In addition to relief support, the Terra Foundation is continuing its investment in Art Design Chicago and Art Design Chicago Now, an extension of the original initiative that features a series of public conversations, hands-on workshops, behind-the-scenes collections’ tours, and digital storytelling that amplifies the voices of Chicago’s diverse community of makers, past and present.
Building upon the work launched through the first iteration of Art Design Chicago in 2018—supporting deep collections research, encouraging the growth of curatorial and academic networks, and uncovering stories of historically underrepresented artists and designers—the foundation is committed to supporting efforts to expand narratives of American art and to illuminate the work of BIPOC artists and the vital stories told within this broader, more inclusive frame.
As part of Art Design Chicago Now, several organizations are receiving the foundation’s support for the first time, including the nascent Center for Native Futures and the Chicago Collections Consortium. The Collections Consortium—comprising libraries, museums, and other institutions with archives that collaborate to preserve and share the history and culture of the Chicago region—partnered with the foundation as part of Art Design Chicago Now to present a series of workshops exploring such topics as the evolution of zine culture in Chicago and the city’s distinctive graphic design history as exemplified in its rich tradition of music poster production. The Center for Native Futures, a newly formed Native, Black-Native, and Indigenous artist resource and platform, presents a public program to discuss ideas and misconceptions about public art, the problems around the monuments settlers have erected to themselves, and the looted and destroyed effigy mounds of Zhegagoynak (Chicago in the Potawatomi language).
Additional first-time Terra Foundation grantees include the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture and the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance, which each received support for Art Design Chicago exhibition research and development, and Green Lantern Press, for an Art Design Chicago publication.
A community-based arts organization in the Avondale neighborhood, the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance is developing an exhibition entitled Puerto Rico to Chicago: The Shaping of an Arts Community. The project will study Puerto Rico-Chicago connections through the visual artists who came to Chicago, from the early 1940s on, to study and develop their studio and academic skills.
