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Tonika Johnson and Joe “Cujo” Nelson

Co-founders of Chicago’s Englewood Arts Collective artist Tonika Johnson and muralist Joe “Cujo” Nelson have collaborated on investing in their native Englewood neighborhood. In the South Side, they have transformed a vacant building into an artists’ studio and exhibition storefront, distributed grants to young Black and Brown creatives, beautified public spaces with murals, activated abandoned lots with pop-up art-related events to promote healing, and worked with neighbors on rehabilitating homes with new roofs and building wealth through home equity. Their social actions repair the disinvestments Black communities face.

On view on Gallery 400’s windows on Van Buren Street, Art Powers reflects the role of art education programs such as Gallery 37, an organization that empowered Chicago’s youth in wide-ranging art experiences in tents on a vacant lot in the Loop during the 1990s. Johnson says: “Joe and I had to travel outside our neighborhood for arts programs and high school. We formed a friendship during those commutes that evolved into many creative and community-based collaborations as adults, shaping much of the work we do today. Those experiences highlighted how transformative arts programs were for us, inspiring us to co-found the Englewood Arts Collective with eight other creatives from Englewood. This work embodies the heart of our friendship and our mission with the Englewood Arts Collective: to build spaces where art empowers bold futures. We aim to ensure future generations of young creatives can grow and thrive without having to leave their neighborhoods, like we did.”

Learn more about the Englewood Arts Collective and Johnson’s Folded Map Project.