The SAIC Management Studio Team worked as partners with UCAN on their pilot Caring Artfully Exhibition event in the Spring of 2023. UCAN is a social services organization that strives to build strong youth and families through compassionate healing, education, and empowerment. UCAN specializes in creating safe and caring spaces for youth, their families, and the community to help them heal from the trauma that they've experienced in their lives through purposeful programs around art therapy, their Healing Garden, and other programmatic initiatives. Founded over 150 years ago as a Civil War orphanage, UCAN now serves various neighborhoods in the city of Chicago through their flagship locations and at their main headquarters and residential campus in North Lawndale.
The Management Studio Team assisted in the planning and execution of UCAN’s pilot Caring Artfully Exhibition, an exhibition and community event showcasing and celebrating the works of art created by the youth at UCAN's various locations throughout Chicago with the youth, their families, and community members. The team coordinated one of the event’s performances alongside SAIC Homan Square and provided sticker takeaways for the event which highlighted art created by the youth at UCAN. The team also researched and developed a resource toolkit to be used for future iterations of the event including an exhibition timeline template, a Request for Proposal (RFP) template, potential prompts and concepts for new exhibitions, and a list of potential resources, artists, and partnerships. The Management Studio Team worked closely with UCAN's Development Team and SAIC Homan Square to brainstorm and plan initial ideas for the event through site visits and meetings with UCAN's art therapists, ultimately focusing on organizing the performance, artist compensation, and providing a way for guests to engage, while also creating materials to ensure the successful continuation of this community event in the coming years.
The Management Studio Team assisted in the planning and execution of UCAN’s pilot Caring Artfully Exhibition, an exhibition and community event showcasing and celebrating the works of art created by the youth at UCAN's various locations throughout Chicago with the youth, their families, and community members. The team coordinated one of the event’s performances alongside SAIC Homan Square and provided sticker takeaways for the event which highlighted art created by the youth at UCAN. The team also researched and developed a resource toolkit to be used for future iterations of the event including an exhibition timeline template, a Request for Proposal (RFP) template, potential prompts and concepts for new exhibitions, and a list of potential resources, artists, and partnerships. The Management Studio Team worked closely with UCAN's Development Team and SAIC Homan Square to brainstorm and plan initial ideas for the event through site visits and meetings with UCAN's art therapists, ultimately focusing on organizing the performance, artist compensation, and providing a way for guests to engage, while also creating materials to ensure the successful continuation of this community event in the coming years.