Project Osmosis empowers Chicago youth to design solutions to community challenges through immersive design education, mentorship, and applied arts programming that promotes peace, safety, and opportunity in underserved neighborhoods.
The grant supports the Arts Village Sculpture park, a built-environment project transforming two vacant lots at 63rd and May into a publicly accessible cultural space in Greater Englewood. The project evolves a high-impact pop-up model into a year-round site for public art.
Bubbly Dynamics is a leader in the sustainable redevelopment of Chicago's industrial landscape, transforming long-vacant warehouses and factories into vibrant communal business ecosystems. With the grant, Bubbly Dynamics will complete a Visualization + Energy Recovery and Distribution System (VERDs) project. The VERDs project will transform invisible waste heat into a tracked, managed resource at The Plant.
The Collective Learning Lab collaborates with Chicago youth to reimagine their neighborhood by designing artful green public spaces. In their Banner Project, students from Altgeld Gardens on the far South Side will design and install colorful streetlight banners, infusing new vibrancy into their neighborhood, reflecting local pride and values, and hopefully inspiring them towards stewardship of their communities over the long term.
Anthony Bartley is a Chicago-based multidisciplinary practice dedicated to using art as a tool for mental health advocacy and communal healing. His practice leverages a background in biological sciences and visual storytelling to create accessible environments for emotional expression. Mind Games is an immersive exhibition series that turns art and games into functional tools for communal healing and mental health advocacy. By blending game design with environmental storytelling, the project creates "restorative third spaces" where Chicagoans can navigate emotions and community through play.
Urban Rivers is a Chicago-based nonprofit dedicated to transforming urban waterways into wildlife sanctuaries, and providing opportunities for citydwellers of all backgrounds to connect with nature in new and meaningful ways. Through innovative floating park spaces, we reconnect people with their local rivers and native ecology, fostering biodiversity alongside a culture of environmental stewardship in urban areas. The Wild Mile Pocket Park is an upcoming public greenspace installation that works within existing industrial infrastructure, spanning both land and water. Our local volunteerism initiative will bring youth from the nearby Cabrini Green community, as well as volunteers of all ages from surrounding neighborhoods, into the full construction process of this innovative park space
Fresh Supply began in a Chicago science classroom and has grown into a youth-centered, intergenerational collaboration among young people, educators, elders, and community members. We co-create participatory community initiatives that link environmental justice with digital technology, positioning youth as transformative intellectuals and community leaders.
Territory is a place-based urban design studio where young people are building better futures for themselves and their communities through the practice of design. Territory is located in the Austin neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side. Doing projects in public spaces, young people use their lived experience, gain civic problem-solving skills, discover transformative career pathways in design, and advocate for including young people in the design and planning of Chicago.
Duo Development is an innovation studio/lab and nonprofit development organization co-founded and led by siblings Carlos Robles-Shanahan, Rafael Robles, and Karla Robles. Their mission is to create built environment innovations for the benefit of society. Their work uses design as a central piece to expand access to ownership, challenge extractive development practices, and create pathways for people to shape, build, and steward their neighborhoods—all held with a strong emphasis on beauty and its expression through each of these avenues.
The Chicago Graphic Design Club (CGDC) is a volunteer-run organization in its sixth year, dedicated to building a meaningful community within Chicago's design scene. What began as virtual conversations about design during the pandemic has evolved into a hub for critical design discourse — producing programming that includes studio tours, workshops, panel discussions, social gatherings, the Underscore podcast, and the Faculty publication series, which captures oral histories from designers across the city and beyond.