DETROIT— This month the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced 88 finalists in the Knight Arts Challenge, a community-wide contest in its second year of funding arts and cultural projects that engage and enrich Detroit. Winners will be announced in October.

“Earlier this year, we asked a simple question: What’s your best idea for the arts? The answers reflect truly Detroit ideas for bringing the arts into the city’s neighborhoods and into people’s everyday lives,” said Dennis Scholl, vice president for arts at the Knight Foundation.

In addition, the public will again have a say in who receives funding with the Knight Arts Challenge People’s Choice Award. In August, Detroiters will be invited to vote via text message for one of several small or emerging arts organizations. The winner will receive $20,000 in support.

“The People’s Choice Award puts the city’s small arts groups in the spotlight, highlighting their importance and contributions to our cultural community and city,” said Katy Locker, Detroit program director for Knight Foundation.

Open to everyone, the Knight Arts Challenge offers matching grant money to the best ideas for the arts. Applicants must follow only three rules: The idea must be about the arts; The project must take place in or benefit Detroit; The grant recipient must find funds to match Knight’s commitment.

Last year, the first of three for the Detroit Knight Arts Challenge, the contest awarded $2.1 million to 56 ideas.

The challenge is part of a $19.25 million investment in the Detroit arts that Knight Foundation announced in the fall of 2012. It includes support for the three-year challenge, which provides $9 million in funding, exposure and momentum to smaller arts efforts, and $10.25 million to some of the region’s premiere cultural institutions: the Arab American National Museum, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit School of Arts, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Michigan Opera Theatre and the Sphinx Organization.