Woman Made Gallery

Woman Made Gallery (WMG) is a non-profit gallery in Chicago dedicated to elevating women and non-binary artists through exhibitions, membership, and community dialogue programs. Founded in 1992, it operates as Chicago's longest-running feminist art gallery and one of the leading organizations promoting women's art in the United States. Its vision centers on ensuring the equal placement of women's art in the broader art world. Over its history, the gallery has hosted nearly 500 exhibitions and exhibited more than 10,000 women and non-binary artists, providing a platform for marginalized voices and fostering community dialogue rooted in justice and equity.

Kelly Hensen and Beate Minkovski established Woman Made Gallery in 1992. According to Minkovski, the gallery's priority is to provide a platform for women artists' perspectives, filling a necessary niche that remains vital for the future. She emphasized that while men have the whole world to show their work, spaces specifically dedicated to women are essential. The gallery's logo, an intertwined W and M symbolizing how women in the arts support one another, was designed in 2012 by a team at Firebelly University. Over the decades, WMG has expanded its mission to explicitly include non-binary artists and to prioritize women of color and gender-expansive artists, building intentional spaces that foster solidarity and belonging.

The gallery champions women and non-binary artists across diverse mediums, including painting, sculpture, mixed media, printmaking, fiber, and photography. Its programming includes juried exhibitions, such as the annual Small Works Members Show featuring art under 20 inches priced at $400 or less, and thematic shows like Acts of Care and Pro/Fuse. WMG also maintains a Permanent Collection and hosts ongoing virtual exhibitions and project spaces. The gallery's curatorial approach frequently uses art as a tool for feminist storytelling and social critique, exploring themes of labor, identity, displacement, motherhood, grief, and healing. By platforming creative labor and fostering community dialogue, WMG provides representation and advances the careers of its exhibiting artists.

While the gallery is primarily an exhibition venue rather than a collecting museum, it has been historically associated with prominent feminist artists Judy Chicago and Faith Ringgold. Chicago is renowned for her collaborative, process-based installations that made gender and craft central to art world conversations, while Ringgold is celebrated for bringing Black female storytelling into the museum mainstream through her narrative quilts. In addition to these associations, WMG's Permanent Collection includes works displayed during its tenure at various locations, and the gallery continues to showcase contemporary artists like Jessica Gomez Ferrer and Lorena Molina, whose fiber and multidisciplinary works explore cultural hybridity, displacement, and care work.

Since its inception, Woman Made Gallery has relocated multiple times across Chicago. It was originally housed in Ravenswood Manor on the Northside at 4646 N Rockwell St from 1992 until August 1997. Seeking a more central location closer to diverse neighborhoods, WMG moved to 1900 S. Prairie Avenue, south of downtown, where it remained from 1997 to 2003. This Prairie Avenue site offered more exhibition space, allowing the gallery to display works from its Permanent Collection. In early 2003, the gallery moved to Humboldt Park at 2418 W Bloomingdale Ave, staying until November 2005. It then relocated to a 3,000-square-foot, two-level space at 685 N. Milwaukee Ave, situated near Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art and the former location of ARC Gallery. In 2017, WMG moved to the Lacuna Lofts at 2150 S. Canalport Ave, Suite 4A3.

Woman Made Gallery is currently located at 1332 S. Halsted Ave in the Pilsen-UIC neighborhood of Chicago. The gallery operates as a 501(c)3 tax-exempt non-profit organization, supported by grants from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, the Arts Midwest GIG Fund, the Puffin Foundation, and individual contributors. Regular gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. The gallery respectfully acknowledges that it sits on the ancestral homelands of the Council of the Three Fires, comprising the Ojibwe, Ottawa, and Potawatomi tribes, and commits to centering Native voices and supporting Native communities in its work.