ReSOURCE
Artists
Sonja Henderson
Sculptor, innovator, healer, and collaborator Sonja Henderson explores the organic nature of spirit, joy, and grounded connection through Restorative Justice practices. She earned her BFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her MFA from the University of California at Berkeley where she studied Sculpture and Installation, choosing to create integrative spaces that combine community, ritual, collective memory and restoration. Most recently, Henderson was commissioned to create The Mamie Till-Mobley and Emmett Till Memorial to honor the life and legacy of Mamie Till-Mobley at Argo Community High School where Till-Mobley graduated. Other notable public installations and creative placemaking initiatives include the Martin Luther King, Jr. Living Memorial, The September 11th Wall of Remembrance, and the Rwandan Girls Exchange mosaic murals. Through her large-scale sculptural installations, Henderson is intentional in conveying the narrative, language, and overall spirit of the person and community where the work lives. In January of 2020, Henderson founded Mothers Healing Circle to create a safe space for gathering, sisterhood, and therapeutic modalities that enable Chicago mothers who have lost children to violence to begin to heal from the trauma using women-centered, art-based healing workshops. Since then, the Mothers Healing Circle has provided support, resources, bespoke legacy projects and curated restorative events. She has exhibited throughout Chicago, had pieces travel galleries from Las Cruces New Mexico to New York, and collaborated with Soil Lab in the Chicago Architecture Biennial.