Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot, the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) and the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) announced the first ever Artists-In-Residence for four of the City’s INVEST South/West neighborhoods: Auburn Gresham (Dorian Sylvain), Austin (Antonia Ruppert), Englewood (Eric Hotchkiss) and New City/Back of the Yards (Fernando Ramirez in partnership with Project Onward). As a pilot project, the initial round of the INVEST South/West (ISW) Artist-In-Residence Program is focused on creating public art and site-specific cultural programs that reflect the spirit of these four communities – to promote the health, happiness and vitality of the entire neighborhood. Each artist was selected through a community-led process, by a panel of community stakeholders.

Artist Fernando Ramirezis from Guanajuato, Mexico and moved at the age of three to Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. He was enrolled at Chicago’s celebrated youth arts program, Gallery 37, and now a decade later is a popular commission artist – drawing and painting portraits, landscapes and three-dimensional objects. He joined the Project Onward studio in 2006 and lives in New City. Ramirez will be serving as Artist-In-Residence in partnership with Project Onward, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to support the creative growth of visual artists with mental and developmental disabilities. The organization connects artists with disabilities to the arts community and the general public through the professional exhibition and sale of their work.