Our Team
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IVONNE CRUZ
Founder and Executive Director of Dragonfly Gallery and Creative Spaces, Ivonne is a Chicago-based artist, photographer, advocate, educator, and curator. Working in a variety of different mediums and content, Ivonne loves to create and collaborate. Inspired by every day’s beauty and expressing some of the challenges we all face. Ivonne has been an active member of the art community since 2002. She received her Master’s in Arts Education from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has been in arts education for the last 25 years. Currently working as the Associate Director of Learning Lab in the Ryan Learning Center at The Art Institute of Chicago and adjunct professor at National Louis University. More of Ivonne's artwork can be found at: www.ivonnecruz.org |
Meet our new Board Members!
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Joseph Royer
Joseph Royer is a Chicago-area multi-disciplinary artist, educator, and cultural worker who draws upon insights from topics such as signs and communication systems, art history, and cultural hybridity to create contemplative works which suggest identities, potentiality, and the socio-cultural realm. He earned his BFA in Studio Art from the Pennsylvania State University and his MFA in Painting and drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Joseph has extensive teaching experience in working with a diverse variety of students including 12 years as a high school teacher with Chicago Public Schools. His work has been exhibited at Gallery Victor Armendariz, Chicago; Zolla Lieberman Gallery, Chicago; Fort Wayne Museum of Art, IN; Gallery Northwest, Indiana University Northwest, IN among other venues. The artist is currently collaborating with the Friends of the Children Organization Chicago as a teaching artist and as a contributor to Dragonfly Gallery on Chicago’s West side as a board member. www.josephroyer.net |
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Savi Valle
Savi Valle (she/her/ella) is an interdisciplinary artist, poet, and K-12 art educator in Chicago, IL. While she has a diverse body of work, an overarching theme is usually connected to important interiors. Savi is drawn to lived-in interior spaces filled with memories and attachments to loved ones. She uses color, space, and objects to ground her work in those intimate memories and mementos. She is excited about the idea of turning physical space into a souvenir of sorts. Savi obtained her undergraduate degree in Arts Education, with a concentration in metalworking, from Illinois State University in 2020. She has been teaching across many age bands and neighborhoods in Chicago Public School since graduating. Additionally she works as a teaching artist with Chicago organization The Simple Good, to supply creative practices alongside SEL skills. You can view her artwork here art portfolio and get an inside look into her life as an educator here teaching portfolio. |
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Deborah Paige-Jackson
From a young age, I’ve enjoyed tapping into my creative spirit. I’ve done this in every area of my life by painting, designing, arranging, and creating. I developed my love for watercolor painting as a teen. This has become my preferred medium; however, I also like working in pastels, pen and ink, colored and graphite pencil drawing. Making art brings me joy in my use of design, colors, composition, and offer connection to my personal spirituality. To share those concepts is key to my creative process. My art seeks to spread unity among people who lack the perspective of unity through art. This unique viewpoint comes from my approach, subject matter, and the choice of what to represent in a work of art. The art that I create is often scenarios that are endearing to me. I am intrigued by and seek to recreate what I observe in a certain look, a laugh or a mood created by an emotion. My subject matter consists of people in their day-to-day life. I also enjoy painting figures, portraits, animals, landscapes, and still-life. My goal in making art is to add some enlightenment to the people who view it. I am happiest when it evokes feelings or emotions in the viewer. As an artist, or creative being, my goal is to recapture the energy that I witness as I go along from day to day. |
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Guest Curator
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Cay
Cay Mims is a visual artist living and working on the Northside of Chicago. She graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2021 with Bachelor's degrees in both Studio Art and Sociology. There she was awarded the Margaret Stonewall Hamblet Merit award for her capstone exhibition Home. Synthesizing painting, portraiture, text and other ephemera, she grapples with themes of identity, ownership, and relationships. She is largely influenced by black and queer narratives. Cayla Mims has exhibited nationally in a number of select galleries and exhibitions including Space 204 (Nashville, TN), Dedo Maranville Fine Arts Gallery, Valdosta State University (Valdosta, FL), Buckham Gallery (Flint, Michigan), M. G. Nelson Gallery (Springfield, IL), Artspace (Chicago, IL), and 2006 Space Oddity Gallery (Salt Lake City, UT). |
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