2025 ART Grant Recipients

2025 ART Grant Recipients is sponsored by Field Foundation and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Supports 25 Chicago-based arts and culture nonprofits with general operating grants.

Announcing the 2025 ART Grant Recipients – Field Foundation Announcing the 2025 ART Grant Recipients Announcing the 2025 ART Grant Recipients Field and MacArthur Foundations Announce 2025 A Road Together (ART) Grant Recipients Twenty-five Small to Mid-Sized Arts and Culture Nonprofits Funded through 5-year, $15 Million Partnership Supporting Historically Underserved Communities CHICAGO – The Field Foundation and the John D.

and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation today announced the 2025 “A Road Together” (ART) grant recipients – 25 Chicago-based arts and culture nonprofits who together will receive $2. 85 million in general operating grants over three years.

As a five-year, $15 million partnership with the MacArthur Foundation, the ART initiative is rooted in the belief that small and mid-sized arts and culture organizations – including social service groups and community organizers – are vital to Chicago’s identity, economy, and social fabric.

Now in its third year, the partnership has awarded unrestricted, general operating funding to 156 nonprofits – all of which have annual budgets of less than $1 million and operate largely in traditionally underserved communities. This is a milestone year for the ART initiative, which offered both three-year and one-year grants in its first two years.

In 2025, all ART grants provide three years of funding, fulfilling the initiative’s vision of providing substantial, multi-year support to help small and mid-sized arts and culture organizations realize their missions.

The ART initiative supports organizations that serve historically underserved communities, particularly on the city’s South and West Sides, which traditionally have faced significant roadblocks when trying to access arts resources. A Commitment to Participatory Grantmaking A panel of Chicago artists and cultural leaders recommended the 2025 cohort of ART grant recipients using a participatory grantmaking process.

The panelists reviewed nearly 120 proposals and evaluated organizations on criteria including community engagement, relevance, impact, and alignment with the Field Foundation’s mission to support community power building. Grants range between $25,000 and $100,000 per year over three years.

Comprised of three, 25-organization cohorts (2023, 2024, 2025) receiving three-year general operating funding, the ART initiative supports 75 unique organizations annually. This approach is especially significant as the arts sector faces continued challenges, including rising operating costs and declining funding at federal, state, and local levels.

The ART initiative continues to demonstrate the transformative impact of general operating funding. Organizations have reported that ART dollars act as a “release valve” to fund salaries, pay artists, and cover core infrastructure costs—essential expenses that are often unfunded through traditional restricted grants.

2025 ART Grant Recipients Congratulations to the 2025 ART grant recipients Africa International House USA Ballet Folklorico de Chicago Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center Chicago Torture Justice Memorials Foundation Creative Chicago Reuse Exchange Cultural Access Collaborative Making a Difference Dancing (M. A. D.

D.) Rhythms Organization The Era Footwork Collective UrbanTheater Company (UTC) Learn about the ART initiative and the 2025 grant recipients. The Field Foundation is a private and independent foundation that supports community power building through strategic investments in civic infrastructure, the creative sector, local news outlets, and organizers.

Through its grantmaking, the foundation collaborates with funding partners to distribute more than $11 million annually to organizations and leaders working in geographic priority areas, with a focus on the city’s South and West Sides. Learn more at www. fieldfoundation.

org . The John D. and Catherine T.

MacArthur Foundation supports creative people, effective institutions, and influential networks building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world.

MacArthur is placing a few big bets that truly significant progress is possible on some of the world’s most pressing social challenges, including advancing global climate solutions, decreasing nuclear risk, promoting local justice reform in the U.S., revitalizing local news, and reducing corruption in Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria.

In addition to the MacArthur Fellows Program and the global 100&Change competition, the Foundation continues its historic commitments to the role of journalism in a responsive democracy as well as the vitality of our hometown, Chicago. Learn more at www. macfound.

org . Director of Communications mmccandless@fieldfoundation. org Announcing the 2026 Healing Illinois Subgrantees