Navy Pier Women's Live Artist Studio creates safe space for women of color to dream big in Chicago

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Two artists are making a name for themselves locally and internationally through their organization consisting of more than 30 female artists.

Dana Todd Pope and Martha A. Wade are the co-founder of Women's Live Artist Studio. It's an art collective based at Chicago's iconic Navy Pier.

"We live paint here, we showcase the works of local women artist," Co-founder of Women's Live Artist Studio Dana Todd Pope said. "We're starting to get opportunities to do international art fairs. I'm living the dream."

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"For Women's Month they asked us to curate a space, so we called up all our friends," Co-founder of Women's Live Artist Studio Martha A. Wade said. "It went so well we decided to keep the business model of highlighting women artist."

"It's a lot being a woman in today's society. But what if you have a dream, what if you want to be an artist where do you go? And how do you build on that dream?" Todd Pope said. "So, Women's Live Artist Studio is a place where they can come where we get it we understand, and we help them build their art career."

ABC7 Chicago celebrates Black History Month with vignettes, a series of news stories, programming and a half-hour special, "Our Chicago: History & Heritage."

The half-hour program airs Saturday, Feb. 24, at 6 p.m. with an encore presentation the following day on Sunday, Feb. 25, at 11 p.m. and will also stream live exclusively on abc7chicago.com and everywhere ABC 7 programming is streamed

READ MORE: ABC7 celebrates Black History Month Chicago with news, vignettes, programming, special