Henry’s Legacy: Art Making at Thresholds South

Henry's Legacy: Art Making at Thresholds South is an upcoming book being produced in collaboration with Invisible Republic as part of an initiative designed to spotlight talent from Chicago. TBS: Artists Project celebrates artists living with mental health conditions and their powerful works of art. The project is a platform for the the artists of Thresholds Bridge South’s Open Studio program. The book will be a companion to “Artists First: 25 Years of Studio Art at Thresholds,” a retrospective exhibition opening at the famed Chicago Cultural Center on October 1st, 2022. 

The Open Art Studio program at Thresholds was founded 25 years ago by Kiyoko Lerner and Jerry Dinzin, and has been run ever since by Leslie Baum, who began as a 27-year-old artist at the invitation of Lerner, who with her husband Nathan Lerner was landlord to reclusive outsider artist Henry Darger. For decades, Darger created and amassed an astonishing body of work, which the Lerners later discovered and helped bring to light.

The underrepresented artists involved with the Thresholds Bridge South Open Art Studio program are visual artists with a variety of creative interests and passions, including music and writing. The work featured in the book is the fruit of a beloved and meaningful creative arts group whose mission it is to promote individual and community healing. Thus, each piece is a unique expression of an individual artists' process and passion.

Edited by Leslie Baum & JC Gabel

For more information about the good work being done by Thresholds, visit www.thresholds.org or @TBSartists on Instagram to learn more about the artists.