3ARTS Awards Celebration to Honor Chicago Artists at Harris Theater

The nonprofit service organization 3Arts has revealed the date for its annual 3Arts Awards Celebration, a festive evening of dynamic performances by Chicago artists and the announcement of the recipients of unrestricted grants to artists working in the performing, teaching, and visual arts. The 2026 3Arts Awards Celebration takes place at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance (205 E Randolph) on Monday, October 26, at 5:30pm. Tickets for the event, which includes a welcome reception, awards program, and a jubilant after-party, are $150 (general admission) and $300 (VIP) with a limited number of $50 tickets available for industry professionals. Tickets will be available at 3arts.org/tickets in early September. Funds raised during the event will be split between 3Arts and Chicago nonprofit, Center for Native Futures.

Thirty-six artists will be honored at this year's program, which distributes unrestricted awards across three categories: the 3Arts Awards ($30,000 each), Next Level Awards ($50,000 each), and the peer-selected Make a Wave Awards ($2,000 each). The celebratory evening will also feature powerful performances by three past 3Arts awardees.

Expanded for 2026, the Next Level Awards will now include two awards in Music and two in Theater, made possible by support from the Paul Angell Foundation. This marks the first time these unrestricted grants will be available to musicians and theater artists, following the initiative's initial launch in Visual Arts (2020) and subsequent expansion into Teaching Arts.