Debra Yepa-Pappan, Carrie Sandahl, Scott Vincent Campbell, moderated by Elijah McKinnon
Building Otherwise: Art, Memory, and the Future of Institutions
In dialogue with Deem Journal’s forthcoming issue, Inventing the Institution, three Chicago-based practitioners came together for “Building Otherwise: Art, Memory, and the Future of Institutions”: visual artist and Center for Native Futures co-founding director of exhibitions and programs Debra Yepa-Pappan; Carrie Sandahl, Professor of Disability Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago and director of Bodies of Work; and artist, arts administrator, and curator Scott Vincent Campbell, with moderation from strategist, entrepreneur, and Open Television (OTV) co-founder and CEO Elijah McKinnon. Drawing on Chicago’s history of institutions built through improvisation, mutual aid, cultural stewardship, neighborhood memory, and collective imagination, the conversation examined how institutions are made, maintained, challenged, and transformed, and what the city’s artists, organizers, designers, and cultural workers can teach us about building institutions that prioritize dignity, equity, and imagination over the status quo.