About Arts For Illinois

Arts for Illinois is a collaboration between the State of Illinois, the City of Chicago, and the broader philanthropic community, co-chaired by Illinois First Lady MK Pritzker and Chicago First Lady Amy Eshleman. The new online platform features talented artists – performers, singers, poets, painters, writers, and many more from across Illinois – who have made their works available for the public’s enjoyment while at home during these challenging times. This platform is a place to connect, express, and inspire. A place for comfort, laughter, and healing among all residents.

This statewide initiative comes at a time of unprecedented strain on the arts and cultural community as a result of COVID-19. Arts for Illinois also launched the Arts For Illinois Relief Fund, which will provide immediate relief directly to individual artists and artisans, including stage and production crew members and part-time cultural workers, as well as art organizations, through grants to help those unable to work during this temporary shut-down.  

Since its launch on April 1, 2020, the Arts for Illinois Relief Fund has awarded $6,909,450 to 2,493 artists and 233 organizations around the state. For privacy reasons, the list of individual artist grantees is not publicly available. Visit the Arts Work Fund website for a list of organizational grantees.

This platform is managed by Arts Alliance Illinois. 3Arts and Arts Work Fund are grantmaking partners responsible for administering grants to artists and arts organizations through the Arts for Illinois Relief Fund during the COVID-19 crisis.

About The Partners: 

Arts Alliance Illinois  

Arts Alliance Illinois builds the vitality of communities statewide through service and advocacy, thereby generating resources for the cultural sector and creative industries.Through statewide civic engagement, we position arts and culture as a source of creative solutions to a broad range of challenges; through arts education, we promote arts-centered learning and the development of a creative and adaptive workforce; and through cultural equity, we foster equitable access to and participation in arts and culture, and advance historically neglected or marginalized forms of expression. 

3Arts 

3Arts is a nonprofit organization that advocates for Chicago’s women artists, artists of color, and artists with disabilities who work in the performing, teaching, and visual arts. By providing cash awards, project funding, residency fellowships, professional development, and promotion, 3Arts helps artists take risks, experiment, and build momentum in their careers.

Arts Work Fund

The Arts Work Fund for Organizational Development is a funder collaborative, launched in 2007. Through grantmaking and peer-based knowledge sharing, AWF seeks to help small arts and culture organizations develop sustainable structures so that they can better meet their artistic missions; and provide opportunities for funders and arts leaders to understand the greatest organizational needs of small arts organizations and explore ways to address those needs effectively.