2023


Chicago Collections Consortium
$16,000
Chicago, Illinois
2023

To support A Digital Look at Chicago’s Art Fairs and Art Festivals (working title), a digital exhibition of archival material drawn from an array of collections that documents Chicago’s rich history of art fairs and art festivals and their impact on the diverse communities they serve. Related public programs feature archivists, historians who contributed to the project, and organizers of specific art fairs and festivals. The program takes place as part of the Terra Foundation initiative Art Design Chicago.

Opendox
$50,000
Kingston, New York
2023

To support Designing For Dignity: A Convening of Possibilities 02, Deem Journal’s second symposium, to be held in-person at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and virtually. The event brings together designers, practitioners, and community members for dialogues around emergent and liberatory directions within design. Through a wide range of presentations, workshops, site/studio visits, and art installations, the event explores how design can draw on diverse perspectives to create more equitable and inclusive communities and futures. The program takes place as part of the Terra Foundation initiative Art Design Chicago.

American Indian Center of Chicago
$50,000
Chicago, Illinois
2023

To support Indigenizing Urban Intertribal Arts, a series of artmaking workshops led by Native practitioners that includes contemporary expressions of traditional Indigenous techniques in feather fans, moccasins, quillwork, and Hand Drums. The program takes place as part of the Terra Foundation initiative Art Design Chicago.

Chicago Art Department
$25,000
Chicago, Illinois
2023

To support Seeds IV: Healing Stages, an annual initiative that centers BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) voices and cultivates cross-cultural healing through multilayered celebrations. Seeds in My Pocket bridges the performing and visual arts to amplify direct support for artists, performers, storytellers, and other creative practitioners through a series of free public exhibitions, performances, and programs created with community partners. The program takes place as part of the Terra Foundation initiative Art Design Chicago.

Folded Map
$50,000
Chicago, Illinois
2023

To support unBlocked, an initiative led by social justice artist Tonika Johnson that is a response to racist Land Sale Contracts in the 1950s and ’60s and their lasting impact on today’s residents. The project, in partnership with the Chicago Bungalow Association, brings together community members, artists, and other collaborators to catalyze the transformation of an Englewood block through arts-based and physical improvements and repairs to individual homes whose present-day property (de)valuation can be traced to racist housing policies. The program takes place as part of the Terra Foundation initiative Art Design Chicago.

Public Media Institute (PMI)
$50,000
Chicago, Illinois
2023

To support Artist-Run Legacies: Conversations between Generations of Artist-Run Culture in Chicago, a project that convenes and amplifies the voices of artists and organizers who have built independent artist-run platforms in Chicago over the past 45 years through the development of a story archive, in-person conversations broadcast on Lumpen Radio and Lumpen TV, and a culminating publication. PMI is pursuing this project in its capacity as caretaker of MdW, an affiliation of artist run organizations in the Midwest, and its partnership with the Hyde Park Art Center’s Artist Run Chicago Fund. The program takes place as part of the Terra Foundation initiative Art Design Chicago.

The Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University
$150,000
Evanston, Illinois
2023

To support Woven Being: Indigenous Art Histories of Chicagoland (working title) (January–July 2025), an exhibition that offers critical perspectives on the art history of the Chicago region by centering the viewpoints of four Indigenous artists with ties to this land: Andrea Carlson (Grand Portage Ojibwe), Kelly Church (Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band Pottawatomi), Nora Moore Lloyd (Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa), and Jason Wesaw (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi). The grant supports an engagement fellow, who develops programs, co-designs a visitor community room, and assists in building relationships. The project is part of the Terra Foundation initiative Art Design Chicago.

Newberry Library
$40,000
Chicago, Illinois
2023

To support Immigrant Printing in Chicago (December 2024–March 2025), an exhibition that reflects on the lived experiences of immigrant printers, designers, and bookmakers in Chicago and explores how printing by and for immigrant communities has shaped the city’s cultural landscape. The project is part of the Terra Foundation initiative Art Design Chicago.

Design Museum of Chicago
$125,000
Chicago, Illinois
2023

To support Letters Beyond Form: Chicago Types (November 2024–April 2025), an exhibition that looks at typography (the shape and design of letters) within Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods to investigate design legacies and their contemporary echoes. The project highlights alternative modernisms by considering how revolutionary movements and concepts like love and safety have shaped the way communities spread and designed information for one another. The grant supports an engagement fellow, who helps build deeper relationships on the South Side and hosts events. The project is part of the Terra Foundation initiative Art Design Chicago.

South Side Community Art Center
$150,000
Chicago, Illinois
2023

To support ReSOURCE: Art and Resourcefulness in Black Chicago (October–December 2024), a wide-ranging historical and contemporary exhibition that focuses on Black artists in Chicago who work with found objects and repurposed materials, environmentally sustainable materials and ecological themes, including the space of the city as theme and medium. Forging connections between historical practices of resourcefulness and the urgency of contemporary ecological themes, the exhibition shows how earlier generations of Black artists constitute a powerful source of ideas and traditions for artists working today. The grant supports an engagement fellow, who teaches youth programs and coordinates with partner organizations. The project is part of the Terra Foundation initiative Art Design Chicago.

Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art
$125,000
Chicago, Illinois
2023

To support Chicago as Catalyst: Immigrant Communities Nourish Self-Taught Artists (working title) (October 2024–April 2025), an exhibition that focuses on the impact of immigration and the immigrant experience on artists who began a self-taught practice upon arriving in Chicago. It explores how identity relates to artists’ efforts in the context of Chicago’s support for culture and community exchange. Themes include longing for one’s homeland, labor, individual expression, and tendencies toward assimilation. The range of subject matter and artistic styles reflects artists processing distinct cultural traditions and memories, as well as intersecting with the everyday experiences of living in diaspora. The grant supports an engagement fellow, who designs and supports public programming for adults and teens. The project is part of the Terra Foundation initiative Art Design Chicago.

Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN)
$59,000
Chicago, Illinois
2023

To support Inverse Surveillance (October 2024–1st quarter 2025), an installation created by Chicago-based artist Assia Boundaoui with the Arab and Muslim American communities in Chicago that takes the shape of a full-scale labyrinth, containing more than 33,000 pages of Freedom of Information Act documents collected during a decade-long FBI surveillance of the community. The project is part of the Terra Foundation initiative Art Design Chicago.