Next Level Awards

The 2024 recipients of Next Level Awards will be announced this fall. Save the date for the 3Arts Awards Celebration on October 21, 2024.

The 3Arts Next Level Awards offer our past award recipients the opportunity to receive second awards at a higher level, reflecting our organization's belief that one-time investments are not always enough for artists to build lasting momentum, and that they thrive with continued support at critical junctures as their practices and careers evolve.

In 2024, the Next Level program will provide six $50,000 awards to artists working in the following categories:

  • Next Level Teaching Arts Awards: With support from Good Chaos adn the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, 3Arts honors three teaching artists. In 2024, these awards were open to artists in the Chicago metropolitan region who had received a past 3Arts Award in Teaching Arts or a 3Arts/Bodies of Work Residency and whose practice is in teaching arts.
  • Next Level Visual Arts Awards: With support from an Anonymous Donor at the Chicago Community Foundation, 3Arts honors three women visual artists. In 2024, these awards were open to women visual artists in the Chicago metropolitan region who had received a past 3Arts Award, a Make a Wave Award in 2017-2020, or a 3Arts/Bodies of Work Residency.

Profiles of Next Level Award recipients are accessible further below on this page, or download an awardee list in PDF here.

Selection Process

3Arts artists who meet the category and eligibility requirements above are invited to submit an online application. A panel of distinguished jurors for each award category convene to review the applications and select the recipients. Recipients are artists who are actively making distinctive and compelling work; have plans to advance their next creative leap and/or project; and are at a critical juncture when an award of this size and nature could have a significant impact. 

Meet the jury panel for the 2024 3Arts Next Level Teaching Arts Awards. 
Meet the jury panel for the 2024 3Arts Next Level Visual Arts Awards. 

2024

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    Rozalinda Borcilă

     Artist, Creative Researcher, and Media Maker Reva & David Logan Foundation Awardee

    Rozalinda Borcilă (she/they) is a Romanian immigrant, artist, and activist. She develops long-term research projects that combine analytic and embodied modes of learning. Her work explores settler colonialism as a placemaking project that involves multiple and entangled violences. How do …

  • None

    Bethany Collins

     Visual Artist Make a Wave Artist

    Bethany Collins (she/her) was born in Montgomery, AL and lives and works in Chicago, IL. Bethany is a multidisciplinary artist whose conceptual practice examines the relationship between race and language. Centering language—its biases, contradictions, and ability to simultaneously forge connections and …

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    William Estrada

     Multidisciplinary Artist Community Awardee

    William Estrada (he/him/él) grew up in California, Mexico, and Chicago. His teaching and art-making practice addresses inequity, migration, historical passivity, and cultural recognition in historically marginalized communities. He documents and engages experiences in public spaces to transform, question, and make …

  • Black woman with long locs, black glasses, standing in front of a bright blue mural

    Emily Hooper Lansana

     Storyteller & Community Builder BMO Harris Bank Community Awardee

    If you hear Emily Hooper Lansana (she/her) tell stories, you may hear an African folktale, a moment from Black History, a personal memory, or a journey into the future. Whatever the form, you will hear a story that inspires.

    Here's …

  • A midddle-aged white woman with red-and-silver streaked hair, black glasses, black sweater, against a yellow door.

    Riva Lehrer

     Artist, Writer, Curator Chandler Family Artist

    Riva Lehrer (she/they) is an artist, writer, and curator who focuses on the socially challenged body. She is best known for representations of people whose physical embodiment, sexuality, or gender identity have long been stigmatized. 

    Her work has been exhibited …

  • A middle aged white guy with dirty blonde hair, a red and grey beard smiles widely, almost uncomfortably. He wears his favorite teal sweater and a rather complex floral patten shirt. The photo is shot from the chest up with a green background.

    Andy Slater

     Teaching Artist

    Andy Slater (he/him) is a blind Chicago-based media artist, writer, performer, and disability advocate/loudmouth. Andy holds a Master of Arts in Sound Arts and Industries from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art …

2024 Judges

Visual Arts
Carla Acevedo-Yates
Christa Blatchford
Allison Glenn
Teaching Arts
Mark Alcazar Diaz
Karen Benita Reyes
Miguel Angel Rodriguez
Shamila Tocruray

More Award Years