CHICAGO, IL (SEPTEMBER 9, 2024) – 3Arts, the Chicago-based nonprofit grantmaking organization, announces the recipients of this year’s 3Arts Awards, with over half a million dollars distributed to local artists. 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. The organization will honor the ten new recipients on Monday, October 21 at 5:30pm at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E Randolph Street. Tickets to the 2024 3Arts Awards Celebration include a welcome reception, awards program, and a jubilant after-party. Tickets cost $150-$300 and are available at 3arts.org/tickets. Funds raised during the event will be split between 3Arts and Chicago nonprofit Center for Native Futures. 

This year’s awards celebration features boundary-breaking performances by three past 3Arts awardees, including Rika Lin (2023 awardee) presenting Feedback, an experimental dance work that bends conceptions of gender and genre with collaborator Takashi Shallow; Donnetta “LilBit” Jackson (2023 awardee) performing an excerpt from A M.A.D.D. Mixtape, a piece choreographed by Jackson that explores the African diasporic roots of tap and footwork with dancers from M.A.D.D Rhythms; and singer-songwriter Nashon Holloway (2022 awardee) performing the world premiere of Go Awf, an original new song from her forthcoming album. The awards are hosted by Co-Chairs Michelle T. Boone, Candace Hunter, and Whitney Hill and an event committee of arts and civic leaders.

“It has always been a great honor for me to work on behalf of artists and the powerful ways they transform our city and our lives. They truly and truthfully help us reach for the stars and dream our futures into being,” said 3Arts Executive Director Esther Grimm. She added, “It was so heartening to welcome a record crowd to the 3Arts Awards Celebration last year when we summoned the most exuberant applause for Chicago artists in our organization’s history. I hope we can rally even more applause on October 21 by breaking our audience record when we celebrate a whopping 26 new awardees and the immense creative vitality of our region. Artists deserve our cheers, our support, and, above all else, our gratitude.”

In its 17-year history, 3Arts has distributed more than $8.1 million in grants to more than 2,300 Chicagoland artists. 3Arts awardees include 68% women artists, 73% artists of color, and 22% Deaf or disabled artists.

VISUAL ARTS

Cecilia Beaven (she/her) is a Chicago-based visual artist from Mexico City. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from the School of Art Institute of Chicago and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from ENPEG La Esmeralda. Her multidisciplinary artwork has been showcased in solo exhibitions in Mexico City, Houston, and Chicago, and in group shows internationally. Beaven has painted murals in various cities such as Hiketa, Paris, Houston, Chicago, Mexico City, Oaxaca, Pachuca, Tepoztlan, and Tijuana, where she painted a segment of the border wall between Mexico and the U.S. Beaven is the current 2024 Chicago Artists Coalition Resident, and has also received awards including the Radicle Studio Residency at Hyde Park Art Center, the Leroy Neiman Foundation Fellowship at Ox-Bow School of Art, and a Fulbright Scholarship. In 2022 she was named one of the “100 Most Creative Mexicans in the World” by Forbes Mexico, and in 2023, Newcity included her in the Art 50 – Chicago’s Artists' Artists list.

Farah Salem (she/her) is a Kuwaiti-Iraqi interdisciplinary artist and art therapist based in Chicago. Salem’s studio practice is rooted in photography, and expands through video, performance, fiber-materials, and installation. Her practice examines themes of agency, making the invisible visible, and potential erosion of socio-cultural conditioning distorting our shared realities. Salem holds a Master of Arts in Art Therapy and Counseling from School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her artwork has been featured at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago), EXPO CHICAGO, American University Museum (Washington D.C.), United Photo Industries/Photoville (New York), Patel Brown (Toronto), Engage (Chicago), Bolivia Biennial, Paris Contemporary Art Fair, Sharjah Art Foundation (UAE), and Contemporary Art Platform (Kuwait). Salem completed the Radicle Studio Residency at Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago), Hatch Residency at Chicago Artist Coalition, ACRE Artist Residency (Steuben), Per|Form at Contemporary Art Platform (Kuwait) and Journey to Turkey Residency with Crossway Foundation (UK).

NEXT LEVEL AWARDS AND MAKE A WAVE AWARDS

In addition to the ten $30,000 3Arts Awards, six $50,000 Next Level Awards and ten $2,000 Make a Wave Awards will be announced at the awards event on October 21, bringing the total funds distributed to $620,000.

Next Level Awards are $50,000 unrestricted cash awards given to past 3Arts awardees to help fuel the next stages of their careers. 

Make a Wave is a groundbreaking artist-to-artist grant program in which past 3Arts Awards recipients select another ten Chicago artists to receive surprise cash awards, sending a “wave” of support through Chicago’s cultural communities. Make a Wave artists receive $2,000 each, thanks to the generous partnership of the Siragusa Family Foundation.

For more information about 3Arts and to view all the awardees, please visit www.3arts.org.

ABOUT 3ARTS

Founded in 1912, with a history centered on women artists, 3Arts is a nonprofit organization that supports artists working in the performing, teaching, and visual arts in the Chicago metropolitan area, including women artists, artists of color, and Deaf or disabled artists. By providing unrestricted awards, project funding, residencies, professional development, and promotion, 3Arts helps artists take risks, experiment, and build momentum in their careers over time.

3Arts extends special thanks to the 2024 Award Partners: The Chandler Family, The HMS Fund, Stan Lipkin & Evelyn Appell Lipkin, The Reva & David Logan Foundation, Michigan State Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU), the Morrison-Shearer Foundation, and the estate of Alison Zehr. One of the ten 3Arts Awards, the 2024 3Arts/MSUFCU Community Award, is named in honor of the 110 community donors who contributed to a crowdfunding campaign to fund the award. 3Arts also recognizes support for the Next Level Awards from an anonymous donor at The Chicago Community Foundation, Good Chaos, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, as well as Make a Wave Partner: The Siragusa Family Foundation. 3Arts gratefully acknowledges the generous support of our sponsors: Presenting Partner, Allstate Insurance Company and Lead Sponsors, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Illinois, Morningstar, and Xfinity.