Dreaming Dreams

Let me start with this: Threewalls experienced an incredible year! We move in joy to honor our labor, our dreams, and our ancestral legacies. And, what a joyful way to begin sharing our goodness with you.

So, where to begin???

Addressing Invisible Labor

We brought back our In-Session program, after a two-year hiatus, as a fellowship program. With the support from our new funding partner Mellon Foundation, In-Session is a 7-month program with a cohort of 6 fellows. Each fellow receives $3,000 as a monthly stipend that includes a health stipend. The stipend attends to the invisible labor of the artists as they prepare for their Spring salons. It also addresses the necessary support for health insurance, medical services, and wellness, either for the fellows or their family.

Documenting Artistic Practices

Our second RaD Lab+Outside the Walls publication has dropped! Ecosystem documents the projects of alums Nia Easley, Norman Long, and Nnenna Okore. Designed by Jonelle Demby and edited by Lee Ann Norman, the book features the alums processes and commissioned essays by Kerry Cardoza, Kimberli Gant, Ph.D., Krista Franklin, Adia Sykes, Asher Gamedze, and Elyse Dianne Mack that respond to artists’ public installations. It’s a stunning book and we’ll begin working on our third publication soon! We are thrilled to be able to publish the work by the artists we collaborate with during the program. Documentation is deeply important for ALAANA-identified artists!

Holding Space for Wellness

Emotional and mental wellness are part of our culture of care ethic at Threewalls. The virtual series Culture of Care is in its second season and led by facilitators artist Rhonda Wheatley and creative Rae Chardonnay. Within the organization, we continue to hold space for folks and invite their whole selves, and this includes offering wellness support for our artist community, near and far, when they might need some care in this way.

Moving Closer to Thriving

We have experienced financial growth this year. The growing financial support is a result of dreams stated six years when we reimagined the organization to be the space we are today: an art space that centers the humanity of artists, and specifically ALAANA (African descent, Latinx, Arab, Asian, and Native American) artists and creatives. The brief notations above are small but impactful samples of the work we are doing with more equitable funding from our local and national funding partners. Our funding partners include Builders Initiative, Chicago’s Cultural Treasures, City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, MacArthur & Driehaus Foundations, Illinois Arts Council Agency, Mellon Foundation, Surdna Foundation, and Terra Foundation for American Art. And donors like you!

We are grateful for the folks in our community that support us in various ways: attending programs, partnering with us, volunteering, and making donations. This world-building we are doing is work that we are doing together, in community and in relationship with each other. We are dreaming together and moving towards a world where our humanity is loved, respected, and cared for through our intersections.

Let’s continue seeing, honoring, and loving each other. Donate today for the future!

With care and love,

Jeffreen and the Threewalls Team