The Apollo Theater, one of the 2012 recipients.

The Rockefeller Foundation has awarded a total of nearly $3 million in grants to 16 New York-based organizations in its New York City Cultural Innovation Fund competition to support local art and artists. The winners, which were selected from almost 400 applicants, will each receive two-year grants of up to $250,000.

In a statement, Dr. Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundations, said, “As the creative sector continues to advance, we must be sure that this growth is sustainable and equitable so that all our cultural producers have the resources they need to continue to create innovative and thought provoking work that challenges all of us to question and learn new things.”

New York City Cultural Innovation Fund was started in 2007 and awards grants ranging from $50,000 to $250,000 for initiatives "that enrich the city’s cultural life and help to ensure the continued economic strength and diversity of the city’s creative sector."

A full list of winners is below, courtesy the foundation:

Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York for development of a new model for non-profit arts organizations in which administrative functions are delivered through a shared agency owned by its clients, allowing them to focus on the creation and presentation of art

Apollo Theater to leverage their brand and intellectual property to secure sustainable earned-income through licensing, merchandising and broadcast

ArtHome, fiscally sponsored by Fund for the City of New York, to offer Assets for Artists: an Individual Development Account program that supports artists’ entrepreneurial ventures

Caribbean Cultural Center – African Diaspora Institute to map a historic and cultural tour of El Barrio through an augmented reality platform accessible via handheld personal devices

Eyebeam Atelier to facilitate the development of new approaches and markets for wearable technology, combining NYC’s rising technological prowess with its legacy of design and production of fashion

Fourth Arts Block in partnership with Cooper Union Institute for Sustainable Design to transform East 4^th Street Cultural District into a sustainable city block, using the arts as a tool for engagement and as the means to share lessons learned with the rest of NYC

Ghetto Film School to teach students to research and film trends analyses to better develop their creative and production skills

Harvestworks to partner with The Industrial and Technology Assistance Corporation to develop artists’ technological innovations into entrepreneurial ventures

The Laundromat Project to promote civic participation by organizing art workshops in local coin-operated laundromats with community partners including Majora Carter and Hometown Security Lab, New York University and Rada Film Group

Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts to engage traditionally underserved communities by bringing arts programming to public housing

MAPP International Productions to partner with twelve cultural organizations and educational institutions to produce a retrospective of the life’s work of Sekou Sundiata, bringing a fresh look at his artistry and legacy to audiences citywide

People’s Production House, fiscally sponsored by the Fund for the City of New York, to team artists, advocates, and technologists with low-wage workers, immigrants, and youth to produce vibrant stories about NYC

Parsons The New School for Design and the Public Policy Lab to partner with the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development to empower NYC residents as co-designers and co-producers of housing services

St. Ann’s Warehouse for an immersive theater experience to activate dialogue on the crime of human sex trafficking

Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation to incubate a cross-cultural performance series of emerging and established artists at key locations across the Bronx before settling at the Bronx Music Heritage Center, a new community hub in a mixed-used affordable housing development

Word Above the Street for gallery curators to have artists install public art on hundreds of water towers throughout NYC to activate dialogue to the global water crisis.