School of the Art Institute of Chicago faculty members Karen Morris and Adam J. Greteman, alongside Professor Nic Weststrate of the University of Illinois Chicago, were awarded a Large Research Grant on education from the Spencer Foundation. The grant will support work they have been doing since 2019 to foster dialogue among multiple generations of LGBTQ+ people, officially called the LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project. 

Morris and Gretemen began their work at Chicago’s Center on Halsted. After volunteering individually, they joined forces to begin hosting three-hour dialogues with SAIC students and elders at the center, which have been taking place and growing steadily for the past four years.

Now, the project has expanded to host young adults and elders from across the city of Chicago. The dialogues take place every two weeks, with each session focusing on a different aspect of the LGBTQ+ experience. Morris and Gretemen have been chronicling the project, which has culminated in a show that opened this month at the Center on Addison, titled Iridescent Footprints: Stories and Glories of Our Lives.

SAIC students who have participated in the dialogues collaborated with queer elders to create multimedia artworks. Many of the pieces are interactive, allowing viewers to participate by writing on post-its or sharing their own stories. Charlie Kolodziej of the Chicago Reader reported on the exhibition, noting that the “ focus on queer joy provides a needed contrast to the political climate hanging over the show.”

The Spencer Foundation provides Large Research Grants with budgets ranging from $125,000 to $500,000 for projects that will contribute to the improvement of education. Morris, Greteman, and Weststrate were awarded $374,000 and will use the grant over the course of three years to show the importance of the kind of intergenerational learning that their dialogue project has promoted.

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