Vershawn Sanders-Ward, an Instructor of Dance, and Matt Ulery, an Instructor of Bass and Composition in the College of Arts and Sciences at Loyola University Chicago, were named 2024 Platform Award Recipients by the Walder Foundation. 

The Platform Awards honors mid-career artists in music, theater, dance, and interdisciplinary performance throughout Chicagoland, recognizing their contributions to the city’s cultural and civic landscape. 

The inaugural cohort included 12 performing artists who are actively engaging the greater Chicago community. Each awardee received an unrestricted grant of $200,000 in addition to ongoing professional development and networking opportunities. 

“As a person that has a lived experience of marginalization and historic erasure, this award affords the opportunity for Artists and Artivists like me to be seen and for our work to be visible and valued,” shared Sanders-Ward.  

Sanders-Ward is not only an accomplished director, choreographer, dancer, educator, she describes herself as an Artivist: a visionary force reshaping the landscape of contemporary dance while driving social change. She is the founding Artistic Director and CEO of Red Clay Dance Company, which blends African diasporic dance forms with contemporary techniques, using performance as a vehicle for social change. 

Ulery currently teaches private lessons in composition, improvisation, and double bass. Performing for over 25 years, he leads and composes all the music for several of his own ensembles. Ulery has produced and released 15 albums of original music and collaborated with various ensembles across Chicagoland and the world.  

“Being presented with this prestigious Platform Award from the Walder Foundation has been a powerfully encouraging affirmation; the bold choices we make as creative artists in our sincere efforts can be recognized as uplifting work for our communities and as meaningful research in our fields recognized by a diverse, distinguished committee of our peers,” said Ulery. 

“This is the best city in the world, and it has created some of the most prolific artists of our time,” said Sanders-Ward. “These recognitions and financial investments in our arts and cultural treasures are long overdue. These awards have created a pathway for our work to shine bright into the future. I am excited for the Platform Awards 50 years from now and how it will continue to grow our arts and cultural landscape.” 

Learn more about Vershawn Sanders-Ward and Matthew Ulery.  

In addition to Sanders-Ward and Ulery, Sandra Delgado, an artist in residence during 2019-2020 for the DFPA, was also named a recipient of the 2024 Platform Awards. 

About the College of Arts and Sciences

The College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest of Loyola University Chicago’s 15 schools, colleges, and institutes. More than 150 years since its founding, the College is home to 20 academic departments and 37 interdisciplinary programs and centers, more than 450 full-time faculty, and nearly 8,000 students. The 2,000+ classes that we offer each semester span an array of intellectual pursuits, ranging from the natural sciences and computational sciences to the humanities, the social sciences, and the fine and performing arts. Our students and faculty are engaged internationally at our campus in Rome, Italy, as well as at dozens of University-sponsored study abroad and research sites around the world. Home to the departments that anchor the University’s Core Curriculum, the College seeks to prepare all of Loyola’s students to think critically, to engage the world of the 21st century at ever deepening levels, and to become caring and compassionate individuals. Our faculty, staff, and students view service to others not just as one option among many, but as a constitutive dimension of their very being. In the truest sense of the Jesuit ideal, our graduates strive to be “individuals for others.”