Actors’ Playhouse, the Coral Gables Art Cinema and Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden are among 57 finalists in the 2012 Knight Arts Challenge Miami, which offers matching grant money to the best ideas for bringing South Florida together through the arts.

The finalists, announced May 28 by the Knight Foundation, include individual artists, small artist-led organizations and local cultural groups whose innovative ideas will help push the boundaries of artistic engagement.

The winners will be announced in early December. Finalists include these Coral Gables organizations:

Actors’ Playhouse Productions: To culturally enrich Miami-Dade Schools ninth grade students by making 3,000 seats available to the Tony-winning musical In the Heights, coupled with a rap-writing contest.

Coral Gables Cinemateque: To bring high-quality, unique and culturally diverse films to the community by increasing programming and educational outreach at the Coral Gables Art Cinema.

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden: To bring together nature and art by strengthening Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden’s music program under conductor Teddy Abrams.

2012 marks the fifth year of the Knight Arts Challenge Miami, which has offered $20 million in matching grant money to the best ideas that help weave the arts into the community.

Winners in the 2011 competition received $2.9 million. Last year’s winners included GableStage, which received a $120,000 grant to launch a Winter Shakespeare Festival.

For details and the complete list of 2012 finalists click here.