Resilient Voices

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As a public artist, I am dedicated to the well-being of my neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. During the summer of 2020’s wave of peaceful protests and rallies for racial justice, I both participated in and witnessed the explosion of outdoor murals that dotted the entire city landscape. To me, these murals represented a creative expression of pain and hope, a collective voice manifested in art. With this project, I am collaborating with local artists and organizations to collect dozens of these works of citizen art—which include paintings on makeshift boards, placards, street art, and more. We feel it’s important not only to preserve these creative objects, but to display them for the community to take pride in, as a legacy of Chicago history and movement-building that continues into the future. This June, we will begin repairing and installing a selection of these works on the exterior of the DuSable Museum of African American History. Over the summer months and into fall, we will continue to add to the collection and create new murals that tie the installation and protest themes together. Every dollar raised in this campaign will help us realize this vision by helping to fund artist fees and labor, installation costs, public marketing to get the word out, and more.

About This Project

This project is indebted to the leaders of Paint the City, a group that helped organize a call for citizens across Chicago to create inspiring works of art that support the Black Lives Matter movement, equality for all people, and resiliency in the face of the pandemic. Many works of art were created on boarded-up store windows, intended to speak boldly from the street and spark conversations addressing the collective trauma of a nation that witnessed the killing of George Floyd. Other generous partners include the DuSable Museum of African American History for lending space and administrative support, as well as the Mural Moves team, the Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project, and the Chicago Public Library.

Street art is about community ownership, and we all feel strongly about the need to preserve and exhibit these panels. This exhibition will dig deeper into the power of public art, connected with the mission of the founder of the DuSable Museum, Dr. Margaret Burroughs, by showing the resilience of a people in the face of much-needed change. Instead of letting the murals exist scattered as an archive of unrest, why don’t we preserve them and share them back with the community in its own voice? Art is a way to process and connect while a community grieves. Sharing stories and promoting messages of solidarity are important ways to reimagine our futures.

This campaign is intended to raise funds to install a year-long public exhibition that will engage and activate a public dialogue through art, its effects on communities, its history particularly in Chicago, and how art, as a tool, can represent the voice of the people.

Thank yous

Contribute any amount or choose from the levels below.

• $15
  Shout out on social media ($15.00 is tax deductible.)
• $30
  Above, plus your name painted on a “Thank You” wall at the exhibition ($30.00 is tax deductible.)
• $75
  Above, plus a hand-painted and personalized postcard from Dorian ($70.00 is tax deductible.)
• $150
  Above, plus an invitation (in-person or Zoom) to a guided tour of the installation ($145.00 is tax deductible.)
• $300
  Above, plus a DuSable Museum t-shirt ($275.00 is tax deductible.)
• $500
  Above, plus a bag of swag from DuSable Museum ($445.00 is tax deductible.)

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Dorian Sylvain

Southwest Airlines Community Awardee

Dorian Sylvain is a painter whose color and texture explore ornamentation, pattern, and design as identifiers of cultural and historical foundations. She is a studio painter and muralist, as well as an art educator, curator, and community planner. Much of …

View Dorian Sylvain's profile

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