Program Overview
Artists Run Chicago Fund is a unique regranting initiative that has provided more than 1 million dollars in support to artist-run platforms since 2020, infusing Chicago’s contemporary art network with flexible, unrestricted financial support to strengthen their diverse and experimental programs.
The fund acknowledges the important contributions of artist-run platforms to the Chicago art community and strengthens artist-to-artist support networks, while prioritizing platforms led by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) individuals. Grantees have included artist-run galleries, maker-spaces, festivals, art writing and programming platforms, and much more.
The 2024 Artists Run Chicago Fund is generously supported by the Good Chaos Foundation, the Local South Foundation and The Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation.
Program Goals
- Support artist-run platforms and acknowledge their important contribution to the Chicago art community.
- Strengthen the network of artist-run platforms in Chicago.
- Aid self-organizing artists to create more opportunities for other artists to show and develop their practice in Chicago.
- Fund platforms that deliver diverse and experimental programs.
- Boost financial support for platforms run by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) individuals.
The 2024 Jury
Gareth Thomas Kaye is an exhibition maker and art historian based in Chicago, IL. In 2018 he co-founded Apparatus Projects with Julian Van Der Moere, which they ran together until 2024. In 2023, he founded Chicago Spleen, a journal of art criticism, where he writes and serves as editor. He has organized exhibitions for ADDS DONNA and Apparatus Projects, Good Weather and David Salkin. His writings have been published by Apparatus Projects, Bird Show, Baader-Meinhoff, Chicago Artist Writers, F Magazine, Goldfinch Gallery, Journal FYI, Lumpen Magazine, Sixty Inches from Center and PLATFORM Centre for Lens Based Arts.
Bianca Marks is an arts & cultural administrator with over 15 years of professional experience in project management, and strategic communications for corporate and creative environments. She is founder+principal of Marks on Canvas, an agency at the intersection of studio and artist management for BIPOC artists and BIPOC led arts organizations. Referred to “as the engine that makes art move in Chicago,” Bianca fosters strong partnerships between artist studios and their collaborating galleries, museums & institutions, and partner organizations – impacting studio performance, exhibitions, and programs. She represents artists who drive the critical discourses that inspire and affect the city of Chicago and beyond, including: avery r. young, Brendan Fernandes, Faheem Majeed, Tonika Lewis Johnson, and the arts collective Floating Museum, where she serves as deputy director. Her previous roles of distinction include: Studio Manager for MacArthur Fellow Artist+Architect Amanda Williams (2017-2022), Manager of Curatorial Affairs for the Chicago Architecture Biennial (2023-24), and Communications & PR Liaison for the US Pavilion’s Thrival Geographies at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2018). Bianca received her BA in consumer sciences with a focus on business administration from the University of Arizona (Bear Down!) and resides with her family, complete with an impressive garden, on Chicago’s Southside.
Alan Medina is an artist, filmmaker, and programmer interested in archival imaginaries, histories of labor, and alternative forms of self-organization within pedagogical frameworks. With a public practice of film programming and independent publishing, he has created autonomous learning and viewing spaces with an emphasis on accessibility and community building. He is a co-founder of Inga Books and filmfront (Chicago, IL).
Artists Run Chicago Fund Grantees
2023
{\}() {\}?‡!(){\} Tangential Unspace Art Lab – No Nation, AMFM, ¡Anímate! Studio ,Apparatus Projects, Bird Show, Blanc Gallery, Brown Wall Project, CCAM: Center for Concrete and Abstract Machines, Compound Yellow, Contra Corriente 2024 + Porta(til) Design Project, Dragonfly Gallery & Creative Spaces, The GREYSTONE Collective, in ℅ Black Women, Inga, Jude Gallery (Tala), Liberated Arts Movement, Marimacha Monarca Press, Narrow Bridge Arts Center, The Optimist Gallery at Depression Press Mfg. & Ink, Inc., PO Box Collective, POCAS (People of Color Artist Space), Prairie, PRESS HERE: Center for Mad Culture, Produce Model, The Reservoir Collective, Roman Susan, Sandbox Symphony, Sin Cinta Previa, SpaceShift Collective, Terrain Exhibitions, Tiny Table Gallery, TRQPITECA, VGA Gallery
2022
Bird Show, Bridge, Center for Native Futures, Companion Cooperative, Contra Corriente 2023, Convictions, Hoofprint, Intersect, Mayfield, Mothers Healing Circle, Narrow Bridge Arts Center, Out of Site Chicago, SITE/less, Watershed Art & Ecology, WILD YAMS: Black Mothers and Caretakers Artist Residency
2021
{\}() {\}?‡!(){\} Tangential Unspace Art Lab – No Nation, Alt_Space, AnySquared, Axis Lab, Chicago Artists Writers, Concerned Black Image Makers, Cultivator, DFBRL8R, DIVINE Art Book, Englewood Arts Collective, Film Front, GnarWare Workshop, in ℅ Black Women, LevelUP IRL, Marimacha Monarca Press, Performance Response Journal, Produce Model, QTVC Live!, The Weaving Mill, Sin Cinta Previa,
2020
062, 4th Ward Project Space, 65Grand, ACRE Projects, Adds Donna, AMFM, Annas,
Artists Run Chicago at a Glance
Initiated during the challenging years of the COVID-19 outbreak, the ARC Fund has created breathing room for artist-run projects to continue to innovate and thrive. The grants have increased the platforms’ capacity to pay artists to make new work, hire staff, pay existing staff, build residency programs that attract visiting artists to the region, increase BIPOC-led platforms, and invest in socially engaged practices.
For over two decades, Hyde Park Art Center has been an ally for independent art spaces. The Art Center presented the first Artist Run Chicago exhibition in 2009 with contributions from 40 spaces in existence between 1999 and 2009. A publication documenting the energy of artist-run spaces was produced by Three Walls and published by Green Lantern Press. Our 2020 exhibition Artists Run Chicago 2.0 celebrated the work of 50 artist-run spaces operating between 2010 and 2020 that continue to fuel Chicago’s independent art scene. The Artists Run Chicago Fund was an evolution of this work.
Since 2020, the fund has awarded 119 grants to Chicagoland artist-run platforms. In 2023, Hyde Park Art Center partnered with Terra Foundation for American Art to provide additional funds for a distinct project for Art Design Chicago, a citywide collaboration that highlights the city’s unique artistic heritage and creative communities. To date, the Artists Run Chicago Fund has awarded over 1 million dollars in financial support and we’re still going strong!
