2024 Arts Grants Recipients

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Arts Grants

2024 Arts Grants Recipients

(To see this list as a PDF, click here.)

The Saints Award 2024 Arts Grants to the Metro Chicago Performing Arts Community

The Saints are proud to announce the awarding of more than $104,000 in grants to 19 arts organizations in the Chicago metropolitan area for 2024-25. The grants, ranging in amounts from $3,000 to $6,500, were awarded to theater, dance and music organization projects. Over more than 30 years, the Saints have given nearly $1,474,000 to performing arts companies.

The grants will fund projects such as: unique costume and set design; commissioning new works; ASL interpreters and accessibility equipment; community engagement; enhancement of building and performance spaces and the purchase of technical equipment, to name a few. Evaluation criteria looked at the project description, financial viability and legal verification, collaboration among organizations, dedication to cultural and ethnic diversity and addressing underrepresented or differently abled performers and audiences.

The selection process was undertaken by an all-volunteer grants commission that evaluated all proposals. Current funding for the Saints Grants comes almost exclusively from the annual membership dues and donations of its members. Awardees range from relatively new companies to some well-known brand names in Chicago performing arts and are located throughout the Chicago area.

More than 1,600 members of The Saints provide volunteer services for over 200 Chicago area performing arts organizations annually, along with financial support through our MatchGrants Program. Saints membership both provides an opportunity to support the performing arts in metro Chicago and see shows affordably by ushering.

As announced at The Den Theater on Monday, June 17, the recipients of the 2024 Saints grants, in alphabetical order, are listed below (click on logos to visit websites):

An ensemble of artists, now enjoying A Wonderful Life in their very first permanent space after nearly 40 years, will get our help to purchase accessibility equipment and to engage ASL interpreters for their next season in their new home in Chicago’s West Ridge neighborhood.

1st time applicant! This non-equity company will receive funding for licensing costs for the Chicago premiere of the musical The Mad Ones by Kait Kerrigan and Bree Lowdermilk. It opened at the new Bramble Arts Loft performance space in Andersonville last summer. Nothing mad about that!

Celebrating more than a dozen years of performances in the western suburb of Naperville, this theatre committed to “Enlighten, Educate and Entertain” will receive support for much needed equipment to save on rental costs and give their productions more pizazz.

A multidisciplinary ensemble that combines dance, theatre and visual art to tell stories that address social issues, both onstage and in the classroom, will be able to install a new dance floor suitable for all performance types to be used by neighborhood organizations in need of performance space.

This dance company that blends tap with contemporary percussive arts can now upgrade their Mayfair Arts Center (MAC), in Chicago’s Calumet Heights neighborhood, with pipe and drape creating a defined staging space to enhance their performances, as well as those of their resident companies.

Located in an historic Wicker Park storefront building in Chicago, this theatre hosting a diverse range of artistic offerings will receive much needed ventilation repairs to help their patrons all breathe easier as they enjoy the many performances found here.

We’re happy to fund this company, in residence at The Edge Theater in Edgewater, that believes in Daydreams. We’ll make some of those dreams come true with state-of-the-art remote-control technology for lighting and props to enhance the audience experience.

1st time applicant! A company, now in residence at Chopin Theatre, seeking to raise the “profile of Chicago’s storefront musical theater community” will receive our assistance to build up their microphone inventory to take them to Wonderland and Into The Woods next fall.

1st time applicant! The Saints will help cover the costs to film, live stream, edit, and produce recordings from La Caccina's three regular season performances of their diverse, innovative repertoire for women’s voices – in tribute to their namesake, Francesca Caccini, a prolific Baroque composer.

A member of Pride Bands Alliance, this company composed of musicians “inclusive of any background, ethnicity, gender identification or sexual orientation, to represent the LGBTQ community” will now be able to update their performance equipment for Jazz Orchestra and Marching Band.

In residence at Greenhouse Theater Center in Lincoln Park, this multidisciplinary theatre arts company received funding to upgrade their sound recording equipment to continue to share their 32-year history with a larger community in support of a mission to sustain Afrikan Centered Theatre.

Celebrating their 37th season, this ensemble created to perform music from the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Baroque, and more will be able to update their outdated AV equipment to continue offering the projections that enrich their concert experience.

A theatre, currently located in Skokie, that seeks to “entertain, enlighten and electrify audiences” will get an equipment upgrade to enable their lighting designers to widen their ability for artistic expression with color and nuance to each scene – offering a new range of dramatic effects.

A Glenview staple, nearing its 20th year and always welcoming patrons with fresh-baked complimentary cookies, will get our support to implement a hearing loop system, enhancing accessibility for patrons with hearing assistance devices featuring t-coils and hearing units for those without t-coils.

1st time recipient! With help from The Saints, a multi-disciplinary public arts organization that cultivates community engagement will be able to create interactive artistic and musical performances at events throughout the city of Chicago bringing music and visual arts to the streets.

An Old Town staple, performing in an intimate 70 seat theatre, received funding for a lighting control console using LED technology that will work with their new lights, make life for designers much easier and improve their productivity with an eye towards future growth.

A theater that poses questions, rather than provide answers to tell their stories will get funding to bring their set and costumes to life in the world-premiere of The Love Object, a contemporary adaptation channeling Euripides, by their season IV resident playwright Justine Gelfman.

1st time recipient! This company that asks us to reimagine opera will get assistance to purchase electronics for their production of Groundwater which “dives into the complex world of its namesake, looking at water’s dual nature as both an environmental issue and a powerful symbol of memory.”

A theater company committed to challenging and obscure works has the commitment of The Saints to fund their building repair which will prevent any unintended rainfall on their stage and performers thus only the “absurdities of living in today’s society” will be presented onstage and not overhead.