The Joyce Foundation

Culture

Program Mission

Inspiring creativity and fostering culturally vibrant, diverse, and sustainable communities

The Foundation believes that art and culture are key to well-being and quality of life for people in the Great Lakes region, helping to create healthy, vibrant, and equitable communities. The Foundation also believes that arts ecosystems should serve the full diversity of the region’s cities and thus focuses on supporting historically underrepresented artists and organizations – including organizations led by and serving communities of color – so that they have resources to build sustainability and thrive.

With a focus on Chicago, the mission of the Culture Program is to support the development, growth, and visibility of underrepresented artists and arts organizations, which may advance racial equity, inspire creativity, and foster more culturally vibrant, diverse, and sustainable communities.

**Please note that because the Foundation is committed to making long-term investments, we award a very limited number of new grants each year.

Strategy

Creative Organizations & Creative Individuals

Arts organizations and artists are vital to strong communities and contribute to a vibrant arts ecosystem in Chicago and the Great Lakes region. They can act as important community anchors and economic drivers, support diverse artistic expressions and traditions, and nurture the voices, careers, and visibility of artists who have been historically underfunded.

The Culture program aims to support the growth and sustainability of these arts organizations and the artists they present and serve by providing multi-year general operating grants and project grants. Organizations funded by our work demonstrate many of the following characteristics. They:

  • offer robust seasons of professional, thought-provoking exhibitions, performances, and programming in the visual, performing, and multi-disciplinary arts;
  • pursue innovative and strategic approaches to artistic and organizational growth and sustainability;
  • are grounded in the voices, concerns, and artistic visions of historically underrepresented and underfunded artists and communities;
  • are directly and effectively responsive to the needs and the advancement of underrepresented artists; and
  • have built a strong network of arts organizational partners, including community partners.

Our funding also includes professional development grants for artistic residencies, fellowships, awards, and programs supporting early and mid-career underrepresented artists, including artists of color, to advance their careers, strengthen professional networks, and raise visibility for their work. In addition, we provide a limited number of grants to support the development and presentation of new, innovative, and large-scale artistic commissions, exhibitions, and performances, including our annual Joyce Awards.

View General Grantmaking Guidelines

View Culture Grantmaking Guidelines

The Joyce Awards, launched in 2004, was the only regional grants program that supported artists of color in major Great Lakes cities. It aimed to inspire creativity, artistic growth, and collaboration in Great Lakes communities.

In its first twenty years, the competition awarded more than $4.4 million to commission 82 new works created through sustained collaborations between artists of color and leading arts, cultural, and community-based organizations in Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis-St. Paul. Each award has supported an artist or artists in the creation and production of a new work and has provided the commissioning organization with the resources needed to engage their surrounding communities.

Demonstrating the capacity of the arts to inspire and mobilize social change, the Joyce Awards have served as catalysts for artists’ creative practices and have helped foster culturally vibrant, equitable, and sustainable communities through the arts.

The 2024 Joyce Award winners will be announced in Summer 2024.

Following the announcement of the 2024 winners, the Joyce Foundation will be taking time to reflect on lessons from the first two decades of the Joyce Awards and changes in the Great Lakes region and in the arts over that time before launching the next application cycle of the Joyce Awards program.

2023 Joyce Awards Announcement

The 2023 Joyce Awards feature projects that explore and strengthen connections between diverse communities, urban environments, and nature to imagine new forums for cultural exchange and assembly across the Great Lakes.

Recently in Culture

Grantee Spotlight

Ron OJ Parson

Acclaimed director/actor Ron OJ Parson is in a season of radical reflection. In a 50-year career that most creatives dream of, Parson has become one of the nation’s pre-eminent theater directors. Learn more about his work here.

Joyce Award Winner

Julie Tolentino with SPACES

Julie Tolentino and SPACES are one of the five winners of the 2023 Joyce Awards, which lift up collaborations between artists of color and arts and community organizations throughout the Great Lakes region.

Get the latest on our work in Culture and other programs.

Culture Staff

Mia Khimm

Program Director

Maddie Easton

Program Assistant