Joyce Awards

The Joyce Awards provide direct, catalytic support to Great Lakes-based artists and culture bearers whose visionary creative practices meaningfully impact and advance racial equity in their communities.

Informed by conversations with artists, arts leaders, and past awardees across the region, the new Joyce Awards program includes unrestricted awards of $100,000, paired with a $40,000 grant to a Great Lakes organization selected by the artist to help realize, expand, or deepen the impact of their work in the region.

Administered by United States Artists, the program now welcomes both peer and self-nominations and has expanded eligibility state-wide in six states. Artists and culture bearers based in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin will be eligible in 2026, followed by Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio in 2027. Following a nomination, application, and panel review process, four Awards will be awarded in each year. The 2026 awardees will be announced in Fall 2026. The 2027 cycle will open in Spring 2027.

The Joyce Awards program was launched in 2004 and has invested more than $5 million to support the creation of more than 90 new artistic works by historically underrepresented artists working in collaboration with arts and community organizations in the Great Lakes region. These projects have demonstrated the power of the arts to inspire social change and community enrichment and have also facilitated catalytic opportunities for artists. In 2025, the Joyce Foundation began a process of convening and listening to artists, arts leaders, and past awardees to reflect on twenty years of the Joyce Awards and shape the new program. The Foundation engaged United States Artists to administer the Joyce Awards as an unrestricted model of support directly to artists and culture bearers.