Become a Chicago Member

Apply for Chicago Local Membership

ARC Gallery and Educational Foundation provides a rich environment for the development of artistic potential, experimentation, education and dialogue for professional artists working in all media, including performance and installation.As a non-profit woman-artist-run cooperative, ARC provides and subsidizes individual and group exhibition opportunities for established and emerging artists many of whom are under-represented in commercial galleries, without discrimination towards gender, race, age, class, physical/mental ability, sexual, spiritual or political orientation.

Benefits

  • Members are part of a dynamic group of women supporting each other.

  • Members have opportunities to exchange ideas, techniques and resources with artists and arts organizations as well as curate exhibitions, decide programming, and make an impact in the Chicago art world.

  • Each member is entitled to a solo exhibition within 18 months of joining the gallery.

  • Members participate in an annual group exhibition during Chicago Artists’ Month in October.

  • Members participate in any scheduled exchange exhibitions with other cooperatives throughout the US and abroad.

  • Each member may represent herself at the gallery with a personal publicity book and with a gallery space on the ARC website and a link to her own website.

  • Members will automatically be included in ARC’s 44 years of archives now being housed at the Ryerson Library at the Art Institute of Chicago for future scholarly research and education on Women’s Alternative Spaces in Chicago.

  • ARC takes no commission on work sold, therefore members receive the full requested value of any of their work sold.

Requirements and Responsibilities

  • All Local ARC Members are women artists and Chicagoland residents

  • $60 /month dues payment

  • Must be able to gallery sit for an afternoon once a month, twice on occasion when needed

  • Must be willing to participate in most monthly gallery openings, membership meetings and other special events

  • Will be asked to serve on one to two gallery committees of your choice

Application Procedure

  1. Submit your application below. First upload your images. Second, complete your application form. You’ll receive an email confirmation after each step.

  2. Images submitted must be in .JPG or .JPEG format, no other format will be accepted.

  3. Upload a folder containing all your images OR upload a .Zip all your images into a single file. You may also create a PDF containing all your images in a single file.

  4. Name Your Images with these 5 elements in the file name: (a) artist last name, (b) item number, (c) title of the work (d) dimension of the work, height x width x depth (e) year the work was produced. 

    • Separate each element with a dash in this format “SURNAME-NUMBER-TITLE-HEIGHT-WIDTH-DEPTH-YEAR.jpg”. 

    • Example, “SMITH-1-JARGON-5x10x20inches-2023”

  5. In a separate document file (.DOCX or PDF), identify your name, address, phone number and email address. In the same document, provide an itemized list of (a) item number; (b) titles, (c) dimensions including height x width x depth, (d) mediums / materials, (e) date produced, (f) short description of each image, and (g) price of each work. Make sure you itemize your list to correlate to your image numbers above.

  6. Petitioning artist must also submit a full résumé, artist statement, and letter of intent detailing interests and personal goals.

  7. The Membership Chair will review applications and will then contact the applicant to set up a studio visit. This visit is meant to offer the applicant a chance to talk about their work,  meet members, and ask any questions—and it is meant for gallery members to assess the seriousness of the applicant.

  8. Membership in ARC is based on excellence of work and personal commitment to the goals and mission of this alternative gallery and its cooperative structure

Other Membership Opportunities