1224 W Loyola Ave has three descending stairs to a recessed floor; regrettably, the interior of the exhibition space is not wheelchair accessible. The public washroom is a very confined space, up two stairs from the exhibition floor. If these factors or others present a barrier for your visit, please write to art@romansusan.org or leave a voicemail at (773) 270-1224 in advance for alternate arrangements. Roman Susan at 1224 W Loyola Ave is located 85 meters northwest of the Loyola CTA Station, with direct access for public transit via the Red Line train and the 147 bus line. A Divvy bike-share hub is located at the west exit of the CTA. There is on-street parking on W Loyola Ave, and a paid parking garage at 1210 W Arthur Ave immediately to the south. For all projects at 1224 W Loyola Ave, open hours are scheduled in advanced, and available at other times by appointment. All projects are visible from the sidewalk immediately outside the space 24/7.
Double Stitch
1224 W Loyola Ave, Chicago IL
October 18, 2024 - November 2, 2024
Open Hours Wednesdays, Thursdays, Sundays 4-7 PM
Closing and RS Anniversary Saturday, November 2 from 6-9 PM
Join us for the 200th art project of Roman Susan, which concludes our 12th year, and begins our 13th season at 1224 W Loyola Ave in Chicago, Illinois. Double Stitch features garments, costumes, and objects created by Roman Susan founder Kristin Abhalter Smith in collaboration with others, alongside related artworks and ephemera by Eliza Fernand, Ginger Krebs, AJ McClenon, Vida Sačić, Corey Smith, Lauren Sudbrink, and others. The opening reception on October 18 will feature performances by John Marks and Crystal Myslajek from Minneapolis, and Sara Zalek from Chicago.
Kristin Abhalter Smith is a multimedia artist, designer, and organizer who specializes in collaborative projects. She started Roman Susan in 2012, and has led the organization to share the work of 1165 artists at 30+ locations. Her practice is focused on soft sculpture, printed and painted materials, and patchwork in relation to the body in motion. Themes of exuberance as well as grief are expressed through garments constructed with hand drafted patterns and found materials. The inspiration to collaborate and support other artists to produce their work is a continued thread of a professional background in scenic art and design for the stage. Kristin has an MFA from the University of Minnesota and is the founding director of Roman Susan. Chicago exhibition history includes Art on Armitage, Flatland, Hyde Park Art Center, Ignition Projects, and NEIU Gallery, among others. For more information, visit kristinabhalter.com.
chinelo house
1224 W Loyola Ave, Chicago IL
September 14, 2024 - October 13, 2024
Open Hours Thursdays + Sundays 4-7 PM, and by appointment
Weaving Workshop Sunday, October 13 at 4 PM RSVP
chinelo house is a gathering space utilizing traditional shelter forms inspired by Igbo (An ethnic group of Nigeria) architecture(s). The site is inspired by the historic Nigerian homestead obi, “the most important part, or heart, of any given place”, which is typically dedicated to the eldest brother in a family. This show is named after ebere’s eldest sister, dr. chinelo agwuncha who is a detail oriented healer, her spirit grounds those that visit and come in contact with the space. chinelo house is a site specific installation transforming the interior and exterior architecture of Roman Susan through an adornment of woven reed, willow, cane, and jute fibers. This contemporary iteration invites the audience to enter, wander, create and meditate throughout the site.
ebere agwuncha is a Chicago born and based Nigerian American transdisciplinary artist whose practice seeks to reach the natural depths of memory that hands carry through contemporary craft practices. They dream alongside the archives of the black diaspora making architecture(s) for the world to embrace through touch, preservation, ritual, domesticity, and intimacy. She currently utilizes various techniques including woodworking, ceramics, woven natural fibers, photography, interactive sound, installation, sculpture, and moving image. For more information, please visit eagwuncha.com.
Chicago Must See | ARTFORUM - September 19, 2024
chinelo house | Bad at Sports - September 12, 2024
Mercury
1224 W Loyola Ave, Chicago IL
August 26, 2024 - September 2, 2024
Performance Monday, August 26 at 7:30 PM
The Mercury project is an ever-changing sound, movement, and video fit, currently in response to legal backlashes against transgender people, that began in 2020. Using live conversations, blake nemec with Maddie Brucker and Mitch Monroy experiment with transcription, sound, and video. The recordings, alongside past Mercury work, will be exhibited August 27 through September 2.
blake nemec is a transgender writer, teacher, sound recordist, and health care worker, who lives in Chicago. He is the author of Sharing Plastic, and work supporting abolition, decriminalization of unprotected bodies and musicalities of conversation. He is a Lambda and SFAI fellow and is available as a somatic coach or to facilitate somatics-based writing workshops. For more information, please visit blakenemec.net.
Maddie Brucker works in textile, digital, and textual forms. Her work mines historical and contemporary developments in technology and science to design systems of representation which offer new, subversive forms of self-authorship for trans people. For more about the artist, visit brucker.dev.
Mitch Monroy is a trans Guatemalan poet and multimedia fine artist. Their works are featured in Polyglot Magazine, Sundress Transmasc Anthology, Parrish Art Museum, and forthcoming in Foglifter. They are a Tin House Scholar 2023 and an organizer for FRUTAS. They are working on a collection called God’s Gay Mouth. Connect with them on Instagram @mitch_monroy.
The image above is Santa Fe Double 2, photographed by Nat Lachall.
1224 W Loyola Ave, Chicago IL
July 19, 2024 - August 18, 2024 + August 19, 2025 - September 30, 2025
Work by Matt Bodett and Ricardo Mondragon, Shir Ende, laaura goldstein with Maddie Brucker, Aram Han Sifuentes, Gina Hunt, Michael James, Betsy Odom, AJ (Quing of Arts Photography), Chris Reeves, Marina Ross, José Santiago Pérez, Bill Talsma, Rafael Vera, Edgewater Environmental Coalition, and Sonya Bogdanova with Mark Boldizsar, Salome Chasnoff, Alexis Clodfelter, Ashley Clodfelter, Elisa Corena, Erika Diaz, Spencer Grogan, Heather Higgins, Aruna and Tejaswini Mendon, Lauren Paz, Mark Salvati, Joe Steppan, Daniel Tseng, and James Yearnd.
This is a project in two parts. Let’s celebrate this place – and imagine what our future could be. . . . Summer 2024 features contributions of tenants living at 1234 W Loyola Ave and individuals who have shared their work with Loyola University as artists, activists, and teachers. On July 31, we hosted a Feast with Edgewater Environmental Coalition. On August 1, the tower featured a performance by laaura goldstein with moving images by Maddie Brucker. On August 14, Songs shared music by 1234 W Loyola Ave tenant Audrey Ellis. On August 18, we shared Projections on the train wall outdoor with works by Matt Bodett and Ricardo Mondragon, Maddie Brucker, and Shir Ende. After concluding on August 18, Go forth and set the world on fire* will resume a year later, with works, performances, offerings, and gestures from community members.
This project and tenants of 1234 W Loyola Ave have received vital support from the Crossroads Fund's Critical Response Fund grant.
Re: NOTICE TO TENANTS – Addendum
We originally wrote to Loyola University of Chicago in January to advocate for our neighbors and for ourselves, following the examples we experience every day in the arts community of care, excellence, and mutual support. When we say community we mean any audience that comes together to experience and share creative acts. The great art that is present in Chicago cannot happen without the support of audiences with space to converge. Values are not dictated by economic forces alone, but by how people choose to share their time with each other. The reality of artists and audiences in Chicago is that they are an ever-growing, changing, self-defining, and lasting group of people who are neighbors, employees, educators, students, and leaders. Anyone can choose to value and participate in arts and cultural activities. Loyola University is a private institution, and this shapes their sense of community. Their decisions related to 1226-1234 Loyola Ave harm both our community and their own through a withdrawal of support for cultural activities. Removing affordable housing and creative commercial spaces has a chilling effect on local culture, as does their lack of funding and public access in their own private exhibition spaces and properties. Powerful independent institutions with great resources hold great responsibility to care for the people in their midst. The individuals in control of these institutions can lead with their hearts and choose to contribute to the culture that defines our intersecting communities. We are reminded on a daily basis by our community that art gives people a reason to live.
Since we first wrote to Loyola University and our neighbors regarding 1234 Loyola, we have the following updates:
- Loyola desires to tear down the building as soon as possible citing “unprofitable” renovation expenses.
- Loyola has not publicly announced specific plans to develop the space this building occupies.
- Elected officials have asked Loyola to consider other uses for the existing building, including turning it into art studios and creative spaces.
- Loyola released a new campus plan highlighting this area of campus for residential and recreational uses, which match the current functions of the building.
- Residential tenants are being asked to leave their homes at the end of their current leases, which all conclude by August 31, 2024.
- Roman Susan has been able to provide residential tenants with emergency moving stipends through support from Crossroads Fund's Critical Response grant.
- Some residential tenants have been offered new housing in Loyola properties managed by Lakeside Management.
- Some residential tenants have received support from Loyola by way of rent subsidies and moving expenses.
- Our commercial neighbors Archie’s Cafe will leave their location at the conclusion of their lease ending August 31, 2024.
- Our commercial neighbors Edge Art have received an extension to stay until December 31, 2024.
- Roman Susan will continue at this location until the conclusion of our lease September 30, 2025.
- The CTA is planning to renovate and possibly expand services at the Loyola Station, which could begin in 2029, and will potentially impact the development of this location.
There is still time for Loyola to choose people over profits in any of the following ways:
- Loyola could invest in the neighborhood and rehabilitate the existing building as a model of adaptive reuse, creating a sustainable mixed-income development with affordable housing and a community arts incubator, maintaining its current tenants, and programming educational student-run storefronts.
- Loyola could maintain the existing building and lease it as affordable housing, art studios, and creative spaces until the next steps are in place to move forward with future development.
- Loyola could build an arts and culture district among its future campus buildings, replacing the estimated 100+ affordable apartments it has demolished in this area in the recent past.
Roman Susan will continue in other forms after the conclusion of our lease at 1224 W Loyola Ave. Our time at this space has been valuable beyond words, and we’re very grateful to be a part of the community here. Thank you for supporting our neighbors, and for creating Roman Susan with us. We hope to celebrate and share it with you the best way we can over the next year!
Open Letter to Loyola University of Chicago
Related Media
Experimental art space faces uncertain future after building bought by Loyola University | WBEZ – January 25, 2024
Loyola Buys Local Property, Displacing Residents and Local Businesses | Loyola Phoenix – January 31, 2024
Dear Loyola: Foster Community, Don’t Demolish It | Loyola Phoenix – February 7, 2024
‘We’re happy to be neighbors’: The Storefronts of 1226-1234 W. Loyola Ave. | Loyola Phoenix – February 7, 2024
Kristin + Nathan Abhalter Smith with Michael James | Live from the Heartland – February 9, 2024
Community Engagement | 49th Ward Update – February 10, 2024
Rogers Park Neighbors To Loyola: Don’t Demolish Building With Local Shops, Longtime Residents | Block Club Chicago – February 19, 2024
Alderwoman Maria Hadden Shows Support for West Loyola Avenue Tenants | Loyola Phoenix – February 28, 2024
State Senator Mike Simmons Shares Support for West Loyola Avenue Businesses and Residents | Loyola Phoenix – March 13, 2024
THREATENED: Loyola University Plans Demolition of 1234 W. Loyola Ave. for Vacant Lot | Preservation Chicago – March 31, 2024
Mission: demolition? | Chicago Reader – April 15, 2024
Roman Susan: A Neighborhod Beacon | Reva & David Logan Foundation – April 29, 2024
Art Show Honoring Soon To Be Demolished 1224 W. Loyola Ave. Ignites Community | Loyola Phoenix - July 31, 2024
Critics’ Picks: Go forth and set the world on fire* | ARTFORUM - August 2, 2024
The first image above is Visualizing Creative Reuse for Loyola University, 1226-1234 W Loyola Ave, created by Roman Susan founder Kristin Abhalter with rendering through SketchUp Diffusion. The second image is from Prismisms by Andrew S. Yang in 2018. The third image is a Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, Vol. 40, 1937 – accessed from Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Sanborn Maps Collection. The fourth image (below) is from the Rogers Park/West Ridge Historical Society – Mundelein College construction at 1020 W Sheridan Road (1929) – M068-0103. Photo donated to the Historical Society by Mundelein College (Loyola University Chicago). The image on the homepage was created by Madhuri Shukla, one of the founding directors of Roman Susan Art Foundation.
In 2023-24, Roman Susan is supported in part by federal assistance listing number 21.027 awarded to Roman Susan Art Foundation NFP by the US Treasury through the American Rescue Plan Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds in the amount of $50,000, representing 17.5% of total project funding.
We would like to thank Eric Newman Law Office for pro-bono representation and advocacy related to our efforts for romansusan.org/1234.
Go forth and set the world on fire* Exhibition Guide (pdf)
*Go forth and set the world on fire is a translation of Ite, inflammate omnia – a call to action historically attributed to Ignatius of Loyola.