Awakenings Cohort 
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. Awakenings cohorts allow 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.
Connect and Grow in our Cohort
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.
Together, cohort members will complete a curriculum of monthly 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.
- There is a $1000 stipend for each cohort member.
- Awakenings gallery will make “open studio hours” available for cohort members to work on their projects in unstructured time.
- Each cohort’s programming will be seven months long (to include an introductory session and six monthly workshops), and will include artmaking in a variety of modes and media, including collages, papermaking, printmaking and creative writing.
- At the end of each cohort, we will host a public event celebrating the work and experiences of our survivors, and giving them the opportunity to showcase their art in our gallery space in Chicago’s Ravenswood neighborhood.
- The first cohort (starting in April 2023) will develop an annual engagement plan, which we will use to facilitate long-term relationships between Awakenings and future cohort participants.
Thank you to all who applied for the 2023 Awakenings Cohort!
Application deadline was MARCH 25th 11:59pm Central time.
2023 Application Process
- Answer the following questions in writing via filling out the google form (click the button!) OR send an audio or video recording answering the questions in the google form.
- A panel comprised of Awakenings staff will review applications, then contact the applicant with a decision. Your personal information will remain confidential.
- Awakenings will contact all applicants of outcome by mid-April.
- Awakenings celebrates diversity and is committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and program participants.
