The 2026 Award Recipients

By CGN STAFF

The organization will honor this year’s artists on October 26 as it marks more than $10 million in artist funding to 3,050 artists since 2007. 3Arts awardees reflect 66% women artists, 74% artists of color, and 17% Deaf or disabled artists.

Visual artists Diana Solís and Sandie (Chunshan) Yi are among the recipients of the 2026 3Arts Awards, which provide $30,000 in unrestricted funding to each honoree. The Chicago-based nonprofit will celebrate the recipients at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance on October 26. In partnership with Artspace Southern Illinois, the event also honors downstate artist Luca Cruzat with a 3Arts Award in visual art.

The artists represent a range of practices, from documentary photography and public murals to textiles, wearable art and printmaking.

Mexican-born Diana Solís works across photography, painting, illustration, murals and installation, exploring identity, belonging, memory and community. Her documentary photography has created an archive of LGBTQ+, Latinx and feminist communities and movements in Chicago and Mexico City. Recent exhibitions include City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism in Chicago at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and Chicano Camera Culture: A Photographic History, 1966 to 2026 at The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture.

Chicago-based Sandie (Chunshan) Yi is a visual and textile artist, educator and disability culture maker. Working with wearable art, sculpture, biomaterials and social practice, Yi explores disability, visibility, care, access and intimacy. Her work has been exhibited at institutions including Gallery 400, the Chicago Cultural Center, the MCA Chicago and the Denver Art Museum.

Chilean-born Luca Cruzat, based in Southern Illinois, receives a visual art award through 3Arts’ partnership with Artspace Southern Illinois. Her practice encompasses collagraphy, installation and three-dimensional objects, using simplified forms, restrained color and everyday materials to explore personal and collective experiences.

Also of interest to the visual arts community is teaching artist award recipient Wisdom Baty, a multidisciplinary artist, educator and curator on Chicago’s South Side. Baty founded WILD YAMS: Black Mothers Artist Residency, which provides time, space and resources for Black artist mothers and caretakers to sustain their practices.

Additional 3Arts Award recipients are dance artists Silvita Diaz Brown and Kara Brody; musicians Marvin Tate and Tahirah Whittington; teaching artist John Chapman; and theater artists Tina Fakhrid-Deen and Ana Santos. The celebratory evening will feature powerful performances by three past 3Arts awardees: Keyierra Collins, Sparklmami, and Sandra Delgado.

The October celebration will honor 36 artists across the $30,000 3Arts Awards, $50,000 Next Level Awards and $2,000 peer-selected Make a Wave Awards. Since 2007, 3Arts has distributed more than $10 million to more than 3,050 artists.

The 2026 3Arts Awards Celebration takes place Monday, October 26, at 5:30 pm at the Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph St. Tickets are $50–$300 and include a reception, awards program and after-party. Funds raised will be split between 3Arts and Center for Native Futures. 

Tickets and information.