Open Studio Project

Open Studio Project (OSP) is a non-profit arts & social service organization in Evanston, Illinois. We provide stimulating, expressive art-making, to inspire personal growth, interpersonal understanding, and positive social change. The studio is comment and critique free!

Open Studio Project’s mission is to provide a welcoming environment for people of diverse backgrounds and abilities to create art that stimulates personal growth, enhances social-emotional intelligence, and promotes community well-being.

Through workshops, classes, gallery exhibits, and especially community partnerships, we promote the power of using art-making as a safe and reliable medium for healing and transformation. More specifically, our goal is for participants to learn how to turn to their own creativity in order to increase self-awareness, empathy, and clarity in transitional times. Specific issues for some of our participants have included life-goal clarification, career changes, illness, bereavement, and managing feelings of hopelessness and anger during adolescence and adulthood. Our participants come to us from all walks of life, each coming into our studio with their own stressors, transitions, and personal life issues. Some choose to share these issues and some do not, but they all are seeking a place of respite and hope. Some of the participants come every week and have for years, some come monthly, some even once a year. Our goal is not to tell you what you need, but to provide a creative path for you to discover and explore. The founders of OSP are art therapists and facilitators are trained in trauma-informed care, mindfulness, and empathy for equity in a safe, supportive space.

Through workshops, classes, exhibitions, and community outreach, we encourage you to explore art as an arena for reflection and creative play. We have a studio located at 903 Sherman Avenue, a gallery at 901 Sherman Ave (north of Main St)., and now offer programming at the new Robert Crown Community Center art studio at 1801 Main St.

Email:
info@openstudioproject.org