Inspired by the "Pandemics are a Portal to Change" Exhibit 

In times of crisis throughout history, Champaign County's community members have come together to provide healthy food while building a sense of unity and mutual care. 

Today’s historic time of multiple pandemics including COVID 19, climate crisis, economic crisis, racism and other "isms" is no different.   

Join The Urbana Free Library and the Museum of the Grand Prairie as they welcome community members who are working to make a real change in the ways in which we get and grow our food in these uncertain times.  

• Dawn Mosley Blackman is the current steward of the Randolph Street Community Garden, a pastor at the Church of the Brethren, and the founder of Motherlands Multicultural Resource Center and Motherlands Culture Club.  She hosts a food pantry at the Champaign Church of the Brethren and coordinates the community gardens, which are affiliated with the church. 

• Giovanna Dibenedetto is the founder of Silver Hearts, a community-building organization in Urbana's Silverwood area.  Silver Hearts has played a vital role in providing food, social activities and support to people in the neighborhood. 

Inspired by the "Pandemics as a Portal to Change," a virtual exhibit featuring the work of over 75 local artists exploring our current struggles and imagining how to create change and reimagine our world.  This event is cosponsored by Solidarity Gardens C-U and by the cosponsors of the Pandemics as a Portal to Change Exhibition: Krannert Art Museum, the Museum of the Grand Prairie, The Urbana Free Library, Urbana Arts and Culture Program, the College of Fine and Applied Arts at Illinois, and Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center.

Register here:  https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwldu2oqz4pHdYxFmIvrB_ZilC7a_JyxTb7