Joyce Awards to Relaunch with $100,000 Unrestricted Artist Grants

The Chicago-based Joyce Foundation will relaunch its Joyce Awards, which have supported artists working in the Great Lakes region since 2004. The foundation will do so under a new funding model, having taken a year-long pause following its 2024 awards cycle.

The awards will pivot from a project-based grant of $100,000 to an unrestricted grant of $100,000 that will go directly to each of the four selected artists. Accompanying the $100,000 unrestricted grant is a $40,000 grant that will go to a Great Lakes–based nonprofit organization, selected by a winning artist, that will help them “help realize, expand, or deepen their work in the region,” according to a release.

The Joyce Awards will also be administered in two cycles going forward, with artists based in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin eligible to win in even-numbered years, beginning in 2026, while artists based in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio eligible to win in odd-numbered years, beginning in 2027.

Another change is that artists are now able to self-nominate for the 2026 cohort, beginning today, with the application period running through May 4. The 2026 cohort will be announced in November, and applications for the 2027 cohort will open in the spring of that year. The Joyce Foundation will continue to invite peers to nominate artists for the awards, who will then submit applications that will be reviewed alongside those of the self-nominated artists.

In addition to being based in one of those six Great Lakes states, the artists must “explore issues related to racial equity and deeply engage communities through collaborative approaches,” according to the submission guidelines, though the awards are open to artists “working in the visual arts, performing arts, film and media, multimedia, literary arts, or other traditional, interdisciplinary, or community-based cultural practices.”

“Recognizing the power of the arts to drive social change and build a more equitable and thriving Great Lakes region, for two decades, the Joyce Awards have been central to advancing the Foundation’s mission,” Mia Khimm, the foundation’s culture program director, told ARTnews in an email about the focus of the awards.

The Joyce Foundation is also partnering with United States Artists (USA), one of the top artists grants administrators in the country, to disburse the funds. “United States Artists is committed to putting unrestricted dollars into the hands of artists,” USA president and CEO Judilee Reed said in an email, noting that this kind of support “recognizes the crucial role that artists have in sustaining the vitality and well-being of our society.”

The Joyce Awards launched in 2004, and in its first 20 years, they have provided more than $5 million to realize more than 90 new works. The Joyce Foundation took the 20th anniversary as a moment to reevaluate its impact and think about how it could best serve artists going forward. These included conversations with past awardees, as well as other artists, arts leaders, and community leaders in the region “to understand what artists and the arts community need most in these complex times,” Khimm said. 

What came out of those conversations was a need to provide artists with unrestricted support, Khimm said. “Unrestricted, direct support gives artists the flexibility to use awards on their own terms, responding to their most pressing needs, while supporting artists to take creative risks, adapt to changing circumstances, and prioritize meaningful community engagement. In the current moment, that kind of trust and responsiveness matters more than ever.”

The decision to include culture organizations as part of the funding model, Khimm said, is part of the Joyce Foundation’s “broader commitment to fostering a vibrant ecosystem where artists, organizations, and communities thrive together.”