Join us for MadMade, a free, one-day event uplifting the creative work of artists living with psychiatric disabilities and mental health challenges. This community-centered fair brings together artists, organizers, and visitors to celebrate art that resists stigma, builds connection, and honors lived experience.

MadMade is more than a print fair—it’s a gathering built on inclusion, care, and cultural empowerment. Visitors are invited to explore and purchase artwork from printmakers, illustrators, designers, and zine makers working across screenprinting, linocut, risograph, etching, digital processes, and more.
This mad-positive, disability-affirming event centers the artists themselves rather than diagnoses or treatments. MadMade offers a counter-narrative to both clinical and romanticized depictions of mental illness, instead highlighting real people making real work—art that is beautiful, messy, joyful, angry, and thoughtful—work that sparks conversation and fosters community.

Access Information

Access Living’s space is fully wheelchair accessible. Access Living is a scent free space. Please refrain from wearing or otherwise bringing in scents into the space. MadMade offers CART and ASL for our public panels and can provide ASL and/or CART by request for the workshop (just select the access you need when you register).

There is a quiet, sensory space available to fair participants on the 4th floor available to those who may need a break from the main fair area with some tools to assist with nervous system regulation. We also strive to include as many artists as possible while keeping the space open for mobility device users. Access workers and way-finding materials to help you get where you may need to go are provided.

There is a dedicated space directly in front of Access Living’s front doors for paratransit or other drop off with a curb cut, tactile pavement, and a ramp. All restrooms in Access Living are accessible and the space offers both binary and all-gender mulit-stall restrooms as well as all-gender single stall restrooms.

Artist Access Notes

In addition to no application or tabling fees, MadMade is dedicated to providing care-full access for artists. In addition to set up help outlined in your Fair Agreement, we are able to provide some access workers to watch your table so people can take bodymind breaks (though they will not sell your work on your behalf) and there is a dedicated area with snacks for those tabling (this is separate from the public sensory room, which you’re also welcome to use). If the set up of the space limits your accessibility, please let an organizer or access worker know and we will do our best to find a solution.

Participating Artists

al mccarthy, Anna Strzepek, Atlas Power, Auden Granger, Avery Respond-Ability, Calvin Nguyen, Center for Mad Culture, Chana Goldbloom, CripZineOlogies & Friends, Crossing Raindrops, Cuatro Huevos, Dia+Hongyu, Dylan Sturdy, Emily Paige, Georgia, Jenine Ampudia, Jessica Gimeno aka Fashionably ill ®, Joobz, Katie L. O’Neill, Las Flores Silvestres, Lily (Basil) MacLachlan, Luluka Brown-Spielman, Mad Moves, Marsey Rusk, Melanie Diaz, melipatas, Mike Freiheit, Millstone, mimisdreamies, Musu Bangura, Nicholas Waguespack, Nova Polaris, One Handed Press, Our Friend Kin, puppywuppy, Reclaym, ROZA PRESS, Saju Makes, Sinelith, Sky Zhang, Tyler Stephens

Panel Discussions

The day will feature two panel discussions highlighting the intersections of mad identity, artmaking, and community. Both are free and open to the public and will be moderated by Matt Bodett, Director of the Center for Mad Culture.

• “Mad and Disability Culture Building” | 12:15 – 1:00 pm
  Reclaym, Degenerates Collective, Dandy of the Underworld, and OOO Press will discuss collective organizing, mutual support, and creative collaboration across mad and disabled communities.

• “Mad Artmaking” | 3:15 – 4:00 pm
  Alyse Ruriani, Sky Zhang, 47pennys, and Darya Foroohar in conversation about artistic process, lived experience, and reclaiming madness as a site of creativity and cultural expression.

Community Resource Partners

In addition to artist tables and panels, the fair will include a community resources area featuring Live Oak, Inc., Wolf Pack Therapy, Therapy Access Project, the Mental Health Autonomy Alliance (MHAA), and the Chicago Disability Culture Archive.

This section recognizes that art and community care are deeply connected. It offers attendees direct access to organizations working toward mental health equity, peer support, and mad and disability justice, extending the fair beyond creative exchange into collective well-being.

Community Workshop

deCRIPtion, a workshop series that creates storytelling and poetry workshops designed by and with disability community in mind, will run a workshop during MadMade. The workshop offering will be: Odi et Amo (I hate and I love): A Poetry–Shape Note Singing Workshop on Contradiction, Loops, and the Voices We Carry. This workshop requires registration. Learn more and sign up here.

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MadMade is organized by artist Dylan Sturdy in collaboration with Access Living, Spudnik Press Cooperative, and The Center for Mad Culture.

Access Living is a national leader in disability rights and advocacy. It combats stereotypes, protects civil rights, and drives social change, ensuring that people with disabilities can live independently and with dignity. Access Living is the first Center for Independent Living with a dedicated Arts and Culture Project, offering an array of opportunities to engage in disability arts and culture.

Spudnik Press is a community-based printmaking studio committed to accessibility, equity, anti-racism, and creative collaboration. It offers professional equipment, education, and an inclusive space welcoming artists from all backgrounds.

The Center for Mad Culture challenges traditional medical models of mental health, offering new ways to understand the human experience of madness. They host exhibitions, readings, workshops, and maintain a mad/disability research library, fostering cultural conversations around mental difference.