Chicago’s cultural department announced a new grant program Wednesday aimed at helping emerging theater organizations strengthen their infrastructure and build audiences.
The program, Next Stage Chicago, will provide a maximum of $50,000 to up to eight nonprofit theater companies that have been in business for at least three years but no more than 10. Cultural commissioner Kenya Merritt said the $400,000 program is an investment in organizations that are “essential to the vitality of Chicago’s neighborhoods.”
“If we want Chicago to remain one of the great cultural cities, we must invest in it,” Merritt said during a City Club Chicago event on Wednesday. “Next Stage is just one example of that commitment, and it is only the beginning.”
Merritt, a former deputy mayor in the Johnson administration, was confirmed to lead the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events in mid-April and has repeatedly stressed that she believes the arts sector can be an economic driver for the city.
“The arts are economic infrastructure. The arts are a workforce strategy. The arts are a neighborhood strategy,” Merritt said Wednesday.
Grantmaking has long been a core tenet of the department, in addition to its role in organizing large-scale downtown events such as this weekend’s Blues Festival.
Next Stage Chicago will give funds to organizations “that are actively building their audiences, strengthening their infrastructure and expanding their artistic impact,” according to the city.
Chicago’s robust storefront theater scene has gained global acclaim, but in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, many arts organizations — especially smaller companies — have struggled to draw audiences back to live performances.
The DCASE grant dollars (funding for which came, in part, from a Pritzker Foundation grant) can be used for “organizational management, marketing and audience development, financial planning and development, production management, and strategic planning.”
Eligible applicants must have an annual operating budget of $500,000 or less and “demonstrate a commitment to producing and presenting theatrical work.”
Across multiple programs, DCASE gives grants to both arts organizations and individual artists annually. In 2025, the department awarded a little more than $10 million in grants to about 650 recipients, according to public records. That was up from the slightly more than $8 million in grants the year before. The department’s grantmaking swelled during the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic to more than $22 million in 2023.
In recent years, arts funding has been under attack federally. Last year, the National Endowment for the Arts canceled grant dollars that had already been awarded, including to arts organizations locally. In the aftermath, the city stepped in to provide grants to arts groups that had lost federal funding.
During the latest budget battle at City Hall, DCASE’s budget was decreased by 15%.
Applications for Next Stage Chicago are now open and close at noon on Wednesday, July 8. Recipients will be notified in September, and payments will be issued in December, according to the city.
Courtney Kueppers is an arts and culture reporter at WBEZ.