The mission of Project Onward is to support the creative growth of visual artists with mental and developmental disabilities. Project Onward provides studio space, art supplies, and professional guidance to emerging artists in a communal workshop environment. With the program’s support, Project Onward artists develop a professional body of work that reflects both a devotion to their personal vision and a desire for artistic growth. We believe that artists with special needs deserve a voice in the world of art and ideas, and that their extraordinary work has a universal audience. Project Onward exhibits, promotes, and sells the artists’ works as a means to provide earned income and a sense of personal achievement, as well as to integrate the artists into the wider arts community. Project Onward collaborates with local and national partner agencies to organize exhibitions and advocacy efforts for artists with disabilities. Project Onward artists are included in numerous private and corporate art collections, and their works are exhibited widely.
Project Onward was founded in 2004 in response to the need for meaningful artistic outlets for artists with special needs as they transitioned into adulthood. Originally a program of Gallery 37, the City of Chicago’s youth employment program in the arts, Project Onward was designed to provide the “next step” for talented artists with developmental disabilities who were aging out of Gallery 37’s programs.
As the program grew and the challenges faced by its artists became more complex, Project Onward broadened its reach to encompass adult artists of all ages who live with developmental disabilities and/or mental illness. In response to the program’s rapid growth and the development of its mission, in summer of 2005 the Department of Cultural Affairs welcomed Project Onward to office and studio space in the historic Chicago Cultural Center. Through its affiliation with the DCA, Project Onward achieved distinction as an agency dedicated to the cultural and artistic development of people with disabilities. As a program of the DCA’s Visual Arts Division, Project Onward represents high artistic achievement as well as advocacy for disability arts.
Project Onward
78 East Washington
Chicago, Illinois 60602
312.742.1445
info@projectonward.org
Follow us on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/projectonward