Celebrating our Spring 2023 Grantees
We are so pleased to announce our Spring 2023 Grantees. In this grant cycle, we awarded nearly $900,000 to 23 organizations, including new and returning grantee partners. As always, the majority of our dollars are directed to the South and West Sides of Chicago, and to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) organizations that are at the center of policy debates, activism, and front-line service to Chicagoans. Congratulations to all our grantees, whose impact in the areas of Art, Justice, and Media & Storytelling continues to transform communities across Chicago.
ART
Alt Space Chicago is a contagious, artist-led engine that pioneers tangible acts of service, using art and faith as tools that galvanize impassioned, self-sufficient communities to join in, at a time when past and present injustices spur us to collectively imagine our best future.
Black Alphabet promotes social equity awareness and education in all aspects of life for the Black LGBTQ+/SGL community through the use of media and the arts. Our vision is to develop and showcase films that uplift Black LGBTQ+/SGL stories and artists, thereby inspiring meaningful change, healing, and liberation.
Equity Arts is a creative ecosystem that will empower social change and economic mobility through professional development and regenerative mentorship for artists, leaders, and entrepreneurs. The project is a model for arts and cultural preservation in rapidly changing communities aimed at creating restorative space to advance racial equity.
Grassroots Collaborative builds power with Chicago working families through strategic community-labor organizing, grassroots leadership development, popular education and arts curriculum, civic engagement, and training.
Honey Pot Performance creates platforms for the public exploration of typically marginalized histories, with specific focus on amplifying stories related to Black cultural production in Chicago. Honey Pot Performance’s highly collaborative activities are rooted in the production of original dance, theater, and sound performances.
Lawndale Pop-up Spot is an innovative initiative to connect history, culture, and nature and to highlight the great efforts taking place in North Lawndale. It is a place for community-created exhibits, installations, and education.
Mandala South Asian Performing Arts champions innovative and inclusive artistic opportunities for Chicago residents to encourage multicultural engagement and positive community progress. We connect our audiences and students with South Asian performing arts traditions by offering powerful engagement with specialized artists and educators.
Urban Theater Company was founded by, and is led by and for, people of color in order to preserve the Puerto Rican and Humboldt Park community voice. We celebrate cultural experiences through interdisciplinary art forms. Through fellowship and community, we aim to elevate a diverse and culturally specific collective of Chicago creatives.
JUSTICE
Alliance of the Southeast builds the capacity of leaders, organizers, and associations that carry out community and social change. We envision a powerful grassroots base that impacts decision makers and wins real improvements in our neighborhoods.
Arab American Action Network improves the quality of life of Chicagoland Arabs by building our community's capacity to be an active agent for positive social change through community organizing, advocacy, social services, adult education, culture and arts, youth development, leadership development, and forging productive relationships with other communities.
Chicago Community Bond Fund (CCBF) pays bond for people charged with crimes in Cook County, Illinois. CCBF supports individuals whose communities cannot afford to pay bond and who have been impacted by structural violence—restoring the presumption of innocence before trial and enabling recipients to remain free while fighting their cases.
Chicago Housing Justice League is a coalition fighting for housing and racial justice in the city of Chicago. Given the significant harms facing communities of color, particularly Chicago's Black neighborhoods, we fight for transformative policy changes that will meaningfully improve the lives of the city's most vulnerable populations, particularly renters.
Latino Policy Forum builds the power, influence, and leadership of the Latino community through collective action to transform public policies that ensure the well-being of its community and society as a whole. Through advocacy and analysis, the Forum builds a foundation for equity, justice, and economic prosperity for the Latino community.
Little Village Environmental Justice Organization organizes with our community to accomplish environmental justice in Little Village and achieve the self-determination of immigrant, low-income, and working-class families.
People Matter seeks to uplift, unearth, and untether. Uplifting the community. Unearthing what people don't understand about race, class, gender. Untethering people from their internalized oppressions to create a spiritual, mental, and physical freedom. We do this through community organizing, anti-racist education, art/narrative change, and direct services.
MEDIA & STORYTELLING
Borderless Studio LLC is a research and design practice focused on connecting communities with design processes. Borderless explores collaborative frameworks, creative civic design, and engagement interventions that respond to the complexity of urban systems, spatial justice, and equitable design.
Chicago Mahogany Foundation is dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of the rich history and culture of Chicago, highlighting Chicago’s people, architecture, and impact on the world. Our passion fuels our duty to deliver this history and educate current and future generations. We desire to plant a seed that will foster a sense of pride and community.
Investigative Project on Race and Equity is a start-up, non-profit that will build on the knowledge, history, and experience of our founders to create a new virtual newsroom producing long-form investigative reporting on race and equity in the Chicago region, as well as a training institute.
Juneteenth Productions specializes in documentary films, podcasting, television programs, educational and digital media—utilizing media as an effective tool for positive social change and communicating to diverse communities. Our focus and mission is on Health: of the body and mind; of the environment; of the human condition and spirit.
LWC Studios focuses on our mission statement, "Erasing the Margins," which we accomplish by serving rising-majority audiences with original and client work that reflects their worldviews and centers POC storytellers and creatives.
NON:op Open Opera Works is a non-profit arts and humanities organization that works with communities to create artistic projects where people work together towards a more just society. We are dedicated to opening access to the creative process and deploying innovative platforms rooted in historical and contemporary social concerns.
Prism Photo Workshop offers education, resources, mentoring, funding, professional development, and community to visual journalists from traditionally underrepresented communities, including women, people of color, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities. We believe there should be no barriers to access and have a pay-what-you-can model for attendance.
South Side Weekly has a dual mission: to provide South Siders with high-quality, local news; and to support and nurture journalists, photographers, artists, and others from the diverse communities we serve.