Chicago Alliance
of Visual Artists
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CAVA is a volunteer not-for-profit organization founded in 1988 to serve artists aged 50+. We're dedicated to giving our over 375 members throughout the greater Chicago area the opportunity to exhibit artwork in at least four exhibits annually in such notable venues as the Chicago Cultural Center,
MANA Contemporary, Evanston Art Center, Bridgeport Art Center, Art Center Highland Park, and Leslie Wolfe Gallery in Old Town.
Creating art can be a solitary occupation—CAVA organizes and presents events for older artists to come together through its exhibitions, salons, member luncheons, workshops, annual Symposium, and special events. For more information, visit our CONTACT page, and sign up for our e-newsletter.
CAVA MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS:
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Exhibit in the Annual Members Show;
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Enter the juried Later Impressions exhibition;
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Engage in various group and media-focused exhibitions
we organize throughout the Chicago area; -
Participate in membership social and educational programs, including our Salon/Critique Events; CAVA's Intergenerational Projects; Artist Studio Visits; and the annual CAVA Symposium.
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FEATURED CAVA ARTIST
CARROLL CRADOCK began teaching herself to weave shortly after completing graduate school in psychology. Working first on a four-harness table loom, and later a rigid heddle loom, she was inspired from the start to create original tapestries, rather than functional textiles.
Moon on the Water, woven silk and wool
After experiencing limited creative freedom during graduate school, she began to design original images out of her imagination and observations of nature, and even the weaving structures themselves, motivated by a desire to create something entirely her own.
Carroll immersed herself in the art form, expanding her skills through courses at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Weaving School. From the beginning, her work has featured multilayered compositions, constructed from panels that interact visually to create depth and complexity.
Grove of Birch Tree Trunks,
silk and wool textile array
Over the years, a consistent theme has guided Cradock’s weaving. Her artwork reveals positive elements of the natural world that exist quietly within everyday life, but are easily overlooked. Her tapestries aim to make visible the small but meaningful signs of resilience, beauty, and hope. In earlier works, she created panels depicting the subtle beauty of fields glimpsed from train windows—passing landscapes that most people notice only briefly. More recently, she has explored the intricate texture and depth of tree bark, as seen in works such as Grove of Birch Tree Trunks, where close attention to surface, pattern, and variation reveals the quiet richness of the natural world.
Life through a Crack in a Stone Wall,
silk, cotton, and wool woven textile
This focus is especially evident in her series of tapestry stone walls. Inspired partly by childhood memories of growing up in a family of stone builders in Missouri and by Leonard Cohen’s lyric, “There is a crack in everything. That’s where the light comes in,” these works depict small plants pushing through cracks in stone—quiet symbols of persistence, renewal, and hope.
To learn more about Carroll and see more of her artwork, CLICK HERE
to visit her website.