Aerial wideshot overlooking Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood with Nichols Tower standing tall above the scene.

credit: Tom Harris Photography

Homan Square

Artists-in-Residence

The Nichols Tower Artists-in-Residence program was designed with extensive civic engagement with our partners and the larger community in mind. Each selected artist collaborates with area residents to explore social and civic engagement themes, public and community art, activism, urban studies, and urban agriculture. As our programming reflects community requests, our artists-in-residence also reflect the community’s self-expression. The residency provides three artists per year with studio space in the Nichols Tower and a platform for public participation. The artist-in-residence works with the community to develop creative solutions to local issues and build connections between people and the places they live.

Through this residency, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago partners to engage artists as collaborators in community life on Chicago’s West Side. Residents will collaborate with neighbors and local organizations to develop projects that explore themes of the Black archive through film and photography, local footwork lineages through publications, social practice, public art, and youth empowerment.

Current Artists-in-Residence

Kent “Kenlo Key” Jones

Jones is a multidisciplinary artist blending design, fine art, and storytelling to celebrate Chicago culture. During his residency, he will launch Footwork Famous: Issue 1, a magazine highlighting West Side footwork dance through design and community voices.

Black Film Club Collective

A multidisciplinary cultural agency and film club, the Collective curates cinematic experiences that honor Black and BIPOC storytelling. Their residency project, the Pilot Salon Series, explores Migration + Memory, Radical Joy, and Afrofutures through archival and contemporary films, dialogue, and storytelling—building a community archive and envisioning future exhibitions.

Kenn Cook Jr.

Cook is a Chicago-based photographer and cultural worker whose work centers on care, presence, and the beauty of Black life. His project, This Far by Faith, examines the shifting role of the Black Church as both a spiritual and political force—asking whether it can once again serve as a source of collective strength and liberation.

A photo of Homan Square artist-in-residence Jay Simon

Jay Simon

Jay is a Chicago-based photographer and curator specializing in portrait, storytelling, and architecture photography. He is a North Lawndale native, and his most recent project he's working on is called Westside Glory: Chicago’s Westside Architecture & Portrait Storybook. It is devoted to the Westside’s rich architectural heritage, history, and unique culture, and documents the remarkable stories of homeowners and their buildings. Westside Glory explores the second great migration of southerners to the west side of Chicago; highlighting key aspects of homeownership which also provide the context for the architect and developer. This project changes the narrative of the perception of the west side of Chicago through authentic storytelling and the archiving of the west side's rich architectural heritage, people history, and unique culture.

Current Visiting Artists

Michele Y. Washington

Washington is a multidisciplinary designer, researcher, and design critic whose work spans public space, visual storytelling, and print design. Her project draws on the sensory experiences of food and family recipes, exploring traditions of preservation and Black memory.