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Brown & Black Artists Together February 14 – March 28, 2026

Brown & Black Artists Together at Liz Long Gallery, 1957 S. Spaulding Ave in Chicago.  Gallery at Chicago Urban Art Retreat will feature group of black & brown artists’ works. The show will be on display February 14 – March 28, 2026.   There will be an opening reception on February 14 from 1-4 with a tour of the art. A Sunday Brunch & Discussion will be on February 15 from 2-4.   Here is one piece in the Brown & Black Artists Together show:                                                                    

Du Sable’s Justice and Prayer

My painting is an advocacy for preservation, rediscovery, and visual narrative of Jean- Baptiste- Point Du Sable’s contribution and celebration as an essential part of American History. Du Sable is considered the founder of Chicago. Reliving the past towards the future, and the present moment!

With current racial turmoil, divisions, inequality, and ethnic strife in our nation, for me as an artist, this crucial part of history became an inspiration and opportunity to paint “Du Sable’s Justice and Prayer” as he and many Afro-Americans suffered, were mistreated, harmed, and triumphed as well during that period.

The doves fly over the red clouds of turmoil, symbolizing the powerful message at the forefront of pride and declaration. Du Sable’s portrait represents oneness for all of us! I enjoyed expressing my artistic creativity with watercolor, as it flows with emotions across the canvas like a river of life, and celebrates Black History and other ethnicities!

EVEN YOU ART sessions at Urban Art Retreat

EVEN YOU ART sessions in a supportive environment offered for adults who are shy about making art or are beginners. March Sessions available Register now!
Individual sessions $35 & group price is $25 per person. Learn how to use art supplies and the basics of art making. Drawing, watercolor, collage, acrylic painting, mixed media, assemblage. Send email to contact@urbanartretreat.com

The International Women’s Day Brunch will be on March 8 from 2-4.

About International Women’s Day: Build on IWD’s century-plus history

Well over a century of history & change, the first International Women’s Day was held in March 1911.

Organizations, groups, and individuals worldwide can all play a part – in the community, at work, at home, and beyond.

IWD isn’t country, group or organization specific. It’s a day of collective global activism and celebration that belongs to all those committed to forging gender equality.

World-renowned feminist, journalist and activist, Gloria Steinem, reportedly once explained: “The story of women’s struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights.”

Groups can choose to mark IWD in whatever manner they deem most relevant, engaging, and impactful for their specific context, objectives, and audiences. IWD is about gender equality in all its forms. For some, IWD is about fighting for women’s rights. For others, IWD is about reinforcing key commitments, while for some, IWD is about celebrating success. And for others, IWD means festive gatherings and parties. Whatever choices are made, all choices matter, and all choices are valid. All activity helps contribute to, and forms part of, the thriving global IWD movement that is focused on gender equality.

IWD is a truly inclusive, diverse, and eclectic moment of impact worldwide.

Spring Equinox

A group art experience to celebrate the Spring Equinox will take place outside on March 21

from 1-4p.m. to join us in this activity, please email in advance- contact@urbanartretreat.com

Make friends at Urban Art Retreat !

We are neighbors at Urban Art Retreat, 1957 S. Spaulding Ave at 21st. We have Saturdays for activities. We hope to bring adults out of their shells, to do something together and make new friends. Saturday afternoons from 2-4 are activity times for adults. We work on tasks, have discussions, and make art projects together. Our organization is about self- improvement and social justice issues with the arts. contact@urbanartretreat.com

To find out more about Urban Art Retreat, please consider attending our orientation. There is no commitment to attend. We offer orientation by RSVP on Saturdays at 1p.m. Also, other times if needed- suggest another afternoon. contact@urbanartretreat.com

THE SOCIAL JUSTICE STAGE takes place mid-September!

WOMAN AS SURVIVOR

SURVIVING HIS WORLD

TELLING HER STORY

Exciting News! 🚨Chicago Urban Art Retreat has been awarded FIRST PLACE for Best Message at this powerful event! 🏆👏OUR installation, “WOMAN AS SURVIVOR… Surviving His World… Telling Her Stories…”, continues to inspire and move hearts. This incredible window display, led by artist Dianna C. Long with the help of many hands, features a TV screen showing images from an art show created by women who turned their trauma into art and healing. The art show is called Woman As Survivor.💜

1957 S. Spaulding Ave. at 21^st,  Chicago Illinois, 60623 contact@urbanartretreat.com  www.urbanartretreat.com

SUMMER PROGRAMING COMING UP for North Lawndale and beyond!

¹Friday evenings by RSVP: SIP & PAINT & PLANT 7p.m. in the first floor gallery room. Time for adults to socialize and meet each other. Small group. BYOB. We will paint with artist, Dianna, and plant with master gardener Rita, and enjoy each other. No experience needed. Donation accepted at the door.

Saturdays weekly, at 2 p.m. we will begin June 21. Summer activities for adults at the Urban Art Retreat and across the street in the Peace Park (2101 S. Spaulding Ave.) Please register for activities by RSVP.  FREE! contact@urbanartretreat.com

Theme for the summer is PAINTING OUR STORIES !

We will tell and paint our stories over the summer.  We will talk, write, paint, and draw our stories this summer. We will even drum our stories!

We will gather round the fire pit in the peace park and tell our stories to each other with Robert leading us with his story. We will gather to listen to Victoria’s drumming and then tell our stories using the African drums she shows us and performs on. We will tell our stories using paint on rocks and paint on paper and paint on the unknown objects that Dianna leads us to. Sunny will get us to write a poem about ourselves! We will tell stories using the written word that Janelle offers us the opportunity to share. We will take home the small books we begin. We will plant and mark our stories with master gardener, Rita and go home with a plant. Cat will get us going while we tell our stories by drawing in chalk on the sidewalk. We will leave our stories to be washed away by the rain. The art from the summer will hang in the gallery for a September/October art show! We culminate

All we ask is that you RSVP in advance so we know how many people to expect.

Send an email to -contact@urbanartretreat.com
RSVP for info contact@urbanartretreat.com

SOCIAL JUSTICE STAGE EVENT

LEARNING ABOUT SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES OUTDOORS WHILE ENJOYING ENTERTAINMENT

SOCIAL JUSTICE STAGE EVENT. September 1959 S. Kedzie vacant lot ! corner of 21st.

Our Annual Event including emcee Blaq Ice, DJ Hott putting on a show of entertainment and information about social justice issues and solutions for our neighborhoods!

Plenty of vendors like vegan bakers, artists, and jewelry makers!

Youth Talent Show! PRIZES!

FREE ENTRY!

URBAN ART RETREAT – LEARN MORE. RSVP contact@urbanartretreat.com

Social Protest Signage Activity: we created signs that we painted, attached to stakes, and put in the ground in cement. They are seen by everyone who passes the Urban Art Retreat along 21st street!
The signs show the 3 branches of government- legislature, judiciary, and executive which answer to the people. There are 3 other signs posted-

Everyone Deserves Due Process,

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Forever,

and Don’t Believe the Orange Hype.

^{Annual Dinner Party January 25 at 6p.m. Please RSVP by email (contact@urbanartretreat.com)}

The Annual Dinner for Newcomers takes place the last Saturday in January!

This is an opportunity for people to meet new folks in a safe environment. Each year our organization, Urban Art Retreat, plans a dinner party with great vegan food, good company, and conversation, to welcome people who have never attended before. We have a gift table for new folks to choose a gift from. We sit together and introduce ourselves. This is a great chance to network!

Our organization is about social justice issues and supporting people in self growth. We offer groups using discussion and art-making to learn about issues and grow. Each season we offer new opportunities such as gardening, neighborhood improvement, animal welfare, mural work, carpentry projects, outdoor sculpture, entrepreneurship, and so much more. We include social justice issues in all our projects and programs.

Urban Art Retreat encourages people to step out of their comfort zone and try something new & meet new people. To facilitate this, we provide small group projects for people to accomplish together.

Each season we offer an event to bring people together and learn about each other. In the winter, it is our Annual Dinner for Newcomers.  

This dinner is facilitated so everyone will have a good time.

Past Art Show in Liz Long Art Gallery

What Women Are Thinking About  was a group show of works by women artists from around the world at Liz Long art gallery at Urban Art Retreat in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago. The show was on display from  Feb. 10 – Mar. 23,  2024  at 1957 S. Spaulding Ave. Chicago, Il. 60623. Visitors were surprised by the variety of artists and that the artists were form around the world!

Some artists are local such as Val Cavin who resides in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago. Her piece is about growing old. Val says look forward not backward with regrets.  Julia Shangguan from the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago contributed a dynamic piece about Asian women feeling a need to assimilate. Tamara Berger of Serbia says her primary focus in painting is on feminism and LGBTQ+ rights. She has contributed a piece called “Mothers are Super Heroes”.  Veronica Ceci from Texas has two pieces in the show about air quality and pesticides. Nymera of Texas has a piece in the show called Since You Asked, about women of color often being asked  what is on their minds.   Maria Coletsis, of Vancouver Canada, shows us a beautiful photograph of roses and when you look up close you see the pot is not a pot but a covid mask and when you look closer, you see on the mask a man spraying pesticides. One of the pieces that Cat Roberts has in the show says- I Am worthy I Am Bold I Am Melaninaire. Cassandra Robinson from Wisconsin’s assemblage piece is about Incarceration. Meghan Du from the UK enchanted everyone with her art- TRIBE about women’s land and women’s empowerment. Renee Kuharchuk of Bartlet, Illinois also fascinated people with her pieces. Both large, one is called Commodity & is the pelvis bones of a woman with paper money woven in & out of it, the other is- hands, picking the skin especially around the fingernails and is called Picking (about anxiety). Monica Mills from Prague  contributed a powerful piece alluding to (FGM)FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION. The piece is comprised of pieces of canvas not too big sewn together on a round form. The canvas pieces have traces of reddish hue. And we have a black and white photograph by a woman we shall call L who is self- identified as homeless. She lives in Australia. L told me she was hard pressed to enter the show since some men had just stolen everything she had. The photograph is high contrast mostly black above the large tree. Top heavy with black sky, at the very bottom one sees a very small woman reading/studying a book on her lap with legs crossed, on some cement, in front of where it says Modern Contemporary Art on the building.

The curator is an artist, originally from New York. Dianna C. Long has included her collaged tall cupboard piece-  Woman As Survivor which chronicles the decades she has put into showing art by women who have survived trauma (mostly rape, domestic violence, incest). She has covered a tall old cupboard from top to bottom, even the door with scraps of papers about the art shows and times they existed in. The artists bared their trauma selves and allowed the public to look at their art about surviving trauma. This validation and sharing helped to heal the artists and some viewers. For others is has been an awakening.

Also included in the art show is a video of many of the actual pieces that have been in the largest Woman As Survivor art show that Dianna has curated. This silent video of one trauma piece after another on view to see is riveting. It is here to see. Dianna says that many women are thinking of wanting to be safe from rape, domestic violence, and incest.

The American Black History classes are comprised of viewing a documentary by Henry Louis Gates Jr. called The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross. The film is watched in segments, discussed, and then we make art about the film. Visitors are also invited to tell their own story in the context of history. In addition, we learn about past and present African Americans who have contributed to American life and paint their stories. We also have discussions about current American life as it affects African Americans. Each participant writes a story on African American history as they see it and will illustrate the story. We will create our own short book on African American History with participants.

Winter SATURDAYS 2-4 P.M. AT URBAN ART RETREAT 1957 S. SPAULDING AVE.

Objectives

• To bring history alive and fill gaps in Black History for participants
• To provide a platform for participants to analyze and interpret current life in relation to historical facts
• To foster participants interest in their own history

Activities

• Watch documentaries and discussion
• Make art and engage in spoken word and poetry
• Use flash cards featuring black history, learning about Kwanza and gifting parents
• Produce participants’ written history books and documentaries

Outcomes/Benefits

• History books with stories and artwork by participants
• Participants’ interest and understanding of their own history
• Enhanced skills to write stories

Workshops by request:

1. Incarceration Affects Families & Communities
2. Animal Agriculture Impacts the Environment
3. How Covid has Changed our Lives

Workshops include discussion & art-making.

Summer and Fall Workshops will take place at our site and may be requested for your site.  contact@urbanartretreat.com

We met in the vacant lot on corner of 21st & S. Kedzie where we provided a fun and exciting event on September 16 for all of us to experience joy and understanding. Our purpose was to provide a space for people to express ourselves about solutions to social justice issues in our communities.

Along with the performers we had provided, attendees were interested to speak up with solutions they knew of and shared with us. Everyone was welcome to share.

We had snacks and fruit drink on hand.

Have a wonderful Day!

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Previous winner of Teen Art Contest!

The Ann Richter Fund (private donations) provided cash prizes for the first, second and third prize winners, chosen by the highest number of votes during the afternoon. Visitors and judges voted on the best artists of the day. The first prize winner received $100.00. The second prize winner received $50.00. The third prize winner received $25.00.

We encouraged people to attend and support young artists by showing enthusiasm for their art. 

Summer Art Program! 2023

FREE Chicago Community Summer Social Justice & Arts Program for Adults. Our program is about – gardening, carpentry, social justice issues, conflict resolution, painting, collage, sculpture, Covid discussion, Mural work, Painting sneakers, Poetry writing, mask making, theatre, Meditation & Relaxation, & organizing events & activities !

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Art workshop/Presentation: Animal Agriculture Impacts the Environment. Easy supportive art workshop where we all experiment with making art about how Animal Agriculture Impacts the Environment. Join a small group of folks who will discuss the topic: Animal Agriculture Impacts the Environment and then make some art about this topic. Experienced artist/teacher will assist people to be successful. Part of a project that will take place at Urban Art Retreat, 1957 S. Spaulding (at 21st Street) about this topic.

Animal Agriculture Impacts the Environment

We have free workshops on this topic available for your site upon request. Just ask. contact@urbanartretreat.com

All the energy it takes to house, feed, transport, kill, cut up, package, and transport animals to the stores

plus…..the emissions and waste produced which effect the air, land, and water………

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We offer FREE workshops on these two topics

at our site and yours!

Animal Agriculture Impacts the Environment:

Responding to the question- How we can can use art to protest, process, and object to  How Animal Agriculture Impacts the Environment ?—this project including writing, art exhibit, documentary, and book. It will focus on the art making and writing of works that engage this difficult topic. We will consider the function of art & writing to document, bear witness, and to show how the breeding of animals, their rearing, killing, packaging, transportation; growing animals to kill and eat instead of growing plants to eat has impacted the earth/environment, & climate change. Along with offering written works and art, that take up the subject, we will create a documentary, create a book from the writings and art, and post our outcome online to show our discussion of the ethics of representation, and what it means to write about this violence and trauma, and neglect & damage of the earth. We will focus on the craft of writing and art, and intertextuality which will engage viewers in responding both to the works of art in the exhibition and the writings we will combine in the book and film with spoken word.

BACKGROUND for “Animal Agriculture Impact on the Environment” Art Show & Writings Event

COP26- the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow – is now underway, with a strong sense that we are reaching a point of no return when it comes to halting climate emissions.

Nations that signed up to the 1992 United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) pledged to reduce emissions and take action to decrease critical temperature rises. And yet, since then, we’ve seen a steady rise in emissions, in temperature, and increasingly frequent weather anomalies, from flooding to drought, to wildfires to melting permafrost.

UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa describes the Glasgow Summit as “a credibility test for global efforts to address climate change” while calling on nations to show “bold and courageous climate leadership.”There’s little that’s bold or courageous about making piecemeal tweaks to pollution-spewing fossil fuel facilities. There’s nothing courageous about flying into Glasgow, offsetting personal emissions to assuage your conscience.

The elephant in the (conference) room:

Every day, we are being told to take all sorts of actions, like not owning or using fossil-fuel powered vehicles, switching to local produce, consuming less and conserving water. But the elephant in the COP26 conference suites is that there is simply not enough dialogue around consuming less meat and dairy.

Governments and bold leaders need to be introducing policies, new regulations and dietary guidelines to bring about a reduction in the consumption of animals. At the very least they could stop subsidizing the meat and dairy sectors who right now are being paid to pollute.

As with fossil fuel, industry behemoths dominate. The five largest meat and dairy firms produce more annual emissions than big oil. Based in just five economic areas, Brazil, the USA, China, Japan and the European Union, action on the part of just five government entities could deal with the majority of the problem.

Time to pivot to plants:

Global demand for meat is growing: over the past 50 years, rearing animals for human consumption has more than tripled. The world produces more than 340 million tonnes each year. Moreover, meat consumption is increasing as the world is getting richer. 

Globally, around 800 million tonnes of bovine milk is taken each year – more than double what was consumed fifty years ago.

Both the physical impacts of climate change and the rapid expansion of the alternative proteins industry will massively impact meat industry profits, if not decimate the sector in the coming decades. Global leaders can and should encourage the meat industry to pivot to more efficient, sustainable and humane food production, without the industrial scale raising and slaughter of animals.

Ahead of COP26, the UK’s Chief Scientific Advisor, Sir Patrick Vallance, along with 40 leading scientists, called for a step-change in habits, including a reduction in meat-eating.

Apparently, a plant-forward, more sustainable menu is being offered to the thousands of delegates in Glasgow. But, even as delegates discuss the need to cut global greenhouse gas emissions, there is still meat on the menu.  

It’s a simple choice: encourage global change in the food industry, and in particular meat consumption, or face catastrophic, irreparable damage to our planet.

Liz Long Gallery at Chicago Urban Art Retreat Center 

1957 S. Spaulding Ave. Chicago Illinois 60623 Facebook.com/urbanartretreat 

to apply to this art show please email to : contact@urbanartretreat.com (indicate which show)

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How Incarceration Affects Families and Communities: Call to Artists & Writers

Responding to the question – How we can can use art to protest, process, and object to How Incarceration Affects Families and Communities?—this project includes writings, art exhibit, a documentary, and a book. It will focus on the art making and writing of works that engage this difficult subject. We will consider the art works & writings to document, bear witness, and to show how the incarceration of humans has impacted the families and communities who are related to and who know those who have been incarcerated. In addition how have the neighborhoods of those families been affected? Along with offering written works and art, that take up the subject, we will create a documentary, create a book from the writings and art, and post our outcome online to show our discussion of the ethics of representation, and what it means to write about this violence and trauma, and neglect & damage of the people incarcerated and their families and their communities. We will focus on the craft of writing and art, which will engage viewers in responding both to the works of art in the exhibition and the writings which we will combine in a book and a film with spoken word.

Background:

American Incarceration: A Social Justice Issue 

The American Criminal Justice System arrests, convicts, and then incarcerates people 

to serve sentences in the prison system. 

The number of people in prisons and jails in the U.S. more than quadrupled from 1980 to 2015, and now total more than 2.2 million. Another 4.7 million people are under parole or probation supervision (Trends in U.S. Corrections, 2017). This growth is the result of changes in policy, not a dramatic rise in crime. The institution of long mandatory minimum sentences, the declining use of parole, and more punitive responses to substance use disorders helped to expand the prison population and the number of people entangled in the criminal justice system (Travis, Western, & Redburn (Eds.), 2014). These trends have continued even as crime rates have declined by nearly 50% after peaking in 1991 (Ghandnoosh, 2017).

By the start of the 1990s, the United States incarcerated more persons per capita than any other nation in the modern world. The combination of overcrowding and the rapid expansion of prison systems across the country adversely affected living conditions in many prisons, jeopardized prisoner safety, compromised prison management, and greatly limited prisoner access to meaningful programming. Paralleling these dramatic increases in incarceration rates and the numbers of persons imprisoned in the United States was an equally dramatic change in the rationale for prison itself. The nation moved abruptly in the mid-1970s from a society that justified putting people in prison on the basis of the belief that incarceration would somehow facilitate productive re-entry into the free world to one that used imprisonment merely to inflict pain on wrongdoers (“just deserts”), disable criminal offenders (“incapacitation”), or to keep them far away from the rest of society (“containment”). The abandonment of the once-avowed goal of rehabilitation certainly decreased the perceived need and availability of meaningful programming for prisoners as well as social and mental health services available to them both inside and outside the prison. Indeed, it generally reduced concern on the part of prison administrations for the overall well-being of prisoners.

The emphasis on the punitive and stigmatizing aspects of incarceration, which has resulted in the further literal and psychological isolation of prison from the surrounding community, compromised prison visitation programs and the already scarce resources that had been used to maintain ties between prisoners and their families and the outside world. Support services to facilitate the transition from prison to the free world environments to which prisoners were returned were undermined at precisely the moment they needed to be enhanced. Increased sentence length and a greatly expanded scope of incarceration resulted in prisoners experiencing the psychological strains of imprisonment for longer periods of time, many persons being caught in the web of incarceration who ordinarily would not have been (e.g., drug offenders), and the social costs of incarceration becoming increasingly concentrated in minority communities (because of differential enforcement and sentencing policies). 

Punitive policing and sentencing policies have had a disproportionate impact on communities of color. While people of color comprise 37% of the U.S. population, they represent 67% of the prison population. African Americans are more likely to be arrested, convicted, and incarcerated than similarly situated white Americans (Ghandnoosh, 2015). Among young African American males, one in three will spend some time incarcerated during his lifetime (Trends, 2017). While greater involvement in certain crimes explains some of the racial and ethnic disparity, issues of biased enforcement practices, inadequate legal defense resources, and structural racism are also key factors (Ghandnoosh, 2015).

Black students represent 31% of school-related arrests. Black students are suspended and expelled 3 times more than white students. Students suspended or expelled for a discretionary violation are nearly 3 times more likely to be in contact with the juvenile justice system the following year.

Studies report numerous negative outcomes for children as a consequence of parental incarceration, ranging from depression and anxiety to aggression and delinquency depending on circumstances such as the child’s age and the length of a parent’s incarceration (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2015). Additional evidence points to children’s extreme trauma resulting from the experience of parental arrest.

In the Chicago neighborhood of North Lawndale, there is disagreement as to how many residents have been incarcerated at some time in their lives. It has been suggested that from 47% to 85 % of families have had someone in their family imprisoned at sometime. Imagine the effect on the children, the families, the school system, the neighborhood, and the self-esteem and attitude of this community.

Incarceration Affect on Families & Communities is 2024. Questions & guidelines send email to contact@urbanartretreat.com

We offer this at our site and yours! Art workshop/Presentation:

Easy supportive art workshop where we all experiment with making art about how Incarceration Affects Family and Community. Join a small group of folks who will discuss the topic: Incarceration Affects Family and Community and then make some art about this topic. Experienced artist/teacher will assist people to be successful. Part of a project that will take place at Urban Art Retreat, 1957 S. Spaulding (at 21st Street) about this topic.

Studies report numerous negative outcomes for children as a consequence of parental incarceration, ranging from depression and anxiety to aggression and delinquency depending on circumstances such as the child’s age and the length of a parent’s incarceration (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2015). Additional evidence points to children’s extreme trauma resulting from the experience of parental arrest.

In the Chicago neighborhood of North Lawndale, there is disagreement as to how many residents have been incarcerated at some time in their lives. It has been suggested that from 47% to 85 % of families have had someone in their family imprisoned at sometime. Imagine the effect on the children, the families, the school system, the neighborhood, and the self-esteem and attitude of this community.

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Women of Color Artists at Urban Art Retreat gallery Fall 2024. The group show is built around the art of Simone Bouyer. Simone grew up and lived in Chicago. She currently lives in Florida. Her art is about people. People on the block, people talking, people laughing, people living life. Simone also makes art about our heroes.

Last year This show has women from around the globe. Dennissa Young of Chicago interacted with show visitors asking them questions via her performance art. Bifei Ba is from China. You must really think when you look at her works. Acquaetta Williams of Maryland, Cassandra Robinson of Wisconsin, Ashley Leyva of Dupage- all worked hard to get their art to the gallery. Karla Ramirez-Rosas lives in Mexico. Tami Amit has her art coming all the way from Israel. Her mother died while she was submitting her art to this show.

an open discussion about “How Covid Has Changed Us”

A vehicle for Volunteerism!

URBAN ART RETREAT is a 501(C)3 non-profit organization formed in 1984 by artists/activists who wanted to provide support for each other, no matter how low income or whether they were the “walking wounded”. We have thrived over the years to become an organization of artists/activists who work on social justice issues through discussion and art-making.

We have always been and still are comprised of an all volunteer staff. We get things done by volunteering. Our core staff keeps the mechanics of things going. Periodic individual volunteers and groups of volunteers make projects take place. To volunteer, one just needs to attend a one hour orientation on a Saturday of their choosing. RSVP contact@urbanartretreat.com

group discussion in the art gallery

For 2023 we have a variety of projects for volunteers to help with and to support:

Gardening in our own Florence Garden, gardening and sculpture creation of black hero in Peace Parks, participate in workshops about animal agriculture impact on the environment, participate in workshop about incarceration affect on family and community, women of color art show, social justice stage event, creating a focal point and meditation, animal welfare presentation, learning about being vegan, face painting in outdoor festivals, dog grooming & play.

This program is geared toward people who like to learn about history & meet new people. It will take place on Saturday afternoons.

Black American History Saturdays

at Urban Art Retreat 1957 S. Spaulding

The American Black History Saturdays is comprised of viewing a documentary by Henry Louis Gates Jr. called  The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross. We will watch it in segments, discuss it, and make art about the film.

We will have visitors to tell their own story in the context of history or the real black history. In addition we will learn about black Americans who contributed to American life and made art & write about them. We will have discussions about current American life as it affects African Americans. People will learn about black wall street. Each person will write a story on African American history as they see it and will illustrate the story.  

For more info and to get on the wait list for classes, please email –

contact@urbanartretreat.com 

To visit Chicago Urban Art Retreat Center: We are open on Saturdays between 1-4p.m. or email us to make an appt. to visit when it is convenient for us both!

and find to find out more! contact@urbanartretreat.com

DO YOU LOVE ANIMALS? Contact our Animal Welfare Program and see what you might be able to do on-site or from home to help animals! Ask for Cesar – contact@urbanartretreat.com

Mister Deboo was a dog we rescued from a slaughter house in China where they were going to torture him, kill him, and sell him as “meat”. We helped an animal rescue organization, NO DOG LEFT BEHIND, raise money to empty this slaughter house. We decided to adopt one of the the dogs. He was an ambassador for the effort to stop Animal Cruelty. When people met him, we told his story. He lived at Urban Art Retreat with two other rescued dogs until his death on November 29, 2025. We miss him terribly.

Wayne, a brown hound, was rescued from a Puppy Mill. Glennie, a small black mixed doggie, was left tied to a tree in a vacant lot. Both are still with us. They make our days brighter!

To volunteer from time to time with our Animal Welfare Program, please contact us at contact@urbanartretreat.com. Get on our email list after attending a one hour orientation session. You could attend a rally for animal rights, or sign a petition to support legislation supporting animal rights, or go to city hall with others to ask for support for animals. You might like to brush the dogs, play with them, teach them tricks, provide exercise for them.

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Support

Get involved with Chicago Urban Art Retreat Center via fundraising events, volunteer work, and participating in activities.

You can make a donation, become a member to show your support, or become a volunteer!

Send your check payable to Urban Art Retreat or using the email address sophiebella@sbcglobal.net
go on Paypal.com to give a donation!
 
Right now, we are raising money to build a ramp & become accessible. Please help!

Volunteers are joining us from Chicago neighborhoods and from the suburbs to assist our organization in meeting our needs. Volunteers help with grant writing, cleaning & updating the women’s residence, caring for the three rescue dogs we have, picking up litter in the area, maintaining the Peace Park, household tasks, and much more. We offer an orientation on Saturdays at 1p.m. by RSVP. The volunteers on Grants Committee meet via Zoom Sundays at 2 p.m. contact@urbanartretreat.com to attend an orientation and then join a committee.

Donations are tax deductible:

Anyone who can make a donation now of any amount is urged to do so. We can take checks, money orders, PayPal.com (sophiebella@sbcglobal.net). Please email us if you are considering making a donation, or do so right on our website. Chicago Urban Art Retreat center is a 501 (C)3 tax exempt organization.

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