Chicago-based art organization A Long Walk Home is the inaugural recipient of the Art & Advocacy Residency.

Participating A Long Walk Home artists Scheherazade Tillet, Robert Narciso and Leah Gipson will collaborate to realize The Visibility Project: Black Girlhood Altar, an installation comprised of four community altars to be placed throughout Chicago this May and June as temporary monuments to missing and murdered Black girls.

Conceived as an expansion of the gallery’s mission to raise awareness for social justice issues in collaboration with artists, the Art & Advocacy Residency offers awarded artists the use of the 2,200 square foot gallery space over the course of 12 weeks, in addition to a stipend.

A Long Walk Home

The practice of leveraging art for healing is firmly embedded in the inception of A Long Walk Home (ALWH), founded in 2003 by African American sisters Salamishah Tillet and Scheherazade Tillet. Made up of socially engaged artists, healers, therapists, activists and academics, ALWH has been at the forefront of social justice movements bringing long overdue attention to violence against Black girls and young women. The organization works with artists, students, activists, therapists, community organizations, and cultural institutions to advocate for racial justice and gender equity in our schools, communities, and country-at-large. ALWH is committed to increasing resources and opportunities for society’s most vulnerable girls and women in the Chicago area—low-income, girls and women of color, those with disabilities, and LGBTQ-identified—and those most impacted by violence.

To learn more about A Long Walk Home, you can visit their website alongwalkhome.org.

The Visibility Project: Black Girlhood Altar

The Visibility Project: Black Girlhood Altar will engage Black girls and young women in Chicago as citizen-artists who will research, assemble and activate the altars, using the project to advocate for change within their communities. Each public altar will serve as a sacred space and gathering site for grief, healing, safety and comfort through multi-disciplinary art practices. ALWH is interested in finding ways for communities to come together to grieve, celebrate life, and make sustainable changes in their own communities. Over the course of the residency, ALWH and Weinberg/Newton Gallery will present programming that offers the public insight into the creation of The Visibility Project: Black Girlhood Altar.