VocalEssence and Children's Theatre Company each got $50,000 from the Joyce Foundation to commission new work from artists of color. The choral group VocalEssence will commission a new piece by African-American composer/musician Hannibal Lokumbe.
The theater will use its grant to support a new children's play by Asian-American writer Naomi Iizuka, who also received the first Joyce Award for Theater in 2004. The foundation says these grants are designed exclusively for artists of color in major Midwestern cities. The other two Joyce arts grants for this year went to Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, for a new work by choreographer Alonzo King, and to Central Indiana Community Foundation, for a public art sculpture by Fred Winston.
The Chicago-based foundation looked at 41 proposals from the Great Lakes region before awarding grants this year.
MARY ABBE
