credit: Tom Harris Photography
Public Programs Registration
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) hosts programs for the North Lawndale community in the 12th-floor classroom at Nichols Tower in Homan Square. We offer free classes, workshops, and events in a variety of art genres for adults (ages 18+), youth (ages 14-18), and intergenerational groups (ages 13 and up; children ages 12 and under are welcome to attend with an adult).
Our workshops are often led by local art instructors and provide participants with the opportunity to learn a specific art skill or technique.
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February Makers Meetup
Brush the Canvas and Weave Your Words
Brush the Canvas and Weave your words! Paint and personalize a poetry journal working with North Lawndale poet Hood Raised.
Date/time: Wednesday, February 26, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
Address: 906 South Homan Avenue; 12th Floor Classroom
NOTE: This event is an adults-only event; Adults 18+ are welcome!
For questions, please contact us at homansquare@saic.edu or artwestchicago@gmail.com.
Our Makers Meetups are designed to experience painting, crafting, and making connections. Our artist and curator Alexie Young of ArtWest will lead exploratory art-making and networking gathering using prompts and questions for deep conversations that inspire. The workshop will build connections by looking at what inspires lasting creative communities.
Abstract Painting Workshop
Abstract Painting Workshop with Artist-in-Residence, Hyero
We are extremely excited to introduce our artist-in-residence Hyero who will be teaching a no-cost, abstract portrait painting workshop. Supplies and refreshments will be provided. This is a family event and all ages are welcome to attend.
Date/time: Wednesday, February 19, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
Address: 906 South Homan Avenue; 12th Floor Classroom
For questions, please contact us at homansquare@saic.edu
Hyero celebrates Black portraiture focusing on portraying matriarchs and their stories. She is a teaching artist dedicated to sharing resources with artists to support representing Black people in their artwork. Her fall residency highlights matriarchs within the Black community through detailed portraiture investigating themes that shape the community. She sees a need for accessible tools and resources to support artists to authentically draw Black people, ensuring cultural representation in art, and will use this time to research the foundations and legacy of Black portraits.
2025 Spring Arts Club
Date(s): Every Thursday, September 16–March 2025
Time: 3:30–5:30 p.m.
Teen Arts Club
Join us for Teen Arts Club (youth 13-18) at SAIC Homan Square with teaching artist Brittany Harthan.
Enjoy free and fun art-making workshops, explore, relax, and work on personal art projects using a wide variety of art materials.
Brittany will be in the studio to offer art demonstrations in crafting, photography, fashion, building, drawing, and painting with a variety of materials.
Art From the Garden
Adult and family art sessions to make and share, while learning about activating the creation of a Sukkah for the teen garden: by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Douglass Library, and the Sukkah Design Festival.
Be inspired by the garden and all its gifts from food to flowers, and learn how to use plants and flowers pressing and pounding to make designs on paper and scarves. Then expand to art-making using old recipe cards using printmaking, and collages. Taught by Brittany Harthan and Shonna Pryor.
Thursday, August 22, 6–7:30 p.m.
Thursday, August 29, 6–7:30 p.m.
Along with a special Children's Art Workshop:
Thursday, September 5, 3:30–5 p.m.
The workshops are all free and all supplies are included.
The LostAndFound Family Reunion Film Screenings
Date(s): Saturdays, July 6–July20
Time: 11:00 a.m.– 2:00 p.m.
The LostAndFound Family Reunion Project will lead the resident participants of Lawndale on a journey that deep dives into ancestral roots to recover lost bloodline relatives and their legacies. The project is inspired by the docuseries Finding Your Roots by Henry Louis Gates as well as the story of the Bruce Beach heirs in California. The project will have multiple programming components, starting with film screenings.
July 6: Finding Your Roots by Henry Lewis Gates, Jr.
July 13: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by George C. Wolfe
July 20: The Cost of Inheritance by Yoruba Richen (PBS)
The LostAndFound Family Reunion Workshop
Date(s): Saturdays, July 27-August 24
Time: 11:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.
The LostAndFound Family Reunion Project will lead the resident participants of Lawndale on a journey that deep dives into ancestral roots to recover lost bloodline relatives and their legacies. The project is inspired by the docuseries Finding Your Roots by Henry Louis Gates as well as the story of the Bruce Beach heirs in California. The project will have multiple programming components:
Mining: Mining is gathering genealogical information using various platforms such as The National Archives and the Bristol English Project to find family histories.
Art making: The creation of silkscreen t-shirts with individual customized ancestor information and/or photo image transfer under "The LostAndFound Family Reunion" heading. 2D printmedia art-making that features mining.
Mining: July 27, August 3, & August 10
Art Making: August 17 & August 24
The LostAndFound Family Reunion BBQ
Date: Saturday, August 31
Time: 11:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.
The LostAndFound Family Reunion Project will lead the resident participants of Lawndale on a journey that deep dives into ancestral roots to recover lost bloodline relatives and their legacies. The project is inspired by the docuseries Finding Your Roots by Henry Louis Gates as well as the story of the Bruce Beach heirs in California. Closing of the residency will culminate in an event which includes a LostAndFound Family reunion outdoor BBQ (we’ll be wearing our respective family t-shirts creations!), immediately followed by an outdoor spoken word gathering.