3Arts Awards

About the 3Arts Awards

The 3Arts Awards express our gratitude to Chicago’s artists for their indisputable contributions to the health and vibrancy of our city. Every year, ten artists who live and work in the six-county metropolitan area receive unrestricted $30,000 awards in dance, music, teaching arts, theater, and visual arts. Artists may use the award in any way that makes a difference to their lives and careers, including paying off debt, purchasing equipment, hiring collaborators, producing new work, and saving for the future.

We invite you to read two reports that compile reflections from artists who have received a 3Arts Award:

We thank our Award Partners and Community Award donors for their generosity in helping 3Arts support and advocate for local artists.

Selection Process

3Arts awardees are selected through a nomination and jury process. More than 100 artists are nominated annually by at least 35 anonymous local nominators--artists, curators, presenters, and advocates--who are acutely knowledgeable about the breadth of artists working in neighborhoods across the metropolitan area.

After the nominees have completed our online application process, five national, discipline-specific panels of jurors convene to select ten awardees from the applicant pool. 3Arts requires panelists to disclose conflicts of interest as part of the selection process. If a strong personal or professional relationship exists between a panelist and a nominated artist that might be an impediment to the integrity of the process, a full recusal from the discussion and vote is implemented.

In honor of the time and energy it takes to apply, all artists who submit an application will receive a $100 honorarium.

We express our gratitude to the most recent jury panelists.

Profiles of all 3Arts Awards recipients are accessible further below on this page, or download an awardee list in PDF here.

2017

Alejandro T. Acierto
Visual Artist & Musician Denise & Gary Gardner Awardee

Alejandro T. Acierto is an artist and musician whose work is largely informed by the breath, the voice, and the processes that enable them. He has exhibited artworks at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Issue Project Room, Museum of …
Tirtza Even
Experimental Video Documentary Maker Reva & David Logan Foundation Awardee

An experimental documentary maker for over twenty years, Tirtza Even has produced work which ranges from feature-length documentaries to multi-channel installation and interactive video work, and which aims to depict the less overt manifestations of complex, and at times extreme, …
Ayriole Frost
Musician & Educator Samuel G. Roberson Jr. Awardee

Ayriole Frost is a Chicago-based costume artist, composer, performer, and teaching artist whose work centers collaborative art-making, storytelling, and arts education. As a lead teaching artist with Idea Box Integrated Arts, they design and facilitate interdisciplinary arts experiences that …
Mabel Kwan
Pianist RH, Restoration Hardware Awardee

Pianist Mabel Kwan is a performer of classical, improvised, and experimental music. She is fascinated by sound, contradictions, and our perceptions of what is familiar or strange. Mabel is a 2020 City of Chicago Esteemed Artist, 2018 High Concept Labs …
Ginger Lane
Dancer & Choreographer Community Awardee

Ginger Lane began her dance training in Chicago with Edna McRae, and continued her training with John Kriza and Ruth Ann Koesun of American Ballet Theatre, Gus Giordano, and dance faculty at the Interlochen Center for the Arts where she studied …
Will Liverman
Operatic Baritone Stan Lipkin & Evelyn Appell Lipkin Awardee

Called “a voice for this historic moment” (The Washington Post), GRAMMY Award–winning baritone and composer Will Liverman is one of the leading artists of his generation, recognized for his versatility as both performer and creator. His compositional work …
Tara Mallen
Actor, Director, Producer William Franklin Grisham Awardee

Producer, actor, and director, Tara Mallen is the founder and Artistic Director at Chicago’s award-winning Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, Chicago’s premier theater dedicated to producing new works that advance the lives of women through the power of live theater. She is a 3Arts …
Meida Teresa McNeal
Performance Maker

Meida Teresa McNeal is the Director of Honey Pot Performance, an Afro-feminist collective dedicated to critical performance and public humanities. Recent projects include ways of knowing (2019), a performance and media project exploring systems of knowledge production that premiered at …
Marcela Munoz
Actor & Director Southwest Airlines Awardee

Marcela Muñoz is the Co-Artistic Director and Managing Director of Aguijón Theater, Chicago's oldest Spanish-language theater company. Marcela is a director, actress, acting teacher, and translator of dramatic works.

Besides regular gigs at Aguijón, her acting credits include works with …
Juan-Carlos Perez
Interdisciplinary Artist & Educator Chandler Family Awardee

Juan-Carlos Perez is a visual artist who was born in Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico and immigrated to Los Angeles, California at an early age. He later moved to Chicago to pursue a degree in Fine Arts at the School of the …