Dear Friends of AnySquared,
Some of you are friends we’ve featured in exhibitions, some we’ve met at events or studio days, and some we’ve collaborated with on your projects – many are friends from the community. You are why we exist and your support is essential for us to continue our work.
This December marks our year anniversary of formalizing AnySquared as a nonprofit 501c3! We are grateful to our board of directors for doing the work to make this happen–the board is made up of six dynamic individuals who are involved in community-based organizations and arts related projects. As a nonprofit, we can create new networks of support for Chicago artists and generate compelling and meaningful programming that gives artists a chance to leverage their art to organize for the greater community good.
Please scroll through to see what AnySquared has been doing this year!
Artists from all over the city attend AnySquared’s weekly Wednesday Studio Days. Participants tell us that there is no other art day like ours in the City of Chicago. We provide free supplies while offering the studio space and encouraging creativity and collaboration. In 2022 we were excited to be open all year and hosted 50 Studio Days with 20–30 mostly young artists attending each week! instagram post 1 | instagram post 2 | instagram post 3
Art community events like AnySquared Art Swap Meet last February are reaching bigger audiences and more artists citywide. Over 250+ people attended the Art Swap that featured 110 artists swapping art. Block Club Article announcing Art Swap | instagram post | facebook artists album
Life & Love in Covid Times opened in March as our 1st exhibit for Art at Coles since the pandemic! Featuring 50+ artists including some we have never worked with before, it was a great way to connect in addition to Studio days. We also hosted 2 other Art at Coles later this year that hightlighted 3-4 artists each in these exhibits: Art at Coles #42 and Off the Streets!
We hosted 30 art talks to check out on YouTube through March of 2022, See the fantastic lineup of artists of all experiences! AnySquared Spotlight Art Talk Series
Looking to the future as a nonprofit: Our amazing Visioning Session in June gave the whole of the AnySquared network a platform to workshop and voice ideas about the direction of our organization as a nonprofit. We continue to roll out different aspects discussed including implementing monthly meetings, opening the studio additional days, initiating the planning for the Belmont Cragin Community Mural, and creating more avenues for more artists participation in programming and proposing projects. Thank you to Studio Gang for the rooftop space! facebook video
We continue to partner with Chicago artists, projects, and organizations in the community.
The annual Against Da Fence mini-art-festival is our biggest collaboration of the year and is a testimony to cooperation with Renegades of Funk and our combined communities at Project Logan. 500+ people in the community came through to see art on the fence, painting on the wall, art vending and demonstration by 75+ artists as well as participate in our art-making activity. See 2022 Facebook album with extra photos!
This year we were proud to be recruited to collaborate on two projects with Palenque LSNA — an excellent community organization that fights for affordable housing, immigration rights, and better schools. Our team created a beautiful mural banner to be carried at Palenquefest. We also organized arts programming at the May festival including artmaking for families, an artist showcase, a “here to stay” community banner painting activity, and more than a half dozen live artists. It was a true collaboration of art plus community on a rainy, but fun day!
Palenque LSNA also asked us to create community alter that honors those killed by gun violence in 2022 for the Viva La Vida: Day of the Dead event at Comfort Station in late October. Our lead artist was Cesar Luna who designed and created the beautiful ofrenda for Dia De los Muertos.
Once again we collaborated with Unity Park for Art in the Park and provided volunteers, organized the painting activities of the day, and completed the “making space for each other” banner mural painted by the community and designed by Helen Sanchez-Cortes who was also the lead organizer. It was a beautiful day of art + community.
We continue to supported up-and-coming spaces and emerging artists with our collaboration with Studio Nez for the Breakfast Show exhibit.
It was great to partner with Casa Hernandez’s Nick Hernandez who donated their space for the Passions Skateboard Art Show curated by Cesar Luna! The space usually hosts Humboldt Park Solidarity Network‘s free store thanks to Nick and community members!
This year we also sponsored a pilot Arts Administration Internship Program and plan to create and fund more mentorship opportunities and skills workshops in 2023. For next year we hope to create paid intern positions for communications manager and art studio manager. Internships help develop real world skills for young people interested in arts administration but we need your support to make these positions a reality.
Throughout the year we continued to amplify our fellow artists and collaborators in our wider network through 100s of social media stories and posts in the Milwaukee Avenue Arts News.
While we currently remain in our AnySquared Studio space, and are beginning the process of investigating the possibility of spaces – but we understand we need to build out our fundraising capacity. We will see rising operations costs in 2023 and have already experienced a rise in costs for art materials. We have traditionally raised money through our own efforts and in 2023 plan to make a push to seek out monthly sustainers and grants which will help us to expand our programming and provide more consistent stipends for interns and artists.
Will you join in supporting AnySquared by making a year-end donation? Help AnySquared in changing circumstances! Please consider making a generous tax-deductible donation to AnySquared.
You can also become a Monthly Sustainer at $10, $20, $50, or $100 to help Anysquared move towards attaining important financial sustainability. As a monthly sustainer you help make sure we continue to do the great work we have been doing in Chicago!
Donate through Square OR PayPal. We also accept CashApp ($anysquared). Checks can be mailed to: AnySquared, 2328 N. Milwaukee, Floor 2, Chicago, IL 60647.
That's a Wrap for 2022! Next year will be AnySquared’s 13th Anniversary. We are excited about planning new projects in the new year. Look for our website update with artists' directory too!
Wishing you art plus community.
Thank you for your support!
___
AnySquared.com
@ne2_gallerysquared
[email protected]
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Supporting and nurturing artists and creating community for more than a dozen years, AnySquared is an artists collaborative and artists network. AnySquared's mission is to support, produce and promote collaborative projects that facilitate arts activities through inclusive participation.
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