About the Tiny Guide drawings and a note from the artist:

This project started at the beginning of the pandemic, when I accidentally raised and donated over $37,000 selling art prints of the original Tiny Guide (“Our Tiny Guide to Chicago’s Best Music Culture Spots”), and a handmade edition of tiny books. The support and enthusiasm was overwhelming. I was barely able to keep up with the demand as I managed that project entirely on my own – from making the artwork to reproducing it, hand trimming, packaging, promotion, correspondence, shipping, and follow up. Being an avid concert-goes and music lover, I was concerned about the future of music spaces due to the impact of the pandemic, and the response to my project was unexpected.

The second phase of this project was the Tiny Chicago Music Scene Project, which was an attempt at drawing every music venue and music space in Chicago individually. This was partially in response to requests for specific venues to be drawn, and partially to do research on the magnitude of music spaces in Chicago. I liked the idea that people could curate their own “Tiny Guide” of spaces that were meaningful to them.

After realizing that this project could literally go on forever, I set a goal of drawing 200 individual music spaces. Releasing several new drawings every week and selling art prints of on my website, I have been donating half of the profits to the Chicago Independent Venue League (CIVL) on an ongoing basis. Close to 170 drawings in, I started to see a pattern and I officially paused the project. I realized that I was creating an unintentional narrative in the spaces I was drawing, and that the vast majority of the venues are white, male owned and on the north side of the city. I am trying to investigate this issue and ask hard questions to challenge this narrative – for example, where are black/BIPOC-owned music spaces? Where are women-owned music spaces?

Starting November 1, 2022, I am concluding the Tiny Chicago Music Scene Project with 170 drawings, leaving space for 30 more drawings in the final phase to total to 200 individual venue drawings. In this last phase, I plan to partner with other people and organizations to research and discuss the important questions we need to ask about inclusion, safety, and access to music spaces in Chicago. There are some things in the works, but this will take a bit of time – so stay tuned!

In the meantime, I will still continue to sell all of the art prints on my website from these projects up until now. Since I will no longer be donating half of the profits to CIVL on an ongoing basis, I have lowered the price of all of the prints in my shop. You can check this out here.  I hope to continue to work with CIVL and similar organizations in other ways moving forward and still plan to use this illustration work as a form of activism.

I have donated well over $40,000 on my own to the music community in Chicago. While I am still passionate about helping our music spaces, I also feel that there are a lot of other causes I would like to support in this dark time in our nation’s history. Issues of racism and white supremacy, the war on women’s rights, domestic abuse, queer and trans rights are some of the things passionately in the front of my mind.

If anyone would like to partner or collaborate on these latter topics, please let me know. Thanks so much for paying attention and supporting. Hoping to continue to fight for a kinder and brighter world together.

With love,

Maura Walsh

Learn more about the Chicago Independent Venue League here.

Maura Walsh is a Chicago-based artist and the creator of Maura Walsh Studio (formally known as BlackNail Studio.) She independently runs this small creative business and produces commission work in addition to her personal fine art practice.

Maura Walsh Studio is home to all of the Tiny Guide projects and other handmade items. The Tiny Guide series celebrates local culture, particularly Chicago’s music scene, and has been featured in the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Reader, Block Club Chicago, and other media sources.