The Chicago-based nonprofit 3Arts has presented this year’s 3Arts Awards, with a total of $620,000 in unrestricted funds going to 26 local artists.
Along with 10 recipients of $30,000 grants for 2024, previously announced, the organization presented six $50,000 Next Level Awards in a ceremony Monday evening at the Harris Theater in Chicago. An additional 10 artists received $2,000 Make a Wave Awards.
Winners of the newly announced Next Level Awards include:
Rozalinda Borcilă, a Romanian immigrant, artist and activist whose work explores settler colonialism. She developed the experimental seminar, video and walking project “Underlying Miami: Sea Level Rise and Settler Futurities” for the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami and the New Local in Brussels. Her collaboration with Andrea Carlson, titled “Hydrologic Unit Code 071200 – Nibi Ezhi-Nisidawaabanjigaade Ozhibii’igeowin 071200,” is currently on view at the MCA.
Bethany Collins, a multidisciplinary artist whose conceptual practice examines the relationship between race and language. According to 3Arts, her work illuminates America’s past and offers insight into the development of racial and national identities. Collins lives and works in Oak Park.
William Estrada, a teaching artist who grew up in California, Mexico and Chicago. According to the announcement, he is currently a faculty member at the University of Illinois Chicago, a teaching artist at Telpochcalli School, a 2024 Mural Arts Philadelphia Strength Through Solidarity Fellow, and is collaborating with the Mobilize Creative Collaborative, Chicago ACT Collective, and Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative.
Emily Hooper Lansana, a teaching artist who lives and works in Bronzeville as a storyteller and community builder. Her performance repertoire has been featured at the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, the Chicago Humanities Festival, and nationally, from the Mississippi Museum of Art to the National Storytelling Festival.
Riva Lehrer, an artist who focuses on the socially challenged body and is known for her representations of people whose physical embodiment, sexuality, or gender identity have been stigmatized. Her work has been exhibited at the MCA, the National Portrait Gallery, the Chicago Cultural Center and museums nationwide.
Andy Slater, a blind Chicago-based media artist, writer, performer and disability advocate. Slater’s work focuses on advocacy for accessible art and technology, alt-text for sound and image, the phonology of the blind body, spatial audio for extended reality, and sound design for film, dance, and digital scent design. Slater is a member of the 3Arts Disability Culture Leadership Initiative.
The 2024 recipients of the unrestricted $30,000 grants are dance artists Imania Fatima Detry and Robby Lee Williams; musicians Emily Beisel and Wanees Zarour; teaching artists Rich Robbins and Stephanie Manriquez; theater artists Shariba Rivers and Levi Wilkins; and visual artists Cecilia Beaven Gallegos and Farah Salem.
3Arts has a mission to support artists working in the performing, teaching and visual arts in the Chicago area, with a focus on women artists, artists of color and Deaf or disabled artists. According to its announcement, it has given some $8.1 million in grants to more than 2,300 area artists in its 17-year history.
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