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Monday 9am - 4pm Tuesday 9am - 4pm Wednesday 9am - 4pm Thursday 9am - 4pm Friday 9am - 4pm

Arts of Life

A collective space for artists with ID/D to expand their practice & strengthen their leadership. Non-Profit Arts Community

08/21/2026

Arts of Life is thrilled to participate in Art Enables 20th annual exhibition of work by self-taught artists, Outside Forces, in Washington DC! The exhibition will feature pieces by Arts of Life artists Laura Greenberg, Bobby Nafisi, and Angel Sanders, alongside contributions from independent artists and art studios nationwide.

Participating Studios and Independent Artists: Art Enables, Art Explorers, Artists First, Arts of Life (South Side), Arts of Life (North Shore), Center for Creative Works, Community Access Art Collective, Creative Citizen Studios, Creativity Explored, ECF Art Centers, Fresh Eye Arts, Imagine That!, Interact Center for Visual & Performing Arts, Make Studio, North Pole Studio, PASC, Project Onward, Pure Vision Arts, SAGE Studio & Gallery, Saint Elizabeths Hospital, Spindleworks, Starlight Studio and Art Gallery, Studio IN-Sight, Tierra del Sol Gallery, VaultArt Studio, Vibrant Palette Arts Center, VisAbility Art Lab, Visionaries + Voices, Avantika, Electra B, Charles Drakeford, Muskanpreet Kaur, Cazoshay Marie, shurjo mukhi, Andrew Wohl

WHEN:
August 22 - October 17
Gallery hours: Monday – Saturday, 10AM – 4PM

Opening reception: Saturday, September 12, 5PM – 7PM

WHERE:
Art Enables
2204 Rhode Island Ave NE
Washington DC, DC 20018

08/18/2026

Anne Skaug, West Town Studio Coordinator, describes Arts of Life as an inclusive professional environment where “you are very much allowed to be yourself and have whatever quirks or interests or idiosyncrasies that you want.”

Anne always knew she wanted to work in the arts and pursue a meaningful career in which she could be of service to others. She first learned about Arts of Life when a guest artist visited her graduate studio at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. After discussing Anne’s artwork and professional goals, the visiting artist brought her attention to the blooming careers of artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) at progressive art studios across the country. The visiting artist turned out to be Vincent Uribe, Head of Art Partnerships and Events, and the rest is history.

Now, Anne plays an integral role at Arts of Life, ensuring that day-to-day studio operations run equitably and efficiently. From working one-on-one with artists, to supporting group field trips, to creating daily schedules, Anne’s knack for logistics and relationship building helps her juggle many moving parts with grace.

Within her own art practice, Anne is interested in the interrelationships between materials. She combines materials such as textiles, plaster, concrete, metal, and encaustic in an experimental fashion, resulting in a deeply satisfying combination of texture and tone. For the last year and a half, Anne’s practice has centered around brocade, a decorative upholstery fabric found in her childhood home. The familiar is often familial, and Anne gravitates towards the use of brocade as an inherited aesthetic taste. Read the full Article via link in here -> https://artsoflife.org/staff-spotlight-anne-skaug/

08/13/2026

Thank you to everyone that came out to the opening of Death Magic curated by R.M. Pfeiffer, It was a blast! If you couldn’t attend, the exhibition runs through September 25th, 2026, set up an appointment today to mark your spot!

***Special thanks to the Intuit Art Museum, John Corbett and The Kinsey Institute, Indiana University, without whose generous support this exhibition would not have been made possible.
 Featured Artists: Ron Athey, Marquis Von Bayros, Rachael Bos, Jamie Fletcher, Danny Frownfelter, Norbet Kox, Bill Lilly, Monika Plioplyte, Sun Ra, Philipp Schöpke, Jon Serl, Bronislaw “Bruno” Sowa, Maria Vanik, Jean Wilson, and Albert Zahn.

About:
Pray, carve, bleed, sing. Insist that to look death in the face, ritually and repeatedly, is how one kisses life on the lips. This is magic understood plainly: not sleight of hand, but the discipline of transformation, and religion in its most degraded form.

The sacred, in this view, is not piety but rupture: sacrifice, ecstasy, laughter, daemonic entities, and the co**se. Death here is not simply a subject but a method. Art becomes the site where the restricted economy of production and survival is deliberately breached, where a sovereign act of wasting oneself – bleeding, praying, dancing, carving toward no useful end – recovers a continuity between beings that ordinary, bounded selfhood forecloses. The works gathered here stage exactly this breach: each refuses the discreteness the self is supposed to maintain, offering itself instead as a willful expenditure, a controlled burn of the prairie’s boundary – on the border where the living meet the dead. (Read more on Arts of Life’s event links)

Exhibition Duration: August 7- September 25, 2026  WHERE: Circle Contemporary - West Town 2010 W. Carroll Ave Chicago, IL 60612

 Kinsey Institute  Intuit Art Museum  Corbett vs. Dempsey Rebecca Fasman sick nchutzenhofer
Circle Contemporary

08/11/2026

Thank you everyone who showed up, cheered, marched along side of us and watched Van GoGo perform during this year’s Chicago Disability Pride parade! We had so much fun sharing and celebrating our pride with you!

Check out some photo highlights from the parade.

The Chicago Disability Pride Parade
Self Advocacy Group at Arts of Life

08/06/2026

Check out this wonderful install!!! We’re almost ready! DEATH MAGIC, curated by Ryan M. Pfeiffer, opens this Friday 8/7. Stop by the opening reception at Circle Contemporary from 5-8pm.

FEATURED ARTISTS:
Ron Athey – Marquis Von Bayros – Rachael Bos – Jamie Fletcher – Danny Frownfelter – Norbet Kox – Bill Lilly – Monika Plioplyte – Philipp Schopke – Jon Serl – Bronislaw “Bruno” Sowa – Maria Vanik – Jean Wilson – Albert Zahn - Sun Ra

WHEN:
Opening Reception:
August 7, 2026
5:00 – 8:00 pm

Exhibition Duration: August 7- September 25, 2026

WHERE:
Circle Contemporary - West Town
2010 W. Carroll Ave
Chicago, IL 60612

08/05/2026

🤠 Annual Benefit Auction & Dance Party EARLY BIRD BUNDLE DEAL: Save $70 before August 14! ✨

Join us for an out-of-this-world Annual Benefit Auction & Dance Party honoring Scott Speh (Western Exhibitions) in support of artists with disabilities.

Early Bird Bundle: Just $300 (Ends Aug 14)
⁃ 2 General Admission Tickets
⁃ 2 Raffle Tickets
Includes: Food, drinks, dancing, music, and unique auction experiences!

When:
Saturday, Sept 19 | 6 PM – 11 PM

Where:
Venue West
221 N Paulina St, Chicago, IL

Act Now! Grab your tickets now before prices go up! 🪩🌵 [Link to Buy Tickets in bio]

08/04/2026

Honeybun Opens at the Union League Club Tomorrow!

Join us at the Union League Club of Chicago tomorrow (Wednesday) from 5:30-6:30pm for the Opening Reception of Honeybun. The exhibition brings a selection of recent works by artists from all three of our studio programs.

FEATURED ARTISTS
Ariée – Chris Austin – Isamu Guy Conners – Katrina Jackson

WHEN
Opening Reception:
Wednesday, August 5, 2026
5:30 – 6:30 pm

WHERE:
Union League Club of Chicago
65 W Jackson Blvd
Chicago, IL 60604

- Please note the Union League Club’s Dress Code Policy.

******Special thanks to the Union League Club of Chicago for hosting this exhibition.

ID:Katrina Jackson
Dots, 2025
Oil pastel, graphite and colored pencil on paper
14 × 11 × 1 in | 35.6 × 27.9 × 2.5 cm

07/30/2026

Renata Berdes
Cane, 2023
Plastic tubing, foil tape, hot glue, and glass tiles
37 x 7 x 2 ½ in.
94 x 17.8 x 6.3 cm.

Renata’s sculptures are imbued with the magic of what is possible; first there was nothing, and now by Berdes’ hands and imagination the object exists. Found objects are unified through an intimate connection with the sense of touch that manifests in rich textures. Berdes invites us to see the world from her perspective and delights viewers with her reinterpretation of what is.

Cane, is now on view at the Design Museum of Chicago through January 18, 2027

07/28/2026

🪐Tickets Now On Sale For our Cosmic Rodeo Benefit Auction + Dance Party!!! 🤠

Now through Aug 14, get a pair of Early Bird tickets for $300!! (That’s a $70 saving!)

Ticket link -> https://artsoflife.org/event/cosmicrodeo/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio

Saddle up for an out-of-this-world evening celebrating creativity, community, and the arts at our Annual Benefit Auction & Dance Party. Enjoy a lively evening of music, food, drinks, dancing, and unique auction experiences in support of artists with disabilities. Raise a glass, meet the artists, and join us for a night where the disco meets the desert sky!

Honoring Scott Speh, owner and director of Western Exhibitions

All proceeds support the creative practices and professional development of 80+ professional artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

WHERE:
Venue West 221 N Paulina
St Chicago, IL 60612

WHEN:
September 19th
5:00 pm - 10:00 pm

ACCESSIBILITY INFO:
This event is wheelchair accessible with an ASL interpreter and offers gender neutral bathrooms. Please contact us to make an accommodation request.

07/24/2026

Tomorrow we march! Join us at 11:00 AM | Dearborn St (Harold Washington Library to ➔ Daley Plaza). We welcome our community to march with us or to cheer us on at the longest-running Disability Pride Parade in the nation! Then stay for a performance by our very own Van Go Go band in the plaza along with food, accessibility info, creative activities, free swag, and more!

PLEASE NOTE: These stations are closed for Green/Orange/Pink and Brown Line trains on July 25:
Clark and Lake
Washington and Wabash
Adams and Washington

The Wells Street Stations will be open –and the Green Line will be diverted to Wells.

Address

2010 W Carroll Avenue
Chicago, IL
60612

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 4pm
Tuesday	9am - 4pm
Wednesday	9am - 4pm
Thursday	9am - 4pm
Friday	9am - 4pm

Telephone

+13128292787

Website

http://www.artsoflife.org/

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