About us
Imagine Just is a collectively-led and diverse coalition to build a just and equitable arts and culture ecosystem that radically centers ALAANA/BIPOC creatives and communities and intentionally advances us all toward liberated futures.
* ALAANA (African, Latinx, Asian, Arab, and Native American)
* BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color)
Our grounding values:
We believe the arts are essential for creating a just and equitable society.
The arts are a powerful means to connect with our full humanity and a necessary tool for the creation of new systems that serve us all.
We model a culture of care and connection.
The work of transformation requires individual and collective healing. We build creative spaces where care and connection are valued.
We are race explicit but not race exclusive.
We center on race as a leading driver of individual and community outcomes while acknowledging and celebrating our full complex humanity.
We operate from a perspective of abundance.
Scarcity is a tool of oppression, so we reject that framework in our relationships and our organizing.
We recognize that liberation is always evolving.
We embrace that this vision will evolve and adapt
as conditions change.
How we work
The Imagine Just Community of Practice is a collectively-led and diverse coalition of artists, cultural producers, and creatives. This is a container for living out our transformative, liberatory values and to give power and agency to the people who’ve been historically excluded from making decisions about the solutions, interventions, and resources people and communities of color need within the arts and culture space.
We are organized around three domains:
Funding
Funding existing and future community-led initiatives, projects, and campaigns that align with our vision through a community-advised fund.
Engaging
Engaging individuals and communities around key community actions and policy changes that advance our vision in solidarity with parallel groups and coalitions.
Practicing
Practicing new ways of being and working together that center creative processes as a means for healing and transformation.
Enrich Chicago will serve as a backbone organization to support operations, finances, communications, and evaluation for the group. A core transformation team will be responsible for organizing and mobilizing the larger community of practice made up of practitioners and co-conspirators, and for supporting multiple levels of engagement and involvement across the sector.
Our first tasks as a group will be to charter a Community Benefits Agreement and to ratify an agenda for the next 1–2 years.
Learn more
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Artist credit: “Invest” by Rod Sawyer -
Artist credit: “Madalamba” by Monica Rickert-Bolter -
Artist credit: “EKILI MUNDA : What Lies Within” by Vershawn -
Artist credit: Sadia Nawab – Creative Director & Photographer: Samira Abderahman -
Artist credit: A.J. Maldo | Photographer: Jennifer Griffin -
Artist credit: Sandra Antongiorgi, Andy Bellomo, and Sam Kirk, The Love I Vibrate, 2017. -
Artist credit: “#SAYHERNAME” by Vershawn -
Artist credit: Sadia “DiJa” Nawab @msdija07 -
Artist credit: “ESPACIO” by Rod Sawyer -
Artist credit: “ReNayeII” by Monica Rickert-Bolter -
Artist credit: “Living your life as a work of art: organizer, mother, artist, human” by Sadia Nawab -
Artist credit: “EKILI MUNDA-What Lies Within” by Vershawn -
Artist credit: “Ashland” by Rod Sawyer -
Artist credit: “Kitihawa Dreaming” by Monica Rickert-Bolter