Member Spotlight on The Joyce Foundation

For the month of June, GIA’s photo banner features the 2014 winners of the Joyce Awards, a program of The Joyce Foundation.

The Joyce Foundation is excited to announce the 2014 winners of the Joyce Awards, which empower artists in different cities across the Midwest to create new work in partnership with organizations and communities.The prestigious Joyce Awards recognize the importance of adding new, dynamic artworks specifically from artists of color with a $50,000 award that commissions thought-provoking pieces.

These works—selected based on artistic practice, rigor, organizational relevance and community engagement in the artistic process—aims to strengthen cross-cultural understanding and expand the canon of art history.

Each project involves special events and performances or interviews with residents that will be incorporated into the artwork itself. For the first time in the Joyce Awards’ 11-year history, all winners are female artists.

Awardees include Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage with the Guthrie Theater and playwright Tracey Scott Wilson with the Pillsbury House Theatre in Minneapolis, choreographer Camille A. Brown with DANCECleveland, and composer Jessie Montgomery with the Sphinx Organization in Detroit. Additional information and photographs for each artist and their partnering organization are available on the Joyce Foundation's website. The Joyce Foundation aims to improve the quality of life in the Great Lakes region and across the country.