The Circuit Clip from The Hinterlands on Vimeo.

As an artistically-inclined child, Tatiana Hernandez gravitated toward dance. Flamenco and tap helped her find her own rhythm. Years later, her experience working with a group of local artists and performers ignited that same passion.

“I wanted to know and do things that were joyous,” Hernandez said of her job with the Los Angeles-based Machine Project. “Art is joy.”

Now as an associate in Knight Foundation’s arts program,  Hernandez helps oversee grantmaking that uses the arts to both inspire and engage, reconnecting people to both their communities and their inner artists. She travels to eight communities  - from San Jose, to Detroit and Macon, Ga. - looking for ideas big and small that involve audiences as more than just consumers, but as participants and creators.

We recently sat down with her to find out more about what she has discovered traveling across the country, from arts innovation in Minnesota to the revival of the Jit in Detroit.

You spent a lot of time in Detroit this spring helping launch the city’s first Knight Arts Challenge. What is unique about the city’s cultural community?

T.H.: There is a wealth of opportunity right now in Detroit. Reinvention and adaptation are key. That’s an interesting space to be in artistically and creatively. And yet the artists attracted to that level of freedom are also well prepared to deal with any bureaucratic challenge they may face. Because everything is on the table, people are less inclined to hold on to old social or organizational structures that don’t make sense. They’re not tied to a certain way of doing things. It’s exciting because the rest of the county is also navigating a changing economy. Many are looking to Detroit to find new models of arts infrastructure.

Above: The six startups making up Matter's inaugural class.

Tomorrow, Matter, the new startup accelerator for media ventures, is hosting its first-ever demo day in San Francisco. Six startups made up of the accelerator's inaugural class will prime to demonstrate and promote the projects they have been developing over the last four months to a group of investors, mentors and entrepreneurs. 

There’s a lot to be excited about – these are our top five:

1. Matter.VC is a unique for-profit accelerator with an informed public mission at its heart. Created by Public Radio Exchange and funded by Knight Foundation and KQED, public media for Northern California, Matter is looking to accelerate companies that can help build a more informed, connected and empowered society. It’s exciting to see accelerator techniques that have helped startups in other sectors being applied to amplify a cohort of companies innovating in ways that can impact media in general— and public media in particular.

2. This is the first class to graduate from Matter, which launched this year. It will be particularly exciting to see how the startups, which entered the program four months ago, have benefitted from interacting with companies facing similar challenges, and how their products and pitches have come along over the course of the program.

3. The companies demoing are solving interesting problems. From Zeega, which is reinventing the way stories can be told online, to ChannelMeter, which provides better Youtube analytics, to SpokenLayer, which transforms the web into narrated audio, the companies being demoed (full list here) have the capacity to address some real unmet needs for journalists and media companies.

4. Attendees will include a combination of investors and media partners. In order for these companies to grow, they will require both capital and customers. The presence of a large number of venture capitalists and media companies at demo day will give them a chance to acquire both and hopefully set them on their way as they move on to post-Matter life.