Founders Circle Inaugural Year Donation

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The Founders Circle is a select group of visionary supporters planting the first seeds of The Children’s Gallery Chicago (TCGC). By joining, you’re not only investing in a new organization, but helping to build a future where art, imagination, and youth voice are treated as vital, not optional.

This inaugural year’s donations will directly fund our pilot program, Voices of Summer, a two-week arts and literacy lab serving middle schoolers on Chicago’s West Side. Through visual arts, zine-making, creative writing, and storytelling, youth will explore identity, healing, and self-expression — culminating in a professional gallery exhibition curated in collaboration with our young artists.

Your gift will cover:

• Artist & teaching staff salaries
• Art supplies, zine printing, and workshop materials
• Healthy meals and transportation for all youth
• Field trips to local museums and galleries
• A culminating exhibition in a professional gallery

In short, you’ll be helping us launch our first real step toward long-term, community-based creative infrastructure. 

As a founding donor, your gift will be recognized and remembered. We’re building a new legacy, and you’ll be there from the start. Founder’s Circle donors will receive:

• A personalized, engraved gift (such as a luxury pen set or archival-quality keepsake box)
• Exclusive artwork created by Voices of Summer youth participants
• Recognition in our exhibition program, website, and annual impact report
• Priority invitations to private events, gallery previews, and donor salons
• Optional feature on our website/socials as a named supporter (or anonymous, if preferred)
• A first look at our five-year strategic plan and expansion goals
• Bespoke, limited-edition TCGC artist prints
• Invitations to participate in roundtables or panels on youth arts advocacy
• The joy of knowing that your donation is not just funding a program — it’s helping shape a movement.

We are only offering this opportunity for a limited time as we launch our founding campaign. Once the circle is formed, it will be closed, and its members will always be recognized as the people who believed in us first.

Become a Founder. Shape the story. Build the future.

Thank you so much for your consideration! Please email us at donate@tcgchicago.org if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Patty Aikonedo

Executive Director, The Children't Gallery Chicago