Awakenings Cohort 
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. As the cohort finished, each member contributed to a group art installation in Awakenings Chicago Studio. 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.
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. As the cohort finished, each member contributed to a group art installation in Awakenings Chicago Studio. 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.
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.
View pictures from our Fall 2023 Cohort Art Walkthrough
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 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.
- There is a $1000 stipend for each cohort member.
- Awakenings will make “open studio hours” available for cohort members to work on their projects in unstructured time.
- Each cohort’s programming will be 8 weeks long (to include an introductory/closing session and six weekly 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 cohort will develop an annual engagement plan, which we will use to facilitate long-term relationships between Awakenings and future cohort participants.
