February 2024 — Moving the Needle | Woods Fund Chicago
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GRANTEE PARTNERS ARE USING CREATIVE PRACTICES TO ORGANIZE, EDUCATE, AND STRENGTHEN COMMUNITIES —
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There are many approaches to creating change, and all are needed. Last year, Woods Fund Chicago completed its shift to unrestricted general operating grants, reinforcing our commitment to Trust-Based Philanthropy and supporting our grantee partners and the plethora of tools they employ in their organizing and advocacy.
We’ve witnessed as our partners have organized through a variety of means, such as: Direct actions, teach-ins and workshops, back-to-school fairs and summer barbecues, panel discussions and forums, mutual aid drives, and so much more. Though Woods Fund Chicago does not directly fund the arts, we see how many of our grantee partners utilize creative practices — that range from protest art to performances to arts and crafts tables at block parties and community events — as one of many tools to educate, spark discussion, and provide outlets for expression and healing.
The arts have a long tradition as a tool for social and political resistance that we continue to witness today; in murals that appeared amid the 2020 protests; in ongoing debates about historical monuments; and the use of art and performance in direct action. For those organizing around the myriad issues surrounding mass incarceration, art is essential as a transformative tool to maintain the humanity of those who are incarcerated. WFC grantee partner Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project (PNAP) is not solely an arts organization, but their mission to “bring artists, scholars, and writers together with incarcerated people and our communities” emphasizes art as a powerful, transformative tool. At the end of January, they hosted the grand opening of Walls Turned Sideways, their first permanent gallery space and the culmination of years of work to ensure people who are incarcerated have access to education, the arts, and political theory as part of advocacy for criminal justice reform.
Other grantee partners have supported exhibits as an opportunity to give voice to incarcerated communities. The Final 5 Campaign, which fights for the closure of the five Illinois youth prisons, hosted the #NoKidsInPrison national immersive art installation last fall as a member of the Youth First Justice Collaborative. The exhibit brings in experiences and testimonials from youth who have been incarcerated and underscores the racial injustices that sustain carceral systems.
Art has also had a presence in our grantee partners’ organizing and achievements as well. Just this past weekend, the Illinois Network for Pretrial Fairness — which includes grantee partners Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago, the Illinois Black Advocacy Initiative, and Coalition to End Money Bond members Chicago Community Bond Fund, Community Renewal Society, The People's Lobby, Shriver Center on
Poverty Law, Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation, and the Workers Center for Racial Justice — hosted the event "Art in Action: How Artists Helped Illinois End Money Bond," highlighting the connection between art and activism.
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Photos: Top Left, Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation (SOUL); Top Right & Background, Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN); Middle Left, A Long Walk Home; Middle Right, Shriver Center on Poverty Law; Bottom, Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project (PNAP)
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We recognize that activism and resistance take many shapes and forms. The arts especially tap into a human instinct that has existed for centuries — the desire to create, to provoke, and to share a collective empathy. Whether it's the opening of PNAP’s gallery, exhibits like #NoKidsInPrison, Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN)’s exhibit “Envisioning Liberation” at the IMANifest Arts Studio, and A Long Walk Home’s “Freedom Square: The Black Girlhood Altar” currently on display at the Chicago Cultural Center, or the subtler ways art and creativity find their way into our grantee partners’ day-to-day work, our Trust-Based Philanthropy approach and general operating support ensures that grantee partners can access every tool at their disposal for meaningful change.
We celebrate these creative acts of expression and the ways they bring us closer to understanding one another and joining together in a common, hopeful vision.
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The deadline for New Applicants to submit the form for Woods Fund Chicago’s sole 2024 grantmaking cycle is March 1, 2024. New applicants should contact Deborah Clark with questions at dclark@woodsfund.org.
Woods Fund Chicago is devoted to disrupting white supremacy culture, confronting power, redistributing resources, and creating systemic transformation for real change. We’re committed to centering BIPOC voices, leadership, and organizing and have started identifying gaps in current grantmaking portfolios, including needing to fund more groups led by young, LGBTQIA+, and Indigenous people.
Learn more about our grants and how to apply at woodsfund.org/how-to-apply.
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Racial Justice Programs Under Fire: Foundations Are Running Scared When They Should Double Down
Why We're Reading It: While attacks on racial justice take place nationwide, funders are nervous to continue supporting programs that explicitly center Black communities or that back social justice movements out of fear of backlash or perceived discrimination. These threats, however, are exactly why foundations should continue funding these programs. Woods Fund Chicago takes this advice to heart and remains firm in our principles of racial and economic justice.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy // Read now
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A Long Walk Home brings solace to the Chicago Cultural Center
Why We're Reading It: “Freedom Square: The Black Girlhood Altar” is an exhibition presented as part of the Chicago Architecture Biennial that brings attention to violence against women and girls, grieves the lives lost to this violence, and establishes a space for healing. Scheherazade Tillet, ALWH’s cofounder and director, says “It’s all about relationships. It’s about all these people that we’re remembering.”
Chicago Reader // Read now
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