Dear friends,
As 2023 draws to a close, we want to take a moment to express our sincere gratitude for all of you in the MAS Context community. Whether you are a collaborator, a designer, a writer, an academic, an organizer, a historian, a donor, and/or a reader: we are so grateful for your support. Thank you for your help in making 2023 a year of remarkable growth, collaboration, and creativity.
Some highlights from our work over the past year include:
- Publishing, supporting, and presenting the work of 87 architects, designers, artists, researchers, and writers in over 20 essays and 24 public events;
- Curating and presenting three multi-faceted exhibitions from local, national, and international artists;
- Nurturing long-term creative relationships with artists like Germane Barnes, Virginia Hanusik, and JNL Graphic Design;
- Fostering critical, rigorous, and timely issue-based scholarship, such as Elizabeth Blasius’s essay, which initiated a multi-faceted effort that ultimately allowed the preservation and reuse of the SOM-designed Baxter International.
- Facilitating global connections, like Design With Company’s installation at the Concentrico Festival in Spain, paired with an artist lecture in Chicago about the work on view at the festival;
- Exploring Chicago’s robust history of architecture and design through oral histories with Robert L. Wesley and Dan Wheeler, which are part of a larger series that we are donating to the Art Institute of Chicago;
- Collaborating with organizations like the Chicago Architecture Center, the Illinois Institute of Technology, the Society of Architectural Historians, and others;
- Strengthening and improving our infrastructure, including receiving a grant from The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation for general operating support, adding two new team members, and increasing accessibility across our platforms.
Looking forward to 2024, MAS Context will celebrate 15 years as a connective, evolving home for creative discourse about urban design and the built environment. We look forward to celebrating this milestone with an exciting array of new collaborations, projects, and events; please keep an eye out for more details about our 2024 program later this winter.
We are additionally proud that our content and archive is—and has always been—free and open to all online, without advertisements or paywalls. If you are interested and able to support these projects, please consider including MAS Context in your charitable giving. Donations are tax-deductible and can be one-time only or monthly, at any amount that is comfortable for you.
Thank you, again, for your ongoing support of—and interest in—our work.
With gratitude,
Iker Gil
Founder and Editor in Chief
MAS Context