2024 In Review

As we approach the end of 2024, we pause briefly to reflect. Once again, there were so many achievements large and small for our collective. Our artists reached new career milestones. Our Partners joined us in dreaming big, making major investments in our artists’ careers. We continued to explore how we can best support our community of artists and leaders. And so much more. 

Thank you for being a part of our community. We hope to celebrate with you all of these achievements and many more in the upcoming year.

The South Side Satellite Launch

Our long-awaited South Side program launched in March with Program Coordinator Payton Woodard-Harris at the helm. Through the Sacred Spaces program, we found a wonderful partner location in the Woodlawn neighborhood that is committed to building community and supporting local artists. Not only that, the First Presbyterian Church’s existing artist residency program provides our artists with daily opportunities to connect with their artistic peers throughout the building as they hone their own creative practices. 

The South Side roster has grown to six artists and is further invigorated by our internship program in partnership with South Side Occupational for students who are in transition. Twelve SSO students will work in our space twice a week for the entire school year, honing their art-making, critical thinking, and creative problem-solving skills alongside our studio artists.  

Our South Side artists are already catching the attention of curators and collectors. We celebrated the exhibition of work by Katrina Jackson and Marvin Young in Spirit Spirits and Let’s Go Home respectively in our Circle Contemporary gallery. To date, four South Side artists have sold work.

Welcoming New Artists

Over the last year we welcomed a total of 23 new artists across our programs. These new artists are infusing our programs with new energy and ideas. When you consider that Arts of Life has supported a total of 152 artists over 25 years, this surge in artist participation is noteworthy - a true indicator that when partners invest in our capacity, the results are astounding. 

Archiving Project Launch

With the generous investment of the Smith-Tieken Foundation, we launched our Archiving Project in February. Over the past eleven months, our contracted archiving team has been establishing a system to archive and preserve the art made in our programs both digitally and physically. This project plays an essential role in our ability to support the careers of our artists at a professional level. It makes artists’ complete portfolios available to collectors and curators from around the world which led to some of the remarkable exhibition opportunities below.

Notable Exhibitions

At our own Circle Contemporary gallery, we hosted seven exhibitions. Let’s Go Home, guest-curated by Christina Stavros of Intuit: The Center of Intuitive and Outsider Art, set a new attendance record as we welcomed 146 people to our space. It also marked our first in-house exhibition curated by someone representing a museum.

In addition, Caroline Chun exhibited work in Ruschwoman’s “Maisons Fragiles” and Noel Herrera, Hubert Posey, Christianna Msall, and Susan Pasowicz participated in Western Exhibitions’ “More Drawings About Buildings and Food.”

Arts of Life also participated in the inaugural Open Invitational Fair in Miami. This fair is dedicated to progressive art studios showcasing the work of artists with disabilities, with the aim of  building our artists’ careers and dismantling outmoded hierarchies in the contemporary art world.

Finally, Arts of Life artists’ work was exhibited for the first time in South Korea. Omar Abulsheikh. Renata Berdes, Billy Boregerd, Guy Conners, Aaron Kleeblatt, Bill Lilly, Susan Pasowicz, John Phelan, Hubert Posey, and Alex Scott were selected for the Open Planet Project at the N:News Museum Yeonhui in Seoul. 

Special Projects

Artists also took on special projects that were of interest to them this year. Ariée participated in Flight of the Butterflies, a city-wide public art installation of decorated aluminum butterflies. Ariée’s butterfly will be on display through August 2025. 

Our new Self-Advocacy Group hit the ground running, publishing a new zine and participating in the Disability Pride Parade in July.