ILA Creative Studio
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ILA believes in the power of black creativity and exists to be a supportive entity that inspires and
06/04/2026
Chicago is full of incredible Black artists. And BLACC exists to make sure they can find each other. 🖤
Our digital membership platform gives Black artists in Chicago a central place to showcase their work, access opportunities, and connect with a community of creative professionals who are building something together.
Learn more about what BLACC offers and how to become a member with the link in bio!
06/03/2026
What if art could help you decompress, heal, and reconnect with yourself? 🖤
Hear We Art™ is ILA’s community healing experience rooted in Black music and creative expression. Led by local Black artists hired directly from our artist community, each session is a guided journey through sound and artmaking that leaves you feeling lighter than when you walked in.
Swipe to learn more about what to expect.
06/02/2026
Heyyy new friends! Welcome to the ILA family. 🖤 We have been gaining so much love lately and we want to make sure you know what we are about.
Let us start with one of our signature programs. G-to-G: Getting to Our Goals.
Swipe to get a full breakdown of what G-to-G is, who it is for, and what you will walk away with. This one is for the working artists in Chicago who are ready to take their practice to the next level.
F O R F R E E? | Oscar’s Story 🖤
Oscar knows what it is like to be asked to give his gift away for free. Early in his journey he navigated that reality often. But over time he learned something powerful. How to be intentional about the projects he lends his hand to and the opportunities worth saying yes to.
Through his connection with ILA, Oscar has been able to explore his practice in new ways. From participating in Hear We Art™ to collaborating across different communities, ILA has been a meaningful part of his creative journey.
His hope? That free programming continues to open doors for more people to discover art. And that with the right resources more people get to experience what ILA has built right here in Chicago.
That is exactly what FOR FREE? is about. Watch Oscar’s story. BALA is June 17th at Little Black Pearl. Link in bio for tickets. 🖤
05/28/2026
Our programming is free. On purpose. 🖤
Because we believe Black artists deserve access to resources, community, and creative support without the added stress of affordability. Black artists deserve to focus on their craft. Not on how they are going to afford the next opportunity.
Creating free access takes real investment. BALA is how our community shows up to make it happen every single year.
Come be part of the night. June 17th at Little Black Pearl. Link in bio. 🖤
F O R F R E E? | Nesha’s Story 🖤
Nesha came to her first Hear We Art™ session in the middle of a creative block. No big expectations. Just a hope that something would shift.
About an hour in she found her flow state. That quiet, euphoric place where everything opens up. And she has never looked back. She still uses what she learned that day as part of her creative practice.
This is what free and low cost access to healing looks like in real life. Watch Nesha’s story. Link in bio for BALA tickets. 🖤
05/22/2026
Meet our 2026 Black Art Love Pioneer honoree. 🖤
Robert Earl Paige is a living legend.
Growing up on Chicago’s South Side and trained at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Robert has spent his life creating art that belongs to the people. As a founding member of the AfriCOBRA collective he helped shape one of the most important movements in Black American art history, bringing bold color, West African design, and unapologetic representations of Black life and power to the forefront.
His iconic Dakkabar fabrics collection brought Black culture directly into people’s homes through Sears department stores in the 1970’s. Because Robert has always believed that beauty should not be confined to museums and galleries. It should be accessible to everyone, everywhere.
After decades of groundbreaking work he turned his focus to youth art education. Investing in the next generation the same way the art world never invested in him.
This is legacy. This is love. This is Robert Earl Paige.
We are deeply honored to celebrate him at BALA 2026 🖤
05/21/2026
Meet our 2026 Rooted Love Award honoree 🖤
The Rooted Love Award celebrates institutions and organizations invested in uplifting diverse voices in the arts in Chicago. This year we are proud to honor Monica Haslip.
Monica Haslip is the Founder and Executive Director of Little Black Pearl Art and Design Center, a Chicago institution she built from the ground up in 1994 with one powerful belief at its core: that love and racial equity are the foundation of everything.
For over 30 years Monica has created spaces where young people can thrive through art, design, and technology. From founding a Chicago Public High School that serves 150 students to leading racial healing work nationally with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, her impact reaches far beyond the walls of any single building.
She was honored by President Barack Obama as a White House Champion of Change for her work addressing youth violence through programming. And she has never stopped showing up.
We are so honored to celebrate her at BALA 2026 🖤
Throwback from BALA 2025 🖤
“An investment in Black artists is an investment in our city.”
That’s how Founder Rachel Gadson described the heart of ILA, reminding us that community is not simply a group of people. It’s a living, reciprocal network of care, creativity, and shared responsibility, an ecosystem that thrives on collective growth and mutual aid.
Black Art Love Affair is where Chicago gathers to pour into that ecosystem. The funding it raises is how we keep filling the well, so artists like you can take what you need to grow and create, then return those tools for the next artist coming behind you.
05/18/2026
Meet our 2026 Emerging Love Award honoree. 🖤
Blake D. Lenoir is a Chicago based contemporary artist and the founder of Black Temporal Surrealism, a visual framework that collapses past, present, and future into a single psychological and symbolic space.
His work explores Black identity, emotional intelligence, and cultural memory through layered imagery and narrative compression. Humor, grief, resilience, and introspection all live in the same frame. And somehow it works beautifully.
Blake’s work has been exhibited at the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, and internationally in Hong Kong. His work is held in private collections including those of Travis Scott and Tyrese Haliburton.
We are so honored to celebrate Blake at BALA 2026 🖤
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