8legs: Department of cultural affairs and special events

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Chicago’s cultural department launches new grant progam aimed at helping emerging theater companies

Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs launched Next Stage Chicago, a $400,000 grant program for emerging theater companies.
The program will award up to $50,000 to as many as eight nonprofits building audiences and infrastructure.
Grants require nonprofits to have budgets of $500,000 or less and at least three but no more than ten years in operation.
The grants can be used for organizational management, marketing, and audience development.
Next Stage Chicago is funded in part by a Pritzker Foundation grant.
Recipients will be chosen from Chicago’s robust storefront theater scene that has faced pandemic-related audience declines.
Applications for Next Stage Chicago are open and close July 8, with decisions in September.
Cultural Commissioner Kenya Merritt frames the initiative as essential to Chicago’s neighborhoods.
DCASE has a history of grantmaking, supporting hundreds of recipients in 2025.
The next Stage Chicago program is part of a broader arts funding strategy in the city.

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