Woman Made Gallery first opened in Ravenswood in 1992.
Beate Minkovski said she and her friend were looking for a space to exhibit their senior project in order to graduate from Northeastern Illinois University.
"We couldn't do it because of the content. We couldn't do it in school at the University, so we rented a storefront, and that's how this happened," she said.
Their exhibition “Man-Made Women" inspired what would eventually be the name of the gallery: Woman Made.
"We just said, OK , there are no men. It's not man-made. So what could it be? And it was kind of a play on words: Woman Made," she said. "I remember one guy calling, and he said, 'What is it, Woman Made?' And I said, 'Yes,' and he said, 'M-A-I-D?' I said, 'Yeah, don't you wish?'"
Since its founding, Woman Made has shown the artistic work of more than 10,000 women and nonbinary artists in 475 exhibitions.
Woman Made Gallery's latest exhibition "Feminism 250: Woman Made America" looks back at 250 years of feminist thought and action.
Feminism 250: Woman Made America
Carolina Garibay
For many female and queer artists, the gallery, now located in Little Italy has provided a safe space to jumpstart their creative careers in Chicago.
"It took me a while to kind of orient, but I will say, Woman Made Gallery was really instrumental in helping me get my bearings in Chicago," said Rebekah Baker.
She moved to Chicago from Los Angeles several years ago and is now the gallery director at Woman Made.
"It was really instrumental in me feeling more secure and understanding of how can I actually move through the art world," she said.
Gallery administrator and artist liaison Astrid Houze de L’Aulnoit moved to Chicago from France, where she said she primarily worked in more commercial art galleries and auction houses.
"I was almost always the only woman working in those fields," she said. "It's been really the space where like grew up in the art world in Chicago. It's been my art house and where I've learned and made so many connections and developed my art career in the city."
Minkovski said for her, Woman Made provides a constant stream of creative energy.
Woman Made Gallery co-founder Beate Minkovski holds up the invitation to Woman Made Gallery's first exhibition in 1992 titled "Man Made Woman."
Carolina Garibay
"When I see this, this is like other people's energy. I feel it," she said. "I feel like I'm getting a shot of some kind of injection. It keeps me going."
She said she hopes the gallery does the same for other women.
"I think artists are empowered if they have shown here, or even if they come in and visit the gallery," she said. "I feel that they take something, that there's a voice for for women that can be seen and heard in a space like ours that is maybe not necessarily out there, or very in very few spaces."
