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Jen Delos Reyes

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Meet 2020-2021 Artist as Instigator Jen Delos Reyes

Jen Delos Reyes is an educator, writer, and radical community arts organizer. Her practice is as much about working with institutions as it is about creating and supporting sustainable artist-led culture. How she works today is rooted in what she learned in her formative years as a show organizer, listener, creator of zines, and band member. She is also the Associate Director of the School of Art and Art History at University of Illinois Chicago.


Invitation

During her residency, Jen Delos Reyes thought a lot about what it means to be a neighbor, and how that relates to the mission of the museum. Ultimately, she connected this idea of what it means to be a neighbor and how our action or inaction impacts those around us.

For her project, Invitation, Jen collaborated with museum staff to mail letters to over 1500 recipients reminding them to vote in the 2020 presidential election, accompanied by broad-sides with poem fragments by June Jordan and Mary Oliver, a reminder that regardless of the outcome it is crucial to continue to show up in this broken world and work for justice and that, “we are the ones we have been waiting for.” Poetry is deployed as a call to action, as fuel for social movements, and as respite and sustenance to continue on.

I hope this poster will remind you that your voice is important and that it is crucial to continue to show up in this broken world. I hope this work offers you the strength you need to take resolute action towards justice for all.


Installed on Election Day 2020, two forty-foot banners designed by Jen also flanked the Museum’s courtyard located at 1322 West Taylor Street.