Artist Spotlight: Dail Chambers

St. Louis is full of women on the move. Writers are writing, singers are singing, artists are painting and Dail Chambers is in alignment with the movement and is coming into her greatness as an artist and activist.

Almost 4 years ago in Memphis, she started the Aids project, where she served as founder and co-curator. The Aids project is an annual exhibition and fundraiser to raise awareness of the needs of those infected with HIV /AIDS. A percentage of the proceeds goes to Hope House, an organization that gives free meds to their low income community members.

Last year (2010), Dail was the exhibitions chair for the Women's Caucus of Art local chapter and the Vice President of Development on the National board. She was also juried into an exhibition at Woman Made Gallery in Chicago by Lucy Lippard, a world known feminist art critic. She is one of the collaborators who organized a new structure of Bread & Roses, where they lead youth through the arts on the topic of family, home and work. The program serves Riverview Gardens High School and was funded by Rac, Mac and the Kreskge Foundation.

Dail founded GYA and Yeyo Arts Collective. She collaborated with another artist, Chinyere Oteh, in starting the Girls Create program and Sixpence Cinema. Dail is a member of the Organization for Black Struggle, Women's Caucus of Art, Justice Institute and in the leadership team for Literacy for Social Justice... and a CAT Fellow.

She has her own art studio is in the middle of North St. Louis less than a block from the former Blewett Middle School, now the alternative school, Innovative Concept Academy. She serves as a mentor and arts instructor out of her personal art studio to neighborhood youth.

She is one of the inaugural artists for Earthdance F.A.r.M.s Artist in Residence, & an organic farms apprentice for the 2011 season. Lastly,she is the volunteer art teacher for City Garden School.

Dail Chambers' current exhibition is with Memphis artist Carl Moore and will be held at Urban League, called the The Great Migration Back, dealing with the topics of being two or three generations removed from the great migration and recounting our experiences while revisiting the south.

Dail feels her goal as an artist is to promote creative, socially just, healthy living practices to youth and families who reside in underserved communities.