemination and experience of art. We invest across genres and increase the impact of our work by focusing funding in the eight communities Knight supports.



Learn more about Maria Finkelmeier: https://www.mfdynamics.com

bottom of page