Make Awakenings a Home for Your Healing
We believe art can be an effective, transformative tool to help survivors heal, often in ways not readily available or financially feasible through traditional healthcare practice. Research suggests a shared, communal healing experience is essential to fighting the grief, isolation and misplaced guilt that can accompany trauma. Our cohort program allows our survivors to heal together in a safe, trauma-informed environment, while building a creative community.
This residency has allowed me to take a step in my healing journey that I never had before…
and I made some wonderful friends. The impact of being in a community of survivors is immeasurable.
Survivor Testimonial
As a survivor, [the cohort] has impacted my journey healing and allowed me to look at my trauma from different angles and not see revisiting it as a backstep.
Survivor Testimonial
Connect and Grow in our Cohort
Together, cohort members will complete a curriculum of weekly art workshops facilitated by Chicago-based teaching artists who are trained in trauma-informed practices.
Workshop activities will be accessible to all skill levels and easily replicated at home using commonly available art supplies.
Let us tell you more…
Each cohort will include 10-12 survivors.
to ensure an intimate and balanced group experience.
Participants receive a stipend for their participation
to ensure our program is accessible to everyone.
Awakenings schedules private additional studio hours for cohort members
to continue working on their projects outside of workshop time.
Each cohort lasts for 8 weeks
including six workshops and introductory & closing sessions that cover artmaking in a variety of modes and media, such as collage, papermaking, printmaking and creative writing.
The cohort presents an art installation
At the end of each cohort, Awakenings hosts a public exhibit opening celebrating the work and experiences of our survivors, and giving them the opportunity to showcase their art in our gallery space.
Longterm alumni engagement
Stay involved with Awakenings after the cohort experience through our alumni programming. We invite all cohort graduates to special programs and to become ambassadors of Awakenings in whatever way they wish.
Cohort Archive: Fall 2024
Awakenings Fall Cohort 2024 was dedicated to LGBTQIA+ survivors. Nine cohort members went through a healing arts curriculum together over the course of eight weeks. Each cohort participant contributed to a group art installation displayed in Awakenings’ studio space.
This artwork was on exhibit October 2024 – February 2025.
I feel grateful to have been a part of this cohort.
Working in and with a group of other queer survivors felt warm to me. We didn’t have to explain ourselves to each other and were all there for the same purpose of making art and healing. I’m super proud of the art we made and the time we spent learning new mediums, laughing together, and thinking about our healing in new ways.
Fall Cohort Member 2024
Cohort Archive: Spring 2024
Awakenings Spring Cohort 2024 included eight cohort members going through a healing arts curriculum together over the course of eight weeks. Each cohort participant to a group art installation displayed in Awakenings’ studio space.
This artwork was on exhibit May 2024 – August 2024. The Cohort Archive contains images from seven of the eight cohort member’s installations, their reflections on the art they created and their cohort experience.
Within my cohort experience, I was able to try and learn new things while receiving support and affirmation in a gentle, trauma-informed space.
The art I made during the cohort allowed me to process my feelings in a creative space with empathy.
Spring Cohort Member 2024
Create, connect, & heal
Find your place in our circle of creators, where every artistic choice is valid and every emotion is welcome. Healing isn’t linear, nor a path you have to walk alone.