Flight of Butterflies

Alice Hargrave is a photo based artist who incorporates sound, video, and photographic imagery within layered site specific installations addressing impermanence: environmental insecurity, habitat loss, and species extinctions. The Canary in the Lake exhibition and monograph revisualizes climate related data from lakes on all seven continents. Hargrave collaborated with The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, to create her widely-exhibited project Last Calls, which features portraits of threatened birds using sound wave patterns of their vocalizations in the wild. In addition, the bird call patterns are translated into “Haute Couture” garments by Dovima Paris where profits directly benefit the birds. Hargrave is pursuing conservation work and climate activism through her artwork — putting the work to work is her modus operandi.

Cydney Lewis is a Chicago-based multimedia artist with a distinguished multidisciplinary background. She began in architecture at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, where she received a BS in Architectural Studies; she also attended the L’École D’architecture de Versailles, France. The fluidity of her ability to transform materials reflects her mastery of ballet as well as her endeavors in film. Her art is held in private collections around the world and has been exhibited widely. She has received various honors, among them a residency with Chicago Public Schools, as well as various awards, including the Black Creativity/Green Art Award from the Museum of Science and Industry.

Englewood Arts Collective is a group of artists with deep roots to the Greater Englewood, Chicago neighborhood. They are passionate about representing, amplifying, and supporting other artists and creative engagements that uplift the Greater Englewood area and other communities demographically similar to it. EAC works to represent the multi-dimensional artistry, talent and pool of ready-to-work-and-uplift creatives, especially Black creatives, that exist on the South Side of Chicago. EAC uses the Arts as a conduit for transformation and healing. EAC is the only arts organization composed entirely of people who are from Englewood and still work with entities in and from that community. EAC also serves to counter negative impressions of the community by representing their roots to Englewood in all their individual efforts and accomplishments.

"At Ignite Studios in Chicago, we believe glass has the power to inspire and transform a room, a person, a community."

Ignite Glass Studios is a state of the art glass facility and event space located in Chicago's West Loop. They specialize in one of a kind artwork created by our glassblowers, high quality custom glassware for restaurants and distinctive installations for homes and businesses. We also offer interactive and educational glassblowing experiences and memorable events. We support a thriving glass community where artists can create and collaborate, novices can experiment and learn, and young people's lives are transformed by the power of this dynamic art form.

Based in Chicago’s River North neighborhood, Marwen exists to educate and inspire young people to nurture their growth and build their futures through art and community. The Lab Residency is a year-long program (running September-December and January-May) that fosters a community of young artists developing independently-driven projects. In every course, a group of Chicago artists in 10th through 12th grade meet weekly with a team of mentor artists, culminating in a public exhibition within their galleries to celebrate not only the student, but also their process and unique expression as an artist.

Born in Osaka, Japan, Mayumi Lake is an interdisciplinary artist and educator, whose work explores the ideas of time, memory, and floating between the real and imaginary. She incorporates photography, sculpture, sound, moving images, and installation to expand her narrative into more complex layers. Mayumi has exhibited nationally and internationally, and her work is in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Art Institute of Chicago, Asia Society, DCASE/City of Chicago, Video Art World, Joy of Giving Something Foundation, and Facebook. She has published two monographs, “Poo-Chi” and “Ex Post Facto,” from Nazraeli Press. Mayumi received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Growing up on the South Side of Chicago, surrounded by urban art and public murals, Rahmaan Statik became inspired to be involved with the subculture of Street Art. A consequent arrest for “vandalism” put him on a mission to legitimize the production of aerosol murals. This became the main focus of his work: public murals that fuse the graffiti aesthetic with a classical training received from the American Academy of Art. Statik has produced over 400 murals, and also creates art for gallery exhibitions using oil, acrylic, graphite, pen & ink, pastels, mosaic tile, found objects, spray paint and digital media. Through the Chicago Public Art Group, as well as After School Matters, he has instructed children in mural painting techniques, as well as mentored young artists in their craft. In addition to his mural and teaching career, Statik.

Born in Chicago, Rubén Aguirre is driven by drawing attention to underutilized infrastructure as a potential substrate. He has produced a number of murals in the Chicago area, across the US, and abroad. Aguirre's work is an intersection of graffiti, abstraction, formalism, and muralism. With forms inspired by typography, geographical terrain, and the human body, Rubén's compositions organically build a visual language often referencing the socio-historical background of each site location. He has exhibited at the National Museum of Mexican Art, the Chicago Cultural Center, and in 2022 was awarded the Helen and Tim Meier Foundation achievement award. His work has been covered by Art News and the Atlantic. Aguirre’s public works have been commissioned for clients such as the City of Chicago, Google, Adidas, LinkedIn, Starbucks, and others.

Salvador Andrade Arévalo was born in Jalisco, Mexico, and raised in the Chicagoland area. He is a trained printmaker that works primarily in painting, drawing, and installation. He received both his BA and MFA from Yale University in Painting & Printmaking. He has held residencies and fellowships with Fulbright (Mexico City), SOMA Summer, Yale University Art Gallery, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, Spudnik Press, and Chicago Artists Coalition (BOLT). In addition, he has been commissioned by JP Morgan Chase for a large-scale public art project in NYC; and his artwork is included in the permanent collections of the Willis Tower and the National Museum of Mexican Art.

Yvette Mayorga is a multidisciplinary artist based in Chicago, Illinois. Her work links feminized labor and the aesthetics of celebration to colonial art history and racialized oppression through the guise of using pink as a weapon of mass destruction. Mayorga holds an MFA in Fiber and Material Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Mayorga's work has been exhibited at the Momentary, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. Currently, Mayorga is working on a large-scale installation for the City of Chicago’s permanent public art collection at O’Hare International Airport’s Terminal 5.