Dance education, artistic skill-building, orchestral concerts, and informative gallery exhibitions are just a few of the ways arts and culture organizations help enrich communities in Chicago. Fifteen arts and culture and/or arts-centered organizations, in these and other arts practices, will receive 2025 Culture Equity and the Arts awards, totaling $3.2 million over three years. The awardees were recommended by a participatory grantmaking panel that reflects Chicago’s community, diversity, and geography.
Pictured above, students take a deejaying class during Little Black Pearl's after-school program. Credit: Marc Monaghan
$240,000 Grants
The following organizations will receive $240,000 over three years:
- BUILD, Inc. is an art-centered youth development organization in Chicago that provides young people on the city’s West Side with opportunities to cultivate creative interests and discover artistic talents.
- Chicago Sinfonietta is a professional orchestra that presents symphonic performances; commissions new work; provides mentoring programs for young musicians, conductors, and administrators of color; and facilitates music education through its programs with Chicago Public Schools (CPS).
- Forward Momentum Chicago provides in-school and after-school dance education to students and young people on Chicago’s South and West Sides, including in CPS.
- Hubbard Street Dance Chicago brings artists, art, and audiences together to enrich, engage, educate, and change lives through the experience of dance.
- Hyde Park School of Dance teaches a wide range of dance styles—such as ballet, jazz, and hip-hop—to students of all ages through workshops and classes, as well as provides affordable space and marketing to resident dance companies on the South Side.
- Illinois Humanities organizes civic discussions, programming, performances, and exhibitions to create a culture in which the humanities are a vital part of the lives of Illinois communities.
- Little Black Pearl Workshop is an arts, entrepreneurship, and educational facility serving the Bronzeville, Hyde Park, Kenwood, Oakland, and Woodlawn neighborhoods on Chicago’s South Side.
- Marwen provides free after-school and weekend programs for middle- and high-school aged youth, emerging artists, and alumni, and inspires young people to build their futures through art and community.
- People’s Music School creates access to tuition-free music education in Chicago with a curriculum grounded in music lessons, ensemble work, music theory, and performance.
- Uniting Voices Chicago Children’s Choir is a multiracial, multicultural choral music organization for children living in Chicago that fosters mutual understanding and respect between young people of different identities, socioeconomic backgrounds, and neighborhoods.
$165,000 Grants
The following organizations will receive $165,000 over three years:
- After School Matters, empowers CPS high school students to explore their interest in the arts and develop skills for success in college, career, and life.
- Black Ensemble Theater, works to eradicate racism and its devastating effects on society through the theater arts and related programming by and about African Americans.
- Chicago Philharmonic Society is an orchestra that performs concerts annually, nurtures professional talent through residencies, and provides music education to Chicago students, including in CPS.
- DuSable Black History Museum presents artistic and historical exhibits, as well as educational, film, literary, and musical events, to educate visitors on significant topics affecting Black Americans.
- Urban Gateways addresses disparities in access to arts and culture and enhances artistic exposure for elementary and high school students in the Chicago area.
