Since 2009 Alma Wieser has been the director of Heaven Gallery, the oldest art gallery in Wicker Park. Since joining the organization, she has expanded its capacity by introducing an innovative revenue stream in the gallery to sustain programming and reach a wider audience. Most recently, Alma has focused her efforts on Equity Arts, a development project that seeks to create a model for arts & culture preservation in gentrified neighborhoods. This work is an intersection of art, entrepreneurship and real-estate development that sees the power of the creative economy as a social good multiplier.
Heaven Gallery Mission
Heaven Gallery is a multi-disciplinary contemporary arts space in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood that presents emerging artists with the mission to elevate artists and connect Chicago communities. More recently the organization has been moving toward equity and sustainability by paying artists and offering professional development opportunities. The organization is committed to racial equity work through its policy, which requires the artists presented and board of directors to be a 60% BIPOC majority. The gallery strives to make programming free of charge, and all music events are on a pay-what-you-can basis. In 2010, the organization added a small vintage shop to the gallery, which accounts for more than 70% of its income. Through this innovative retail space the gallery is a model of sustainability in the arts and cultivates space to build community. Art is a backdrop for all the other holistic programming including music, meditations, workshops, and community events to help promote civic engagement.