Help ACRE raise $20k to support our residency program and artist resources. Donations go directly to supporting artist scholarships, materials and supplies for our eight residency studio areas, public exhibitions of alumni work, and other critical needs to keep our programs running.

Your support nurtures an organization where artists lead, learn, and sustain one another. Our model is built on reciprocity—everyone who has been to the residency is invited back to be staff, to mentor and support their peers and make a space that is ripe for creation. Over 15 years, this has generated a growing network of over 2,500 artists. The cooperative is an essential part of our vision that builds community for artists, develops their leadership, and nurtures a network—weaving a web of support for a lifetime of creative practice in the arts.

In 2025 we hosted 92 artists and 83 alumni staff at the residency, presented the work of 17 artists in our exhibition program, and fostered five partnerships across Wisconsin and Chicago. At the residency, artists live and work together across disciplines, reshaping practices through dialogue, critique, connection to land, and rhythms of communal life. Through projects like the Chicago Arts Census and our ongoing partnerships, we advocate for artists’ livelihoods and help build the conditions where creativity and community can thrive.

While these times are uniquely challenging for the arts, ACRE remains rooted in adaptability and has transformed our operations to reflect artists’ evolving needs and the conditions of the field. Now more than ever, we need artists to imagine new futures, to tell our stories, and to show us what resilience looks like. We need artists to use their voices and ACRE is a place where so many artists find theirs.

If you care about the vital role artists play in our society, we ask you to support ACRE, an organization that foregrounds artists as leaders and thinkers that can help us envision a brighter future. Please consider making a donation to our annual fund campaign before the close of 2025. Thank you for being part of the ACRE community and for helping us carry this vision forward into 2026 and beyond.

ACRE 2025 Annual Fund Campaign

Power a Thriving Artist Ecosystem in 2026 and Beyond

Team Members