BELMONT CRAGIN — Growing up in Belmont Cragin, Isabel Cambray doodled on printer paper and decorated her walls with stray cans of house paint.

Yet when the lifelong artist started running craft workshops and working in studios, she struggled to find artistic spaces close to home. Earlier this year, Cambray joined the Crecer Business Incubator and opened her own studio in Belmont Cragin.

“When I started working in studios, I always had to go to Lincoln Park, Downtown, Pilsen — the neighborhoods that were already deemed art districts,” said Cambray, a recent Northern Illinois University graduate. “My goal is to try to bring more art to Belmont Cragin.”

Artwork at the Crecer Business Incubator as seen on July 10, 2025. Credit: Molly DeVore/Block Club Chicago

Cambray’s Cam Studios is one of three businesses enrolled in the Crecer Business Incubator’s 2025 cohort. Since May, Cam Studios, Clear Conscience Candles and Galería 88 Artesanías have shared a retail space at 5420 W. Belmont Ave., the business incubator’s newest home.

The burgeoning small businesses receive one-on-one advising, have access to workshops on entrepreneurship and can operate out of the incubator storefront while paying subsidized rent for up to one year. Once cohort members finish the incubator program, Crecer team members help connect them with vacant storefronts in the neighborhood, reaching out to local landlords and even attending leasing meetings with them.

The Northwest Side Community Development Corporation launched the business incubator in 2021 to help Belmont Cragin’s business community recover after the COVID-19 pandemic. Since its inception, 15 businesses have participated in the program, said Jessica Vazquez, director of economic advancement for the Northwest Side Community Development Corporation.

“We want to really promote collaboration in Belmont Cragin and let business owners know they’re not alone,” Vazquez said. “We want to let people know that while entrepreneurship is difficult, it can be accessible.”

From left, Infinity Morales, Makayla Betancourt, Jennerifer Delgado, Jessica Vazquez, Isabel Cambray, Yanelet Delgado and Marco Morales. Credit: Molly DeVore/ Block Club Chicago

‘Activate Every Space’

Makayla Betancourt, owner of Clear Conscience Candles, said that without the Crecer Business Incubator, her business probably wouldn’t have made it.

Betancourt started her business in 2020, largely selling her scented candles, sprays and diffusers online. She first inquired about the business incubator in 2023, but she was pregnant and still finishing her biological sciences degree at the time, so she applied this year.

Juggling a job as a science educator, caring for her child and running a small business has been difficult, but Betancourt said being part of the incubator program has helped a lot.

To make the program accessible for entrepreneurs with full-time jobs, Crecer participants rotate shifts at the shop.

The store is open noon-7 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays. Staff from the Northwest Side Community Development Corporation work at the shop, and cohort members work there at least twice a week.

Artwork at the Crecer Business Incubator as seen on July 10, 2025. Credit: Molly DeVore/Block Club Chicago

Betancourt said the shared space has helped draw more foot traffic to her business. She has seen customers come in looking for a candle and leave with extra art, she said.

Before joining Crecer, Betancourt would sell at pop-up markets in neighborhoods like Pilsen where there was already a “bustling artistic community,” she said.

“We don’t lack that in Belmont Cragin because we lack the artists or because we lack that desire to have community. We just haven’t been able to bring it all together,” she said. “I hope that we can see more creatives inspired by us.”

Kelly Pyzik, grants and communications manager for the Northwest Side Community Development Corporation, said one-fifth of the small businesses in Belmont Cragin closed between 2020 and 2021.

With so many vacant storefronts and neighbors left jobless after the pandemic, the Northwest Side Community Development Corporation launched the incubator program to help the area recover, Vazquez said.

Crecer has moved four times in four years, most recently in May. El Capitan Snacks, a 2024 cohort graduate, took over Crecer’s old space at 3150 N. Central Ave.

Crecer relocates regularly because the program’s aim is to “activate every space that we’re going to,” Vazquez said.

“Our goal is to show the community what that space could look like and then have someone lease it and keep that momentum, that activity going,” she said.

Yanelet Delgado, co-owner of Galería 88 Artesanías showcases some of her shop’s artwork. Credit: Molly DeVore/Block Club Chicago

Yanelet Delgado, who owns Galería 88 Artesanías with her husband, Marco Morales, said she recently spoke with a longtime Belmont Cragin business owner who said he noticed more activity in the area since Crecer started.

Delgado, who has lived in Belmont Cragin for about 20 years, said she felt like she was always leaving the neighborhood for school, work and entertainment. She hopes to open a shop in the area to showcase the artisanal work she and her husband import from Mexico.

Most of the artwork they sell is made by family members or friends, and many pieces are rooted in their cultural traditions. Delgado said having a storefront would allow her and Morales to teach customers about the skill and the history that goes into each piece.

While Cambray often partners with other businesses to host art workshops, she said having a permanent storefront has helped her hold even more events. Eventually, she hopes to have a studio that features works by local artists.

Cambray is hosting a movie and craft night 6 p.m. Aug. 8 at Crecer.

Betancourt said she wants to have a shop in the neighborhood that promotes sustainability by allowing customers to refill their sprays and diffusers and recycle other containers. It’s been hard to rely on online sales as most customers want to smell her products before they buy, she said.

Betancourt dreams of seeing the neighborhood filled with places to take art classes and shops that carry artisanal products that “reminds our Latino grandparents of home.”

“Sometimes it just takes that one little spark, and maybe we’re that,” Betancourt said.

The Crecer Business Incubator is looking for a fourth cohort member. You can learn more about the program here.

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