Supporting the Illinois Arts Sector for 60 Years
Grant Application Now Open
FY 2025 General Operating Support & Youth Employment in the Arts
As part of IAC’s new regional focus, we are partnering with organizations across the state to host more than 20 in-person Informational Sessions with Q&A. Join us at any one of them to learn more about the FY25 grant opportunities. Details and rsvp links are all on the Workshops & Webinars page.
Arts Impact in Illinois
$36.1B
of our state's gross domestic product was contributed by arts and culture in 2022 - Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Dept of Commerce
216,227
Illinois jobs were in arts and culture (2022)
- Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce
22
grants totaling $862,855 were directed to Illinois school districts in developing arts and foreign language curricula in partnership with the Illinois State Board of Education (FY2024)
$29.1B
in revenues to state and local government are delivered by Illinois arts nonprofits in 2022 - Arts & Economic Prosperity 6 (AEP6)
29
local arts councils partnered with IAC through its Local Arts Network to support statewide arts programming (FY2024)
100%
of all legislative districts throughout Illinois receive free access to local and regional news, public affairs and arts programming through IAC support for Illinois Public Radio and Television (FY2024)
Featured Fellowship Recipient
Natalia Villanueva Linares is a French Peruvian Artist graduated with highest honors from Beaux Arts, the National School of Fine Arts of Paris. She currently lives in Chicago and works between North + South America and Europe. Natalia speaks in amounts and believes in poetry made from excessive quantities, in simple objects radiating with power over her everything. There is in the work a notion of continuity which communicates between the immense and the minute. She transmutes found, worn, old objects or those found in the banal of everyday life. The concept of sensitive mathematics animates a large part of her work, either through the abundance of large quantities of gestures and objects, or in its relationship to space and temporality. She has a magnetic affection for large collections of objects charged with history. With an animistic relation to certain materials, she invites others to feel the magnitude of their generosity. Her work has been shown in two major exhibitions at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Paris. She exhibited at the Sala Miro Quesada Garland in Peru (2013), Collège de Bernardins in Paris and La Graineterie (2018). Natalia had her first solo shows with Doyang Lee Gallery (2014, France) DPM gallery (2019, Ecuador), Wu Gallery (2021, Peru), Comfort Station in Chicago (2022). Her solo show at the Museo de Arte de San Marcos (2022, Peru) won the Luces Award for best solo exhibition of the year. In 2023 she exhibited at DePaul Art Museum, Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago IL), El Lobi (Puerto Rico) and the School of the Art Gallery (Canada). Natalia is a cultural worker, she co-founded the non-profit organization Yaku in Peoria IL. She is the former Director of the Artist-run mini mansion High Place and founder of the magazine Ukayzine, created to promote international cultural exchanges through the visual Arts. Natalia is a contributor for Sixty Inches From Center, she created the series Desde los Archivos/from the Archives and was an organizer of the critic program Canje.
Natalia’s upcoming show is in Paris at la Maison de l'Amérique Latine. This is a collective show also featuring artists, Jorge Eduardo Eielson, Cecilia Vicuña, Elías Crespin, Olga de Amaral, Milton Becerra, Anna Maria Maiolino, and curated by Domitille d'Orgeval.
See Natalia's "Lands of Dual 11" at Heaven Gallery through July 13
Visit Natalia on Instagram