Inspiring creativity, artistic risk-taking, and collaboration in Great Lakes communities

Photo credit: Saverio Truglia/Chicago Tribune/TCA

The Joyce Awards is the only regional program dedicated to supporting new works by artists of color in major Great Lakes cities.

Since its inception, the competition has awarded $4.4 million to commission 82 new collaborations between artists and leading arts, cultural, and community-based organizations in six Great Lakes cities: Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Each award supports an artist in the creation and production of a new work while providing the commissioning organization with the resources needed to engage audiences, new partners, and their surrounding communities at large.

Demonstrating the capacity of the arts to inspire and mobilize social change, the Joyce Awards act as a catalyst for artists’ creative practices and risk-taking as well as fostering culturally vibrant, equitable, and sustainable communities in the Great Lakes through the arts.

Joyce Awards Applications

The application process for the 2024 Joyce Awards is now closed. The 2024 Award recipients will be announced in June 2024. And the application cycle for the 2025 Joyce Awards will open in July 2024, with letters of inquiry due on September 9, 2024.

2023 JOYCE AWARDS

The 2023 Joyce Awards winners include five innovative new projects by pioneering artists of color spanning the visual, performing, and multidisciplinary arts that engage diverse communities in Chicago, Cleveland, and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

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$4.4 million

has been awarded to new commissions by artists of color.

3

Joyce Awards winners have gone on to win Grammy Awards.

15

Joyce Awards winners have gone on to win United States Artists Fellowships.