US at 250: Civic Action in Chicago includes local artist responses to four founding documents: the Declaration of Independence, Northwest Ordinance, US Constitution, and the Thirteenth Amendment.

OPENING OCT. 6! We Weave Our Future is a mixed-media, immersive installation exploring the complex legacy of the Thirteenth Amendment through the lens of African American experiences. The piece is inspired by quilts made by enslaved people in the 18th and 19th centuries and was codesigned by US History and Civics students at Art in Motion Creative Arts
Middle and High School and studio assistants Trinity Treadwell and Elizabeth Antwi. The installation creates a physical, conceptual, and emotional space where visitors can reflect on both the promises of emancipation and the realities of continued systemic oppression, while also uplifting the enduring hope, resilience, and cultural brilliance of Black Americans.

Dorian Sylvain has proven to be an artist of exceptional inventiveness and creative range fueled by her commitment to collaboration and community empowerment. Her extensive background in scenic design, public mural painting, curation, education, and community planning, continues to explore the relationship between Historical erasure and art as a tool of liberation and resistance. Mentored as a young artist by the architects of the Black Arts Movement on the South Side of Chicago, rooting her interdisciplinary practice in Afro-centric philosophies. Dorian understood through her art she can create socially engaged dialogue with the public while presenting intersections between past, present and future.

Learn more about Dorian.

Read the Thirteenth Amendment.