What can make love possible in our coalition building and movement work?

How do we practice ways of living in rooted possibility for an abundant life?

What approaches allow for our fullest selves to participate in communal joy, grief, and radical care?

On Mending brought together local creative practitioners led by Chicago Art Department Resident Artist Silvia Inés Gonzalez to discuss topics of repair as an art form for liberation.

Through critical discussion and skill-share opportunities, participants examined generational, societal, environmental, and familial bonds ruptured by colonialism, extractive capitalist complexes, migration, and politically incited trauma. In centering well-being, grief work, and exploring what moving at the speed of deliberate trust looked like, participants explored the layered conceptualization of mending.

By sharing mutual responsibility in the learning process, the group formed relational connections needed for a community praxis rooted in activism, abolition, organizing, healing, and collective care. On Mending has become a portal to the possibilities of coming together with the myriad languages of love at the center.

Programs related to the exhibition for the month of January will be announced on social media.

Artists include:

Destiny Brady, Lydia Saravia, Salty Brown Femme, Chiara Francesca, Sarah Whyte, Bettina Johnson, Katie Vota, Thandi, and Lydia Cheshewalla

Our coalition building included Chicago Park District youth from Small is All

Much appreciation goes to the funding provided by DCASE and the Illinois Humanities Envisioning Justice Grant

About Silvia Inés Gonzalez
Silvia Inés Gonzalez is a multi-disciplinary artist, cultural worker, and educator in Chicago creating spaces where collective wellness takes on critical dialogue, art-making, and community building. Her visual and audio work is a ballad to nostalgia—the borderline between myth and memory. Silvia has curated and facilitated workshops to address structures of power, imagination, play, confinement, and freedom. Her work has been exhibited at The Chicago Cultural Center, The National Mexican Museum of Art, Woman Made Gallery, Hyde Park Art Center, and ACRE. She is a member of the Chicago ACT Collective, the 96 ACRES Project, and has a studio at Chicago Art Department. As an organizer and administrator for the group POC (People of Color) Artist Space, she connects artists of color from across Chicago to resources through meet-ups and development opportunities. She was awarded the 3Arts Make A Wave Award in 2018, CAC + OtherPeoplesPixels Maker Grant in 2020, and the Illinois Humanities Envisioning Justice Grant in 2022.

About Chicago Art Department
Chicago Art Department (CAD) provides space and resources for socially minded artists to grow their practice while questioning the city we live in. CAD accomplishes this mission by providing artists with equitable and accessible opportunities for artistic development through subsidized Studio Residencies, Think-Tank Programs, Community Events, and contemporary Exhibitions and Programs.

Official Website

More events on this date

Tags: Bettina Johnson, Chiara Francesca, Chicago Art Department, Destiny Brady, Katie Vota, Lower West Side, Lydia Cheshewalla, Lydia Saravia, On Mending, Salty Brown Femme, Sarah Whyte, Thandi