CHICAGO (December 29, 2025) — Pooja Pittie, who lives with muscular dystrophy, was once on a career path in accounting and finance. She reevaluated what she wanted to do with her life when her symptoms began to worsen nearly a decade ago.
“I really had to take stock of what I want to do in my life that felt a bit more purposeful, and art was something that I kept going back to,” said Pittie, who took on art as a daily practice and later transitioned to being a full-time artist. “I feel like my artistic practice allows me to just be all of me, all my identities, all at once.”
Pittie, raised in Mumbai, India, and now based in Chicago, is among nearly two dozen artists whose work is featured in Intuit Art Museum’s “Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-Taught Art in Chicago” exhibit, which has been extended through March 22. The museum for self-taught and outsider art is hosting a “community day,” when the museum is free admission to all, on Feb. 7.
Pittie’s “What We Build to Belong,” as part of the extended exhibit, is a hand-knotted, net-like structure that allows visitors to contribute a written note, drawing or piece of string to the ever-growing work of art.
“It was really exciting to think about offering this kind of space for visitors to come and leave something of themselves,” Pittie said. “You can really just be whoever you are and want to be.”
Artist Pooja Pittie views her artwork, “What We Build to Belong,” on Dec. 17, 2025, at the Intuit Art Museum, 756 N. Milwaukee Ave., in West Town. The interactive piece has more than 500 personalized tags added by visitors, according to the museum.
The “Catalyst” exhibit, initially unveiled alongside the Intuit Art Museum’s grand re-opening in May, aims to highlight the creative contributions of migrants and immigrants, alongside the rise of self-taught art in Chicago during the 20th century.
The 22 artists sought out for the exhibit offer works that touch on themes of belonging, labor, individual expression, bearing witness to history, assimilation and longing for homeland. The exhibit includes works across a wide range of mediums like drawing, painting, collage, sculpture, printmaking, textiles, ceramics and woodcarving.
About Intuit
Intuit champions the diverse voices of self-taught art, welcoming both new and familiar audiences. Intuit presents the work of self-taught artists—also known as outsider art. These artists typically work outside the mainstream and may have faced societal, economic or geographic barriers to a traditional path of art making. By presenting a diversity of artistic voices, Intuit builds a bridge from art to audiences.
