BLESS ART WEST- Help Launch Black Owned Gallery
Donation protected
Who Am I?
I'm Alexie Young, and I represent the art community "Out West." I'm an artist, artrepreneur, organizer, and I love the Westside of Chicago. I also love that I live here, work here, and play here.
What's the problem?
The Westside is filled with great people but it lacks cultural amenities. This stifles our ability to build a stronger sense of community on a micro level, and on a larger scale, I believe this impacts population retention. Not having places to patron, and social spaces to engage with is enough to entice people to move or shop elsewhere. Therefore we've started Art West to address building culture which helps people feel a sense of belonging.
What is Art West?
Art West, an art-based event company with a social focus on building community and promoting creativity. Our mission is to re-brand the Westside through arts and culture. We host community arts crawls, virtual festivals, and facilitate programming to support our creative community. Our main goal is to encourage people to live, work , and play on the Westside of Chicago.
What we do?
While we work diligently to build collaborative efforts to uplift the arts and culture presence on the Westside, we finally have an opportunity to activate our very own gallery. Opening our gallery on the Westside will further bring attention to the Westside as a thriving area of Chicago, which has suffered from disinvestement for decades. The good news is that we are building a very strong brand with more than our sweat equity. We are seeking capital to help up strengthen our foundation as we embark on having a brick and mortar location.
Why this is needed?
Our gallery will be especially important as we build a stronger artist hub on the Westside of Chicago to support creative professionals who need access to spaces and the desire to connect to a broad network of people who can grow their business through shared skills and services, We look forward to being a part of the creative ecosystem here on the Westside of Chicago. Having this location will also help us continue our social impacts such as food giveaways, youth programming, and our area wide engagement.
We need you to help make the case that the creative community is an asset to our neighborhoods rather than an accessory. We help reshape the landscape and the experience in the black community which promotes interpersonal connections . We are grateful for all the support you have and will continue to have in the near future.
I'm Alexie Young, and I represent the art community "Out West." I'm an artist, artrepreneur, organizer, and I love the Westside of Chicago. I also love that I live here, work here, and play here.
What's the problem?
The Westside is filled with great people but it lacks cultural amenities. This stifles our ability to build a stronger sense of community on a micro level, and on a larger scale, I believe this impacts population retention. Not having places to patron, and social spaces to engage with is enough to entice people to move or shop elsewhere. Therefore we've started Art West to address building culture which helps people feel a sense of belonging.
What is Art West?
Art West, an art-based event company with a social focus on building community and promoting creativity. Our mission is to re-brand the Westside through arts and culture. We host community arts crawls, virtual festivals, and facilitate programming to support our creative community. Our main goal is to encourage people to live, work , and play on the Westside of Chicago.
What we do?
While we work diligently to build collaborative efforts to uplift the arts and culture presence on the Westside, we finally have an opportunity to activate our very own gallery. Opening our gallery on the Westside will further bring attention to the Westside as a thriving area of Chicago, which has suffered from disinvestement for decades. The good news is that we are building a very strong brand with more than our sweat equity. We are seeking capital to help up strengthen our foundation as we embark on having a brick and mortar location.
Why this is needed?
Our gallery will be especially important as we build a stronger artist hub on the Westside of Chicago to support creative professionals who need access to spaces and the desire to connect to a broad network of people who can grow their business through shared skills and services, We look forward to being a part of the creative ecosystem here on the Westside of Chicago. Having this location will also help us continue our social impacts such as food giveaways, youth programming, and our area wide engagement.
We need you to help make the case that the creative community is an asset to our neighborhoods rather than an accessory. We help reshape the landscape and the experience in the black community which promotes interpersonal connections . We are grateful for all the support you have and will continue to have in the near future.
Organizer
Alexie Young
Organizer
Chicago, IL
