The Chicago-based Joyce Foundation has announced the winners of its annual Joyce Awards, which recognize collaborations between Black, Indigenous, and people of color artists and organizations in the Great Lakes region.

This year's awardees will each receive $75,000 — a $25,000 increase over last year's prize amount — to produce and present a commissioned work in collaboration with community members, with at least $25,000 dedicated for artist stipends. The four winning collaborations will engage arts communities in Chicago, Cleveland, and Milwaukee while exploring themes of loss and renewal, identity and cultural sustainability, and healing through nature, art, and community.

This year's winners include Sydney Chatman and Congo Square Theatre Company, who will co-create a new community-based theatrical work exploring the journey of Black women and girls healing from intracommunal and state-sanctioned violence; Daniel Minter and Lynden Sculpture Garden, whose collaboration will bring artists, refugees, and local Black communities in Milwaukee together to create a public outdoor sculpture that explores nature, ecological threats, and the transformational power of art; Kameelah Janan Rasheed and FRONT International, whose civic mural project in collaboration with Cleveland teenagers and the Cleveland Public Library will create space for diverse narratives about lived Black experiences; and SANTIAGO X and the Chicago Public Art Group, who will collaborate an augmented reality Smartphone app that brings an interactive digital gallery featuring Native histories, cultures, and languages to Chicago's 4000N outdoor trail.

"My vision for the creation of this work is to uplift and amplify survivors in the creative healing and liberation process focused on forging a new narrative instigated by the atrocities of state-sanctioned violence," said Sydney Chatman. "I believe in theater's unique ability to shine light on the injustices of our world, as well as its capacity to bring joy — this process seeks to center the voices of the Black women and girls whose stories have too long gone unheard."