Displaying items by tag: 3Arts

On Monday, October 26, 2026, the Harris Theater for Music and Dance became a gathering place for Chicago’s artistic community as 3Arts celebrated the artists whose creativity, commitment, and vision enrich the cultural life of our city and state. The 2026 3Arts Awards Celebration was more than an awards ceremony. It was an evening devoted to recognizing the people who make art possible, nurture the next generation of artists, and remind us why the arts remain essential to our communities.

The evening began with a welcoming reception featuring delicious canapés, drinks, and lively conversation. Honorees mingled with guests and fellow members of Chicago’s arts community, creating an atmosphere of genuine camaraderie. There was a palpable sense of excitement in the room, but also something more meaningful: an appreciation for the artistic labor being celebrated and the people behind it.

Guests were eventually ushered into the auditorium, where the formal celebration opened with How I Found My Feet Again, choreographed and performed by Keyierra Collins, a 2020 3Arts Awardee. The performance offered an inspiring introduction to an evening centered on artistic expression, perseverance, and the power of creativity.

Photos by Richard Rankin

Celebrating Chicago’s Artists

The program recognized eleven recipients of the 2026 3Arts Awards, each receiving $30,000 in unrestricted funding to support their artistic practice.

The awardees represented a remarkable range of disciplines. In Dance, the honorees were Kara Brody and Silvita Diaz Brown. Music was represented by Tahirah Whittington and Marvin Tate. In Teaching Arts, the recipients were John Chapman and Wisdom Baty. The Theater awardees were Ana Santos and Tina Fakhrid-Deen, while Visual Arts was represented by Luca Cruzat, Diana Solís, and Sandie (Chun-shan) Yi.

Together, these artists demonstrate the breadth of creative work happening throughout the Chicago region. Their disciplines may differ, but their recognition reflects a shared commitment to making art that engages, challenges, educates, and inspires.

The celebration also recognized ten recipients of the Next Level Awards, which provide $50,000 in unrestricted funding to artists who have previously received a 3Arts Award. The program reflects an important understanding: supporting artists should not be a one-time gesture but an ongoing investment in their creative development.

The Next Level Awardees in Visual Arts were Cecilia Beaven, Brenda Torres-Figueroa, and Farah Salem. Teaching Arts recipients were Stephanie Manriquez, Lional “Brother El” Freeman, Sydney Chatman, Meagan McNeal, and Wanees Zarour. Sandra Delgado received a Next Level Award in Music, and Miranda Gonzalez was honored in Theater.

By investing in artists at different stages of their careers, 3Arts recognizes that creativity needs room to grow. Financial support gives artists the freedom to experiment, take risks, pursue new projects, and continue contributing to the cultural life of their communities.

The evening also acknowledged the recipients of the Make a Wave Awards, an artist-to-artist program through which previous 3Arts Awardees select fellow artists to receive $2,000 grants. This peer-driven approach reinforces the spirit of generosity and mutual support that makes Chicago’s artistic community so vital.

Photos by Richard Rankin

The People Behind the Celebration

The evening’s presenters and organizers helped guide the celebration. Sidney Mori Burnett, 3Arts Director of Programs, Lauren Steinberg, Manager of Programs,and  Shariba Rivers, a former awardee represented the organization’s commitment to supporting artists. Executive Director Cat Tager joined William Estrada, a 2024 Next Level Awardee, in helping bring attention to the artists being honored. Event co-chairs Alicia Del Real and Remberto Del Real, a 3Arts board member, also contributed to the evening’s proceedings. DJ Lady D served as an event co-chair.

Their participation underscored that supporting the arts is a collective undertaking. Behind every award is an organization, a network of supporters, and a community that believes artists deserve the resources and recognition necessary to sustain their work.

The musical interludes added another dimension to the celebration. Sparkimami, a  jazz fusion band, brought an energetic presence to the program, while The Sandra Delgado Experience, featuring Sandra Delgado on vocals, captured the festive spirit of the evening. With its ensemble of musicians, the performance offered a joyful reminder that music can transform a formal ceremony into a shared celebration.

An Evening of Art, Community, and Generosity

After the honorees had been acknowledged, guests returned to the party room for dinner. The buffet offered a satisfying selection of dishes, including fresh garden salad,  roasted sweet potatoes, lentil cakes, pumpkin ravioli, and smothered chicken. Dessert followed with chocolate-covered pretzels, pâte de fruits, and assorted cookies.

The meal was another opportunity for guests to continue conversations, congratulate the awardees, and celebrate the artistic community that had gathered under one roof. There was something fitting about ending the evening around a shared meal after spending the night recognizing the work that brings people together.

What distinguished the 2026 3Arts Awards Celebration was not simply the number of artists honored or the financial support distributed. It was the recognition that artists contribute to the life of a city in ways that extend far beyond the stage, gallery, classroom, or rehearsal room. They preserve histories, challenge assumptions, cultivate imagination, and help us understand one another.

In a city as culturally rich as Chicago, that work deserves to be celebrated—and supported.

The evening at the Harris Theater accomplished both with warmth and generosity. From Keyierra Collins’s opening performance to the musical interludes, the recognition of the awardees, and the convivial after-party, the celebration honored not only individual achievement but also the collective spirit that sustains the arts.

Help Keep Chicago’s Arts Thriving

The celebration also serves as a reminder that supporting artists is a responsibility we all share. The talent celebrated that evening does not flourish on creativity alone. Artists need resources, opportunities, and the freedom to develop their work. Through its awards and programs, 3Arts helps provide that support, investing in artists across the performing, teaching, and visual arts.

You can help keep Chicago’s artistic community thriving. If you believe artists deserve the opportunity to create, teach, experiment, and inspire future generations, consider making a donation to 3Arts. Every contribution helps sustain an organization committed to supporting artists and strengthening the cultural life of our city.

To learn more or to make a contribution, visit 3Arts.org/support.

The 2026 3Arts Awards Celebration was a wonderful tribute to the artists who make Chicago a more vibrant, thoughtful, and imaginative place to live. The next step is to ensure that their work continues—not just through applause and recognition, but through the ongoing generosity of a community that understands the value of the arts.

3Arts, the Chicago-based nonprofit grantmaking organization, awarded $860,000 to Chicago artists and announced the recipients of its 3Arts Next Level Awards—$50,000 unrestricted awards given to past 3Arts awardees—during a festive celebration held last night at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance. The 2026 Next Level awardees: music artists Meagan McNeal and Wanees Zarour; teaching artists Sydney Chatman, Lional Freeman and Stephanie Manriquez; theater artists Sandra Delgado and Miranda Gonzalez; visual artists Cecilia Beaven, Brenda Torres-Figueroa and Farah Salem.

Across its various grantmaking initiatives, 3Arts celebrated a milestone $10 million in artist funding over its lifetime. For the first time since the Next Level Awards were established in 2020, 3Arts expanded this year's awards to include two Next Level Music Awards and two Next Level Theater Awards, in addition to the visual artists and teaching artists the Next Level initiative has supported in its history.

"Being an artist is inherently hard work, and financial pressure often forces creative vision to take a back seat to survival. We created the Next Level Awards to relieve that burden, offering significant, flexible support at moments when artists need the freedom to catch their breath, to take a risk, or reimagine what's possible," said 3Arts Executive Director Cat Tager. She added, "We are thrilled to expand this support into Music and Theater this year. When footing is uncertain, artists remain our most vital compass. They show us how to question, how to heal, and how to chart new paths. Fueling their fire moves all of us forward."

3Arts welcomed hundreds of guests to its 19th Annual 3Arts Awards Celebration, including leadership from the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, Paul Angell Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and The Reva & David Logan Foundation. The event also featured engagement by the 3Arts Board of Directors, and a Host Committee of civic and arts leaders whose longstanding support continues to strengthen 3Arts' mission. During the joyous event, 3Arts also recognized 11 previously announced 3Arts Awards recipients with $30,000 unrestricted grants and 15 artists who were selected by past 3Arts awardees to receive $2,000 unrestricted Make a Wave awards.

Guests were treated to powerful performances, including past 3Arts Awardees Keyierra Collins (2020 3Arts Awardee), Sandra Delgado (2018 3Arts Awardee), Sparklmami (featuring Ariella Granados, 2025 3Arts Awardee).

3Arts has distributed more than $10 million in grants to more than 3,050 artists since 2007. 3Arts awardees reflect 66% women artists, 74% artists of color, and 17% Deaf or disabled artists.

ABOUT THE NEXT LEVEL ARTISTS

[VISUAL ARTIST] Cecilia Beaven (she/her) is a Chicago-based visual artist from Mexico City. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from the School of the 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. Cecilia is a 2024 3Arts/Chandler Family Awardee and a 2024 Chicago Artists Coalition Resident. She 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. 

[TEACHING ARTIST] Sydney Chatman (she/her) is a Chicago-based director, educator, mentor, producer, and writer, and the founding director of Fly Black Girl Education & Theatre. As a teaching artist for more than two decades, Chatman uses theater to cultivate hope, justice, freedom, and joy, with a particular focus on social justice and empowerment for Black youth. Through her teaching and artistic practice, she advocates for new works that support, challenge, and create opportunities for Black children. In 2008, Chatman founded The Tofu Chitlin' Circuit, creating programs that connect South Side audiences with theater and the arts. Her community-centered work has included collaborations with the Adler Planetarium, Hyde Park Jazz Festival's Back Alley Jazz, Court Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, and the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts.  

[THEATER] Sandra Delgado (she/her) is a Colombian-Chicagoan writer, performer, and producer who creates joyful spaces of connection for all. She writes plays inspired by underknown U.S. and Chicago histories centering Latine lives and creates theatrical, music-filled communal experiences. She is best known as the creator and star of La Havana Madrid, her smash hit play with music, originally produced by Teatro Vista with runs at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, the Goodman Theatre, and theaters nationwide. Her latest play, Hundreds and Hundreds of Stars, has been hailed as a "story that every American needs to hear." (Chicago Tribune) and her performance as Clara, a mother facing deportation "a theatrical force of nature." (Chicago Theatre Review). Her NALAC award-winning spiritual cabaret meets dance party, The Sandra Delgado Experience, has played across Chicago and has enjoyed repeat appearances at Joe's Pub. She is currently developing LIVE.LOVE.NOW, an uplifting show about death and grief. Delgado is a United States Artists Fellow, received the inaugural Walder Foundation Platform Award in 2024, and was named a Chicago Theatre Hall of Fame Player by New City Chicago in 2025. She is the recipient of the Joyce Award, the Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Literature, and the 2018 3Arts/Community Award. 

[TEACHING ARTIST] Lional "Brother El" Freeman (he/him) is a Chicago-based composer, Live PA electronic artist, audio engineer, educator, and multidisciplinary creative whose work moves between sound, media, youth authorship, public-space activation, and community healing. Rooted in hip-hop aesthetics, DIY culture, improvisation, and South Side cultural innovation, Freeman uses electronic instruments, field recordings, and visual media to create immersive experiences that connect sound, storytelling, and community. As founder of The Beat Bank and Executive Director of Sonic Explorations, Freeman creates performances, workshops, media programs, and public activations that help young people and communities build creative confidence, technical fluency, and ownership of their own narratives. His practice treats sound as both an artistic language and a tool for connection, reflection, and liberation. 

[THEATER] Miranda Gonzalez (she/her) is a Chicago-born writer, director, producer, facilitator, and organizational strategist whose work centers storytelling, ensemble practice, and cultural transformation. She is the Producing Artistic Director of UrbanTheater Company (UTC), where she has led interdisciplinary projects that bring together theater, music, dance, and oral history to explore Chicago's histories and communities. A founding member of Teatro Luna, Gonzalez has been creating, devising, and developing new work since 2000, with a particular commitment to stories that reflect the complexity of Latino and Black communities. Her plays include Back In The Day: An Immersive 80's House Music Dancesical, Mascogos, and Fina (fee-nah), a time-bending Afro-Peruvian musical currently in development. She is a recipient of a 2022 3Arts/Walder Foundation Award, the Diane Rodriguez Teatrista Award, and the Leaders for a New Chicago Award. 

[MUSIC] Stephanie Manriquez (she/her) is an award-winning writer, radio producer, journalist, and teaching artist with a passion for highlighting social justice issues affecting Latino communities. She sees storytelling as a radical act for the Latinx community and has committed herself to developing spaces for diverse voices to be heard with a larger goal of increasing representation on public and alternative radio. As a journalist, she consistently speaks on topics that most affect her communities. As an educator, she is passionate about mentoring the next generation of Latinx media makers, helping them to become civically minded and artistically innovative. She is Executive Director at Contratiempo magazine and Director of Lumpen Radio. She was a Social Justice News Nexus Fellow at Northwestern University and led the National Museum of Mexican Arts youth journalism program. Manriquez was recognized in 2020 by the Field Foundation and MacArthur Foundation as one of 11 "Leaders for a New Chicago" and in 2023 received the "Public Humanities Award" from Illinois Humanities. 

[MUSIC] Meagan McNeal (she/her) is a Chicago-born vocalist, recording artist, producer, curator, and creative entrepreneur whose work lives at the intersection of music, community, and possibilities. Known for a voice that is both commanding and deeply human, McNeal's practice is rooted in soul, storytelling, and connection. Her national appearances include NBC's The Voice as a member of Team Jennifer Hudson and The Kelly Clarkson Show. In 2026, she made her Lyric Opera of Chicago debut as Safronia Booker in safronia, expanding her artistic practice into theater at age 40. McNeal is also the founder of Pink Elephant Creatives, a creative logistics company that connects artists and ideas with opportunity through curation, production, strategy, and consulting. A 2020 3Arts Award recipient, she is committed to creating sustainable pathways for artists and imagining new models for cultural work that center access, autonomy, and economic opportunity. 

[VISUAL ART] Farah Salem (she/her) is a Kuwaiti-Iraqi interdisciplinary artist and art therapist based in Chicago. Salem's studio practice is rooted in photography, expanding through video, performance, fiber-materials, and installation. Through relational merging and mapping of human and geological bodies, she envisions their liberation. By doing so, she 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 the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her artwork has been featured at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, EXPO CHICAGO, Bolivia Biennial, Paris Contemporary Art Fair, Sharjah Art Foundation (UAE),Contemporary Art Platform (Kuwait), and more. 

[VISUAL ART] Brenda Torres-Figueroa (she/her/ella) is a Puerto Rican-born interdisciplinary artist, educator, curator, and cultural practitioner based in Chicago. Her work bridges installation, performance, sound, photography, text, public art, and community-based practice, exploring memory, migration, embodiment, and the transmission of cultural knowledge across generations and diasporic communities. Drawing from Afro–Puerto Rican Bomba traditions, archival materials, oral histories, and material memory, she creates spaces for storytelling, connection, and collective transformation. Torres-Figueroa is the founder and director of El Schomburg, an interdisciplinary arts space in Chicago, and co-leads Colectivo Sayba, a Chicago-based Afro–Puerto Rican Bomba ensemble. She is an alumna of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and a 2021 3Arts Make a Wave awardee. Her work has been presented at institutions including the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture. 

[MUSIC] Wanees Zarour (he/him) is an award-winning Palestinian-American composer, multi-instrumentalist, educator, and community leader with a deeply rooted background in Middle Eastern Music and a pioneer in exploring its intersections with jazz and other traditions. He is the co-director of the Chicago Immigrant Orchestra, director of the Middle East Music Ensemble (70-piece orchestra) at the University of Chicago, and leads "East Loop," a project that explores the intersection of jazz and Middle Eastern music, pushing the parameters of both traditions. Zarour's work focuses on bringing communities together through music, transcending borders, and creating a robust musical ecosystem that centers the global traditions represented in Chicago and the U.S. He has collaborated and performed with renowned artists across the globe, while directing multiple projects that have become fixtures in Chicago's music scene.  

The 2026 recipients of the unrestricted $30,000 awards are dance artists Silvita Diaz Brown and Kara Brody; musicians Marvin Tate and Tahirah Whittington; teaching artists Wisdom Baty and John Chapman; theater artists Tina Fakhrid-Deen and Ana Santos; and visual artists Luca Cruzat, Diana Solís and Sandie (Chunshan) Yi.

 
About 3Arts

Founded in 1912 with a history centered on women artists and reimagined as an arts service organization in 2007, 3Arts supports artists in the Chicago metropolitan and greater Carbondale areas working in the performing, teaching, and visual arts, including women-identified artists, artists of color, and Deaf and disabled artists. The 3Arts Awards were launched in 2007 to provide unrestricted awards, project funding, residencies, professional development opportunities, and promotion to help artists take creative risks, build sustainable careers, and contribute to the cultural vitality of Chicago and the broader region.

3Arts extends special thanks to the 2026 Award Partners: The HMS Fund, The SIF Fund at the Chicago Community Foundation, Stan Lipkin & Evelyn Appell Lipkin, and MSU Federal Credit Union.

3Arts gratefully acknowledges the generous support of its 2026 event sponsors: Lead Sponsors, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois and Morningstar; and Corporate Friend, Center for Advanced Emotional Intelligence.

One 3Arts Award is the 2026 3Arts/MSUFCU Community Award celebrates the collective generosity of artists and supporters across Chicago, whose contributions made the award possible.

3Arts also recognizes support for the Next Level Awards from an anonymous donor at The Chicago Community Foundation, the Paul Angell Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

For more information about 3Arts, please visit www.3arts.org.

The nonprofit service organization 3Arts announces the date for its annual 3Arts Awards Celebration, a festive evening of dynamic performances by Chicago artists and the announcement of the recipients of unrestricted grants to artists working in the performing, teaching, and visual arts. The 2026 3Arts Awards Celebration takes place at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance (205 E Randolph) on Monday, October 26, at 5:30pm. Tickets for the event, which includes a welcome reception, awards program, and a jubilant after-party, are $150 (general admission) and $300 (VIP) with a limited number of $50 tickets available for industry professionals. Tickets will be available at 3arts.org/tickets in early September. Funds raised during the event will be split between 3Arts and Chicago nonprofit, Center for Native Futures.

"When artists rise, communities rise with them,” says Cat Tager, Executive Director of 3Arts. "Because art isn't a luxury; it's a foundation of any thriving community. As we head into our 20th year in 2027, we are looking forward to celebrating the milestone of putting $10 million directly into the hands of Chicago artists, and to continuing our mission to provide the critical programming that helps those artists to experiment, to take risks, and to elevate our communities.”

Thirty-six artists will be honored at this year’s program, which distributes unrestricted awards across three categories: the 3Arts Awards ($30,000 each), Next Level Awards ($50,000 each), and the peer-selected Make a Wave Awards ($2,000 each). The celebratory evening will also feature powerful performances by three past 3Arts awardees.

Expanded for 2026, the Next Level Awards will now include two awards in Music and two in Theater, made possible by support from the Paul Angell Foundation. This marks the first time these unrestricted grants will be available to musicians and theater artists, following the initiative's initial launch in Visual Arts (2020) and subsequent expansion into Teaching Arts.

3Arts has distributed more than $10 million in grants to more than 3,050 artists since 2007. 3Arts awardees reflect 66% women artists, 74% artists of color, and 17% Deaf or disabled artists.

2026 3Arts Awards Celebration

Dates:                 Monday, October 26, 2026

                              5:30pm Welcome Reception

                              6:30pm Awards Celebration and Performances

                              7:45pm After Party

Location:           Harris Theater for Music and Dance

                              205 East Randolph Drive

Tickets:              Tickets are $50-$300 and can be purchased in early September at 3arts.org/tickets and via the Harris Theater Box Office at 312.334.7777.

About 3Arts

Founded in 1912 with a history centered on women artists and reimagined as an arts service organization in 2007, 3Arts supports artists in the Chicago metropolitan and greater Carbondale areas working in the performing, teaching, and visual arts, including women-identified artists, artists of color, and Deaf and disabled artists. The 3Arts Awards were launched in 2007 to provide unrestricted awards, project funding, residencies, professional development opportunities, and promotion to help artists take creative risks, build sustainable careers, and contribute to the cultural vitality of Chicago and the broader region.

3Arts extends special thanks to the 2026 Award Partners: The HMS Fund, The SIF Fund at the Chicago Community Foundation, Stan Lipkin & Evelyn Appell Lipkin, and MSU Federal Credit Union.

One of the ten 3Arts Awards, the 2026 3Arts/MSUFCU Community Award celebrates the collective generosity of artists and supporters across Chicago, whose contributions made the award possible.

3Arts also recognizes support for the Next Level Awards from an anonymous donor at The Chicago Community Foundation, the Paul Angell Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

For more information about 3Arts, please visit www.3arts.org.