Buckets of paint? $30. Canvas? $50. Realizing how much work is put into an amazing community filled with art? Priceless.

Dearest Followers

Today was day 5 of our great Windy City Experience. As we see our fellow catalysts in T-shirts it does not bring smiles to our faces. Rather we are bundled in coats, scarves, hats, and mittens. And yes it did snow and rain today. :( Did we mention it is indeed windy?

We ventured into this invigorating weather this morning and we realized we have greatly improved our public transportation skills that we have. Yay!

We started our day today at the Little Black Pearl Workshop on the south side of Chicago. Some of us cleaned and some of us painted. Ali, Lewis, and Heidi spent the day painting the gallery to get it ready for an open house this weekend. It was really great getting to know each other better and to work as a system so to speak. It was wonderful to see a clean white wall that will be a backdrop to the students art. The other group was in the studio cleaning a much needed space for the students to work. Canvases were then put on the wall and primed for the students to paint. The day wasn't spent only cleaning there was some beautiful Russian broom dancing to Polish pop music. Check it out! The group in the studio worked with Jolanta Pawlak, a resident artist at LBP. She is from Poland (hence the Polish Pop music) and does jewelry, sculptures, and photography. She gave us insight into her world and where she draws inspiration from, which is from her diving explorations in the Caribbean when she lived there. She has been awesome to get to know.

All in all it seems this trip is teaching us much about the behind-the-scenes of community art. The work that goes into organizing and the physical labor needed to do the work that isn't noticeably art is becoming apparent to us. We may not go into a gallery and just see a white wall, but be aware and appreciative of this wall the art is on. It takes many people with many talents to have a community with arts.

Later in discussion at the end of the night, we touched on the idea of privilege. As the trip to chicago last year focused on this a lot and worked with the students one on one and in groups, we talked about how this could be seen as privilege for us as college students coming to their already built community, because of the fact that not everyone gets the opportunity to do that. This year, we're the ones behind the scenes, and much more appreciative of the work that the staff at LBP does and how much work they do to make such an amazing organization to make this space great not only for them, but the kids as well.

We have also taken in some time for some wonderful entertainment, albeit from ourselves. We or should I say "the Jill's". We hope you enjoy this as much as we did. (Please laugh.)