Chicago Invitational 2019

Join Deana Haggag, President & CEO of United States Artists (USA), and Ebony G. Patterson, 2018 USA Fellow in Visual Art, for an intimate discussion about practice and process.

USA is a national arts funding organization based in Chicago that raises money and redistributes it in the form of unrestricted awards to this country’s most compelling artists and cultural practitioners. Since 2006, the USA Fellowship has awarded more than 500 individuals with over $25 million of direct support.

Presented with United States Artists.

Deana Haggag is the President & CEO of United States Artists, a national arts funding organization based in Chicago, IL. Before joining USA in February 2017, she was the Executive Director of The Contemporary, a nomadic and non-collecting art museum in Baltimore, MD, for four years. In addition to her leadership roles, Deana lectures extensively, consults on various art initiatives, contributes to cultural publications, and has taught at institutions such as Johns Hopkins University and Towson University. She is on the Board of Trustees of the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Artistic Director’s Council of Prospect.5, and the Advisory Council of Recess. She received her MFA in Curatorial Practice from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a BA from Rutgers University in Art History and Philosophy.

She is proudly a first-generation Egyptian-American Muslim disabled woman of Afro-Arab descent. She currently lives in Chicago, Illinois and New York, New York.

Ebony G. Patterson (b. 1981 in Kingston, Jamaica; lives and works in Kingston and Chicago) received her BFA from Edna Manley College, Kingston, Jamaica (2004) and MFA from Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Washington University, St. Louis, MO (2006). Patterson has had solo exhibitions and projects at many US institutions including Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY (2019); Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL (2018); Baltimore Museum of Art, MD (2018); The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY (2016); Atlanta Center for Contemporary Art, GA (2016); and SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA (2016). Dead Treez, Patterson’s first large-scale institutional solo show, originated at the Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI (2015) and traveled to Museum of Art and Design, NY (2015); Boston University Art Galleries, MA (2016); and UB Art Galleries, University at Buffalo, NY (2017). Her work was included in Open Spaces Kansas City (2018), the 32nd São Paulo Bienal: Live Uncertainty (2016); the 12th Havana Biennial: Between the Idea and the Experience, Cuba (2015); Prospect.3: Notes for Now, New Orleans (2014), and the Jamaica Biennial 2014, National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston. She was an Artist-in-Residence at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR (2019 and the Rauschenberg Foundation, Captiva Island, FL (2017) and served on the Artistic Director’s Council for Prospect.4, New Orleans (2017). Patterson has received numerous awards, including the Stone and DeGuire Art Award, Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Washington University, St. Louis (2018); United States Artist Award (2018); Tiffany Foundation Grant (2017); Joan Mitchell Foundation Art Grant (2015); and the Andy Warhol Foundation Grant, in conjunction with Small Axe Project (2012). Patterson’s work is included in a number of public collections, including Pérez Art Museum Miami; Baltimore Museum of Art; The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY; Museum of Arts and Design, NY; Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Durham, NC; Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY; 21c Museum Hotels; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; and the National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston. Patterson is represented by Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago.

Drawing Room, 2nd Floor
Chicago Athletic Association Hotel
12 South Michigan Avenue