The Digs: Through the Years
Co-Founders Zoe Minzenberger (left) and Fawn Penn (right) selling raffle tickets with assistant Studio Manager Delia Pelli-Walbert (center) at the annual Holiday Market 2025.
2024 + 2025
Expansion II — 2024
As demand continued to grow, The Digs underwent its largest buildout yet. Construction connected three units into one cohesive studio, alongside major upgrades to shared facilities.
The expansion significantly increased capacity—supporting a larger Pay to Clay program and more resident artists. The new residency studio filled quickly, reinforcing what had been building over time: a sustained need for space that could hold both independent artist practices and a community of folks learning at every level.
2025 - in 2
2019
The Digs began as a project between cofounders Fawn and Zoe during their third-year Professional Practice course at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. While their education emphasized conceptual thinking, they recognized a clear logistical need: accessible, community-driven studio space.
Inspired by the energy of SAIC’s ceramics community—and shaped by their Midwestern backgrounds and experience in DIY music scenes—they envisioned a space built on collective making: do-it-yourself, but alongside others.
The project took form when Fawn was awarded the Wingate-Lamar Fellowship through the Center for Craft. Rather than using the grant for travel, the cofounders chose to invest in building a community ceramics studio—establishing The Digs as a nonprofit from the outset.
2020 & 2021
Building the Foundation
What began as an idea quickly became a shared commitment—late nights spent brainstorming, co-working, and slowly shaping a vision into something real.
As first-time founders, Fawn and Zoe dove into the business side of a dream: writing bylaws, defining a mission, structuring the organization, and learning the ins and outs of compliance. Along the way, they began building systems from scratch—developing workflows, dividing responsibilities, and learning how trust operates not just socially, but structurally within a growing organization.
Click Here to listen to our founder Fawn talk about this on the Potters Cast
From the beginning, the goal was clear: to manage the studio so artists could focus on making. This meant building out the foundations for facilities, programming, and events—creating a space that could hold both the logistical and creative needs of a community.
The search for a home led them across the city, touring multiple locations in hopes of finding a storefront. Instead, they landed in a third-floor loft in an industrial pocket of West Town—a space that would become the first iteration of The Digs.
Much of the early studio was built through resourcefulness and care—scavenging materials, sourcing equipment through Facebook Marketplace, and constructing what they could by hand. The process was defined by experimentation, adaptation, and a willingness to learn through trial and error.
Did you know? 🎶
Music shows & early events (2020–2022)The Digs began hosting livestreamed music sets during the pandemic, which later grew into small in-person performances.
2022 & 2023
Expansion I — 2022
After building a waitlist from the very first year, the opportunity to grow came when the unit next door opened up. The team expanded into the adjacent space, growing the Residency program to better support working artists.
This shift allowed residents to move into a dedicated area, opening up more room for classes, workshops, and the broader community to gather. It marked the first step in scaling the studio in response to the overwhelming support from our community.
30 Under 30 — 2023
Cofounders Fawn and Zoe were recognized on Forbes 30 Under 30 and attended the national conference—an exciting moment of recognition for the project and its early growth.
