The Chicago-based nonprofit 3Arts will award more than $1 million in grants to artists this fall, the grantmaking organization announced Thursday.
This year’s grant funding pot is up more than $400,000 from the $620,000 that 3Arts awarded last year. Cat Tager, who took over as 3Arts’ executive director last fall, said the increase is needed to meet the moment, which she likens to being “similar to the onset of the pandemic.”
“Artists are facing a lot of uncertainty, precarity, and we’re hoping that by doing this, we can not only just support the artists immediately, but it also is hopefully able to inspire other organizations to do the same thing,” Tager said. “This is not a time to hold back.”
The recipients are spread across genres, including dance, music, theater and visual art. Among this year’s grantees are Chicago musicians Ariella Granados, AKA Sparklmami, who draws inspiration from Brazilian jazz and funk, and Kara Jackson, the Oak Park native whose poetry powers her folk-inspired sound. Plus, dancers Chih-Jou Cheng and Wendy Clinard, actor and playwright Rammel Chan, visual artist Leasho Johnson and several others.
The arts funding landscape was already destabilized when COVID-19 relief dollars began drying up and philanthropic support started shifting, but the outlook became even more dire following President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January. In February, the administration changed the guidelines around who qualifies for funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. Then, in May, Trump announced his administration would claw back grant dollars that had already been promised for this year.
Such actions sent a wave of uncertainty through Chicago’s arts community and prompted local leaders to call on City Hall to respond.
A prevailing question now is how Chicago will support its artists and what support can come from philanthropists and nonprofits like 3Arts. The city’s cultural commissioner, Clinée Hedspeth, resigned this week just as Chicago heads into the thick of budget season. Arts advocates will once again lobby to maintain funding for city-level artist grants.
This year, the city gave grants to 245 individual artists, a near-record number of individuals who have received grants in a single year since 2019.
Tager said the uncertainty of the moment means that artists must be met with “fierce support.”
“We’ve seen firsthand how this year has really affected artists in Chicago, in greater Illinois,” Tager said. “Artists are essential workers in our communities.”
This year, 3Arts will award 17 artists with $30,000 in unrestricted grants, including two from downstate in partnership with Artspace Southern Illinois. That’s an increase from 10 recipients last year.
Additionally, there will be 40 “Make a Wave” awards of $2,000 given. That’s also up from 10 awardees last year. And, six individuals will receive $50,000 through the “Next Level Award.” To push the grantmaking over the $1 million threshold, 3Arts is giving out $150,000 in emergency grants. Tager said that’s the group’s largest emergency bucket since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Funding for the awards comes from fundraising done by 3Arts and includes contributions from entities like the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Chicago Community Foundation and The Reva & David Logan Foundation. The awardees must first be nominated by an anonymous panel in order to apply for 3Arts funding.
Ariella Granados, a multidisciplinary artist who makes music under the name Sparklmami, said the grant is validation for her music career.
“This is definitely something that was on my list of goals, being an artist based in Chicago,” the 29-year-old said. “So it really does mean a lot that 3Arts is highlighting me with this award.”
Granados, whose first album is set for a 2026 release, said she’ll use the unrestricted funds to work on her second album, but also to receive somatic therapy treatments and focus on her physical health. It’s that type of support that can be hard to come by as a working artist, Granados said.
Playwright and actor Rammel Chan said he’ll use the grant funding to workshop a new play with actors.
“I would probably try to spend it on actor friends who could actually work on it with me,” Chan, 40, said. “Which is a significant part for playwrights to get to hear their words up and about.”
The grant recipients will be honored at a Nov. 10 ceremony at Chicago’s Harris Theater.
Courtney Kueppers is an arts and culture reporter at WBEZ.