The Joyce Foundation has announced the 2022 Joyce Awards winners, each of whom will receive a $75,000 grant supporting artists of color in creating new work.
This year's winners include playwright Nancy García Loza; musician and educator Nabil Ince; teaching artist, dancer, and choreographer Michael Manson; visual and social practice artist Aram Han Sifuentes; and transdisciplinary artist Pramila Vasudevan.
Loza will be commissioned by Chicago's National Museum of Mexican Art to develop a new play that expands the narratives of Mexican migration to the U.S., currently titled Pénjamo: A Pocha Road Trip Story. Also in Chicago, Sifuentes will be hosted by the HANA Center for a workshop series about storytelling and protest banners for multigenerational and multi-ethnic communities. The series will be titled Citizenship for All: Storytelling for Immigrant Justice through NongGi Making.
The Harrison Center in Indianapolis, Indiana will host Ince for a songwriting residency, culminating in a collection of songs and music videos about local Black-owned businesses. Manson will create a concert-length dance production featuring 1970s dance style Detroit Jit, titled Rhythm of the Feet, at Detroit, Michigan's Living Arts. Lastly, Public Art Saint Paul will present Vasudevan's Prairie/Concrete, a participatory event about urban ecology, as part of its inaugural Saint Paul/Minneapolis Triennial.
The projects are designed to engage diverse communities in the Great Lakes region, and foster cultural equity and sustainability in those communities.
“The 2022 Joyce Awards support interactive and collaborative projects spanning a broad range of creative media and artists who are inspired community leaders in our region,” said Culture Program Director Mia Khimm in a statement. “This year’s wide range of projects and artists uplift immigrant voices and experiences, bring past cultural forms and traditions into the present, and strengthen community pride across the Great Lakes.”
The winners were selected by an external panel comprised of C. Ondine Chavoya, Sandra Delgado, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Andrea Louie, Shaunda McDill, and Sheetal Prajapati.
