SpaceShift

SpaceShift is a creative hub for experimentation and possibility nestled inside neighborhoods. Recent projects have focused on Devon Avenue, to practice and play within Chicago’s culturally dynamic South Asian enclave.In 2021, 'Aao Mil Baithen' activated the corner of Devon and Talman through games, open mics, storytelling circles, concerts and dance battles, inviting curiosity and participation by an intergenerational community often separated by class, religion, caste, and nationality. In 2022, SpaceShift conceived and launched 'starlight', a temporary arts space in partnership with Northwestern University's Race, Caste, and Colorism project. Starlight featured six artists exploring opportunities for Black and South Asian solidarity in an experimental community-facing residency on the block. In under two months, a vacant store-front was transformed into an artist workshop, evolving installation and pop-up community arts center with 45 programs and over 1,000 participants.In 2023, in collaboration with Chicago Architectural Biennial, SpaceShift will launch an interactive public art installation exploring the rich planting traditions from South Asia that migrated to Chicago along with its people and their connection to local forms of growing knowledge and wisdom.Comprising an evolving collective of artists and cultural workers, SpaceShift reimagines how people live, work and make together, in our most just and joyful future.