Kushala Vora

atmo is an artist-run space founded in 2018 by Kushala Vora to read, listen, and view pieces of knowledge with others in the Chicago area. We organize free sessions with the purpose of creating safer and open spaces for dialogue and contemplation. We create interventions into our ever-narrowing echo chambers by bringing together people from diverse backgrounds and professional fields. It isn’t required to have engaged with the material prior to the sessions. We engage in material aloud and together. 

Between 2020 and 2022, atmo organized and hosted 116 meetings bringing over 150 people in conversation. atmo has since taken a pause on online sessions and has returned to organizing in-person sessions. Events have been hosted at Promontory point, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and Starlight Pop up space at Devon. 

How it works

1. atmo sends out an open call to sign up for a session. Each session is hosted by 2 facilitators or hosts who are atmo alumni. The sessions are fee of charge to attend.

2. We meet once a week either online or in-person. Each meeting is 1.5 hours.

3. Sessions run for as many week as there are people in the group plus 2 additional weeks to open and close our time together. (For example: a session with 8 people runs for 10 weeks). We limit the number of people to 10 per session.

Between 2020 and 2022, atmo organized and hosted 116 meetings bringing over 150 people in conversation.

atmo has since taken a pause on online sessions and has returned to organizing in-person sessions. Events have

been hosted at Promontory point, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and Starlight Pop up space at

Devon.. Every person has the opportunity to share the content of their choice. This can be a piece of text, visual art, music, memes; anything not created by the individual themselves. We engage in content aloud and together.

5. After the completion of the session, participated as given facilitation tools and encouraged to moderate their own session with Atmo’s administrative help.

atmo’s core team consists of volunteers that have once participated in a complete atmo session:

Mark Blanchard - tech and website support

Anoop Nagendra - data management and social media

Shreni Sanghavi - design and content writing

Kushala Vora - vision and planning

Past Volunteers

Amanda Assaley - creating administration and facilitating resources