Free Street Theater and Ricardo Gamboa are 2017 Joyce Awards Winners!

2017 Joyce Awards Announced 12/8/2016
By: Tracie Hall, Culture Program Director
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As the new Culture Program Director at the Joyce Foundation, it’s my great pleasure to announce the winners of the 2017 Joyce Awards. I am especially pleased that these winners speak to the vital role of the arts in community development and social justice.
The 2017 Joyce Awards have been awarded to five collaborations between artists of color and cultural organizations --in Chicago, Cleveland, and the Twin Cities. Each collaboration receives a $50,000 grant to produce and present new work. The awards are the only region-wide program dedicated to supporting artists of color in major Great Lakes cities, and since the competition started in 2003, Joyce has awarded nearly $3 million to commission 55 new works.
 
A distinctive feature of the Joyce Awards is the requirement that artists and host institutions include a robust community engagement plan. Appropriately at this time of social, economic and political change, the winning projects for 2017 address themes such as voting rights, immigration, and the impact of women’s labor on the global economy.
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Free Street Theater and Ricardo Gamboa
Free Street Theater will commission artist and activist Ricardo Gamboa to work with a team that includes visual artists, poets and storytellers to research the history of Mexican migration to Chicago, to capture the oral histories of local residents, and to engage residents in interactive community installations. The completed work will be presented in programs held in Little Village and Pilsen next summer, and will be featured in the 2017 Mexican Independence Day celebrations scheduled for next September. 

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