This year, in celebration of International Women’s Day, Heaven Gallery and Equity Arts invite five generations of women change makers who choose to break the bias – this group includes artists, activists and community leaders paving the way for social change. The goal of this event is to inspire people to take on new initiatives while raising awareness and celebrating the achievements of our speakers. Collectively, we can all help create a more gender inclusive and equitable world. Our 2022 speakers are:

Erica S. Hubbard is a nationally recognized advisor on fine and contemporary art, culture and race who is known for opening the art world to new audiences and driving conversations about equity and inclusion in arts and cultural spaces.  She is founder and CEO of Cleo Dell, an art advisory firm.

Wisdom Baty is a Chicago based interdisciplinary artist, mother, arts collaborator and space carver. With over a decade of experience in community organizing, her practice reimagines physical + visual space, Black autonomy and historical accuracy in support of Black Motherhood through the lens of intersectionality. Wisdom is the Founder and Creative Director of Wild Yams: Black Mothers Artist Residency, currently operating at THE cre.æ.tive ROOM, a distinctive unified collaboration created by Black Women for Black Women, with missions committed to equity + access through the Arts on the Southside of Chicago. Baty received her BFA in Painting at UIC’s School of Art and Design in 2012 and Masters degree in Arts Administration and Policy, from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2018.

Silvia Inés Gonzalez  is a multi-disciplinary artist, cultural worker, and educator in Chicago actively participating in spaces where collective wellness takes on critical dialogue, art making, and community building.  Her visual and audio work are a ballad to nostalgia--the borderline between myth and memory. Silvia has curated and facilitated workshops to address structures of power, imagination, play, confinement, and freedom. Her work has been exhibited at The Chicago Cultural Center, The National Mexican Museum of Art, Woman Made Gallery, Hyde Park Art Center, and ACRE. She is a member of the Chicago ACT Collective,  the 96 ACRES Project, and has a studio at Chicago Art Department. As an organizer and administrator for the group POC (People of Color) Artist Space, she connects artists of color from across Chicago to resources through meet-ups and development opportunities. She was awarded with the 3Arts Make A Wave Award in 2018 and the CAC + OtherPeoplesPixels Maker Grant in 2020.

Francine Almeda  is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and indepedent curator with a focus on spatial design, community building, and art as a care-taking tool. She is currently the founder and director of Jude Gallery, in Pilsen, a space that supports emerging BIPOC artists. Francine is deeply committed to sustaining the artist-run culture of Chicago, and is currently launching an intimate venue space out of her West Town apartment aimed at incubating experimental collaborative/healing workshops, music, and artist resource sharing discussions. She holds a BFA in Philosophy with a concentration in Art and is a 2021 recipient of the New Futures Prize in partnership with The Other Art Fair.