Featured image: Arts of Life West Town location studio interior. Courtesy of The Arts of Life.
Written by April Behnke
It’s the first time I’ve visited Arts of Life, but I know exactly where I am. The nonprofit, which works to empower individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities through art, is in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood – a hub of contemporary art in the city. Top tier galleries like Corbett vs. Dempsey, Devening Projects, and Gray Chicago are within easy walking distance of their front door.
As I learn in conversation with Nicholas Schutzenhofer, Gallery Manager for their exhibition space Circle Contemporary, Arts of Life’s relocation to the area was one of the catalysts that first brought the city’s thriving art scene to West Town. Established galleries, other arts organizations, artists, and curators throughout the area regularly collaborate with them too, tying Arts of Life deeply into the community.
Across the nonprofit’s three locations: their spacious headquarters in West Town, a site in the Chicago suburb Glenview, and a small location in a historic church in the South Shore neighborhood, they host 60 artists, each of whom receives a monthly stipend, support, exhibition opportunities, access to art supplies, a personal workspace, and art storage. Arts of Life also helps their artists get involved in the wider art scene.
“We’re trying to eliminate invisible barriers between the disability community and disabled artists and the rest of the contemporary art world. And we do that through our exhibitions, our events, and inviting contemporary artists and gallerists from across the community to participate in the program and to help raise Arts of Life’s visibility,” explained Schutzenhofer.
These connections strengthen Arts of Life’s mission to provide a creative and supportive environment where participants can express themselves, develop their talents, and establish ties with the community, thereby fostering their personal and professional growth.
“We offer a lot of ways for our folks to learn what other contemporary artists are up to,” said Schutzenhofer. “We have field trips that go around to the galleries in the neighborhood, and we have artists from all over the Unites States (and sometimes internationally) that volunteer to give Zoom lectures about their practice. Allowing our artists access to information like this helps them develop their own work.”
Many of them certainly do establish quite a practice. During my visit to the West Town site, artist Susan Pasowicz offered me a tour of the facility. Pasowicz has shown extensively and has an impressive CV, showing her work at locations including Chicago’s art fair EXPO, New York City’s Outsider Art Fair, and Ruschman, a well-known gallery located in the nearby neighborhood of Irving Park.
Our first stop was the gallery space, where we checked out ‘In Bloom,’ an exhibition guest curated by local artist Armani Howard. Among the works on display were her own soft, intricate drawings made of looping lines, creating glowing webs luminous with color.
From there, Pasowicz led me to the artists’ working space, an immense room with high ceilings, individual drawing tables, a resource library, storage and art materials, and a gathering space for meals, parties, talks, and other events. The atmosphere was comfortable and convivial.
Several artists stopped by to introduce themselves and show me their work, including Bill Lilly, whose text-filled drawings celebrate his love of heavy metal and rock n’ roll. Lilly has exhibited many times at Arts of Life’s Circle Contemporary Gallery and has work in the ArtBank permanent collection in McCook, Nebraska.
To end my tour, Schutzenhofer led me back to Arts of Life’s new archiving room, where a small team was busy photographing, uploading, and documenting decades of artwork from the nonprofit’s sites. In 2025, Arts of Life will be celebrating their 25th anniversary, and the archive is a key component of that.
“A big part of supporting our artists’ professional development is effectively housing their work and having a record of it,” he said. “So far, we’ve catalogued about 4,000 pieces and we’re just getting started.”
Part of the archive will be shared not just with curators and other arts professionals, but with the wider public. Next year, Arts of Life will publish a book featuring 25 of their artists from the past quarter century. Both the archive and the book will serve to further highlight their artists’ achievements.
As they approach this major anniversary, Arts of Life has much to look back upon with pride and forward to with anticipation. If you would like to be a part of their story too, visit https://artsoflife.org/volunteer/ to find out how you can get involved.Visit www.artsoflife.org to learn more and connect on Instagram at @the_arts_of_life
The Arts of Life is published in Vol 38. Purchase a copy here.
April Behnke is an award-winning Chicago-based painter and writer whose studio practice centers on the building and breaking of patterns. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011 and has exhibited nationally and internationally. Her work is featured in Georgetown University’s art collection and was included in the Rockford Art Museum’s 2022 Midwestern Biennial. Though born in Boston, Behnke has roots in the Midwest and a passion for exploring the region’s art scene. Her work is represented by Kim Storage Gallery in Milwaukee, WI.