AN EXHIBITION FEATURING PHOTOGRAPHS BY LYNSEY ADDARIO, MARCUS BLEASDALE, RON HAVIV, AND JAMES NACHTWEY
Congo/Women is produced by Art Works Projects and the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media Columbia College Chicago.
credits:
Curator and Co-Director: Leslie Thomas
Creative Advisor and Co-Director: Jane Saks
Exhibition Design: Art Works Projects (Greg Doench, Leslie Thomas) and Real Design Associates (Jurgen Riehle and Margot Perman)
Graphic Design: Real Design Associates (Jurgen Riehle and Margot Perman)
Translation: Anne Alma, Julia Pourtois, Nita Evele
Printing: Portland Color
Fabrication: Duvall Designs
Voice Recording: Cheryl Lynn Bruce
Sound Design:
Website Design: Compound Design
Digital Exhibit Editor: Eric Argiro
Post Production: Union Editorial
Original Music: Mario Grigorov, Pamelia Kurstin, Jaron Lanier, Sussan Deyhim
Special thanks: Kristin Ensch, Emma Ruby-Sachs, Jane Sachs, and Sara Slawnik
The CONGO/Women team is grateful for the support of the many individuals and organizations which have assisted this work, including:
Jane Cohan
Christian Del Sol
James Haygood
Ken Horowitz
Steve Kinney
Sloane Klevin
Patricia MacDonald
Jayme McLellan
Harley Meyer
Mariana Tosic
Leslie Thomas is an architect, curator and the founding Executive Director of Art Works Projects, an organization which uses visual advocacy for human rights crises. »More
Jane M. Saks is the Founding Executive Director of the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media at Columbia College Chicago. The mission of the Institute is to deepen the understanding of and appreciation for how issues related to women, gender, creativity and community shape social policy, culture, history and critical theory through the arts and media. Within this framework, the Institute addresses ideas of access, representation, equity, and participation, as well as race and class, using the arts and media as a means of research, engagement, public education, and advocacy.
As a feminist activist, arts administrator, writer and educator Jane’s work has focused on arts and culture, women, gender, race, LGBTQ issues, and political, human rights and social justice movements. She has developed numerous programs, public and private collaborations, and interdisciplinary projects during her career seeing the arts as a tool for social change and an essential human gesture. She has worked with many individual artists, scholars and activists and national and international nonprofit, philanthropic, civic, cultural and community based organizations, NGOs and private and public sector entities. She credits her parents and their civic involvement and deep commitment to social change as a fundamental influence on her life and work. Since childhood she has participated with her family in many political campaigns and civic social justice initiatives. She has served on Advisory Boards and Committees including: Illinois NARAL, Randolph Street Gallery, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, Horizons Community Services, and the City of Chicago Mayor’s Design Initiative. She was selected as a 2003/2004 Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow and was a participant in Project 2000 Human Relations Foundation. Currently she serves on Advisory Boards and Committees including: Chicago Foundation for Women (CFW), Radio Diaries of National Public Radio, OUT at Chicago History Museum, Friends of South Africa’s Constitutional Court Architecture and Artworks Programme Committee, African Women’s Development Fund USA Chicago Committee, Human Rights Watch Chicago Committee, Experimental Station and as Co-Chair of the Lesbian Leadership Council at CFW. She has published poetry in literary magazines and as a writer has collaborated with artists such as Kerry James Marshall, Inigo Manglano-Ovalle and Jim Hodges. As a visiting lecturer and critic, she has been invited to leading local, national and international educational, arts and cultural institutions. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College in New York and studied at the University of Rome focusing on architecture and art history.
