Public Media Institute’s primary headquarters, Co-Prosperity, is an experimental cultural center located in the neighborhood of Bridgeport. “Co-Pro” hosts exhibitions, screenings, presentations, installations, festivals, meetings, and performance programs in its 5,000+ square foot gallery. The space hosts between 35-60 events and exhibitions a year serving over 20,000 individuals. Each year, Co-Prosperity Sphere is home to 80 – 100 events and exhibitions and serves over 25,000 attendees.
The visual art exhibitions and programming in the space has since 2018 been run by a group of majority-BIPOC artists from all over Chicago; they call themselves Co-Prosperity Programming Council (Co-Pro ProCo). This administratively-autonomous body works to evaluate and produce proposals for politically urgent and artistically excellent programming in the gallery. Meeting monthly, they review all exhibition and project proposals on a rolling basis, and plan exhibitions 1-2 years in advance. The ProCo also works with those proposing exhibitions and programming to ensure a range of perspectives and support as they work to build their show or event. They call this process the “buddy system,” and it has been working to grow community connections and extend the councils’ strengths, insights, and resources to each project.
For more information on previous and future exhibitions, go to coprosperity.org.