Attention art (and sculpture) enthusiasts:

Have you registered yet for the 23rd International Sculpture Conference?  We know that you appreciate art, but you may not know about the 23rd International Sculpture Conference in Chicago this October 4th – 6th.  We want to invite you to dive deeper into the world of sculpture, the arts, and to meet other like-minded people!  This year’s multi-track conference, Process, Public, Patron offers something for everyone, whether you are a working artist, teacher, administrator, collector, patron, or simply love sculpture!

Conference events include:

• 7 networking parties and social events
  

• Skill workshops, demonstrations, talks + activities
  

• Intimate mentor sessions

• ARTSlams – share your work with your colleagues and get instant feedback!

• Panels on current topics in the sculpture / art field (including The Transformative Nature of Sculpture on an Urban Community;  Public Art: Alternate Models;  How Can Architects and Sculptors Work Together?;  Relevance of the Gallery System: Galleries, the Internet and Art Fairs in a Changing Market)
  

• Keynote addresses by Sanford Biggers, Sophie Ryder, and Ed Uhlir

• Hundreds of people and professionals who share your interest

 
Conference panels and keynotes will be held at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and the Chicago Cultural Center, and the week of activity promises to be packed with lots to see and do.  Register now as optional tours, workshops and activities are also gauging interest levels – either they fill to capacity or will be cancelled.  Don’t miss out on this experience.  Register today!

Photo by Kevin Shelton / Chicago Loop Alliance

The Chicago Loop Alliance (CLA) is at it again.  The organization behind Tony Tasset’s memorable EYE and CARDINAL (2010) and Kay Rosen’s interactive GO DO GOOD (2011) is bringing a whole lot of color to Chicago this summer.  Chicagoans have been watching the initial phases of Jessica Stockholder’s Color Jam installation slowly start to transform the loop during the install process for the past few weeks, and tomorrow, June 5 is the official opening date for the third installment in the CLA’s award-winning Art Loop series.

Visitors will be immersed in the bright, new installation at State and Adams as they walk on, in, and through the canvas of renowned multi-media artist Jessica Stockholder.  Commissioned by CLA, Color Jam saturates building façades, sidewalks, and crosswalks in bold colors in Chicago’s largest art installation.  Color Jam is also the largest contiguous vinyl project in the U.S., composed of over 76,000 square feet of colored vinyl – think the equivalent of 50,000 vinyl records, or enough material to wrap 130+ city buses or cover 1.5 football fields!

Photo by Kevin Shelton / Chicago Loop Alliance

In creating Color Jam, Stockholder envisioned a “three-dimensional painting”, spilling out of windows, through doors, and into the surrounding landscape.

“The fictive potential of surface, so thoroughly cultivated through the history of painting, is always ready to burst, spilling forth imagined richness, full of emotional, subjective resonance, and wandering focus is here woven together with the more mundane everyday surface of the street corner. [“Color Jam”] celebrates and demands that the evocative surface of this Chicago street corner be expanded. The corner is canvas, stage, pedestal, and frame against which the public can view a parade of shifting color relationships.”

Photo by Kevin Shelton / Chicago Loop Alliance

On display through September 30, Color Jam invites the public to participate in a series of programs - or “jams” - taking the form of concerts, talks, and happenings throughout the Loop.  In addition, several Loop businesses are offering Color Jam-themed specials, ranging from color-tinis to hotel discounts.  For more information about the artwork, public programs, and special offers from Loop restaurants, retailers, and cultural institutions, visit www.ColorJamChicago.com.

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The CLA also coordinates monthly First Thursdays Gallery Walks.  For the third summer, Pop-Up Art Loop galleries stay open late and invite the public to their spaces for open houses and receptions on the first Thursday of each month.  Walks are free and open to the public, running from 5-8pm.  Mark your calendar for upcoming walks this summer on June 7, July 12, August 2, September 6 + October 4.  For more details and a list of participating spaces, visit popupartloop.com.

Photo by Kevin Shelton / Chicago Loop Alliance

If you’re like me, you have been anxiously anticipating the day that Chicago’s government would take its art and culture more seriously into consideration as vital resources for rejuvenating and revamping the city’s social economy and community. Well, the time has finally come; and it looks like my prayers (and perhaps yours, too) have been thoughtfully acknowledged and answered. Starting in February, Chicago has begun the Chicago Cultural Plan 2012, a process that has taken the intiative to examine the structural set up of arts in Chicago. The plan strives to engage the community in a conversation that addresses building a stronger cultural plan to further enhance the city and its development.

For the first time, since former Mayor Washington’s administration, in over 20 years, current Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Department of Cultural Affairs is asking residents to come together and share thoughts and ideas on strategic methods for action regarding how to best position art and culture in such a way that will strengthen neighborhood community and refocus attention to Chicago as a major art center and attractive destination for the arts. While the last plan in 1986 made some groundbreaking adjustments, such as the renovation of Navy Pier, transformation of downtown’s Randolph Street into a theater district, and created more incentive and opportunities for film projects, a more consistent and contemporary inspection of Chicago’s cultural capital has since been overdue. Much to my own surprise, Chicago impressively holds the 3^rd largest creative economy in the U.S., generating over $2 billion a year, with 24,000 art enterprises, and over 600 non-profit organizations.

This first step could be an exciting and revolutionary transgression to integrating notoriously segregated communities, improving the quality of education and demand for art in schools, and bringing vibrancy to both thriving and still developing areas in Chicago. As a creative thinker and avid participant in art and art-making here in Chicago, I, for one, am most enthusiastic and looking forward to the growth and improvement of my home city. I find it especially encouraging that the people of Chicago are continuing to be persistent with voicing and expressing their opinions and concerns for what's happening in their own backyards. 

Below I’ve listed the next few upcoming meetings with Chicago Cultural Plan: 

Tuesday, March 13, 2012
5:30 - 7:30 PM
Douglas Park - Field House
1401 S. Sacramento Dr.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012
4:00 - 5:00 PM Student Conversation
6:00 - 8:00 PM Community Conversation
DePaul University
Lincoln Park Student Center LPSC Room 120 B
2250 North Sheffield Ave.

Thursday, March 15, 2012
5:30 - 7:30 PM
Austin Town Hall Park
5610 W. Lake St.

To become a part of these fundamentally crucial conversations, visit the Chicago Cultural Plan’s website and reserve yourself (and a friend!) a ticket.
I just reserved mine.
All events are free of admission.
http://www.chicagoculturalplan2012.com

Friday, November 18^th at 7pm, the National Museum of Mexican Art will be hosting a world book premiere for Chicanas of 18^th Street, a collection of testimonies from six Pilsen-based female activists. Meet the authors and take this opportunity to gain access to lessons learned from this movement and what it means for today’s Latino community. 

“Women discuss how education, immigration, religion, identity, and acculturation affected the Chicano movement (University of Illinois Press).”

Through in-depth interviews with the activists we get a look at the unique movements for social reform that took root and grew in Chicago’s South Side neighborhood.

“Highlighting the women's motivations, initiatives, and experiences in politics during the 1960s and 1970s, these rich personal accounts reveal the complexity of the Chicana Movement, conflicts within the Movement, and the importance of teatro and cultural expressions to the movement. Also detailed are vital interactions between members of the Chicana Movement with leftist and nationalist community members and the influence of other activists groups such as African Americans and Marxists (University of Illinois Press).”

Mary S. Prado, author of, Mexican American Women Activists: Identity and Resistance in Two Los Angeles Communities comments, “The personal testimonies allow readers to see the dynamics that transform community members into activists. This engaging study appeals to students and scholars of women’s studies, political science, sociology, and Latina studies.”

19^th street mural

Joe Allen, Pilsen resident, and author of People Wasn’t Made to Burn says, “Pilsen is a neighborhood that is aware of its own history, where the past is adored on the walls of the buildings and the viaducts that crisscross the neighborhood, but it doesn’t do it like a museum does to celebrate the past. [Rather, it is to] remember what has to be done today and the future.” 

Part of the Barrett Park mural on Cermak road  

Activism isn’t new to the historically revolutionary neighborhood and this book provides insights that have inspired and paved the way for future community members’ fight. 

Come a little early and check out the current exhibitions at the National Museum of Mexican Art, Dia de Muertos XXV (Day of the Dead), Neptuno, and Claro y Obscuro.

The National Museum of Mexican Art is located at: 

1852 W. 19^th Street, Chicago 60608

Normal hours are: Tuesday-Sunday 10am-5pm

Visits are always free

Call for more info: 312-369-9294

Last night was thankfully not like our dreary day today. It was mild and pleasant for the unveiling of SAIC grad Robert Indiana's HOPE sculpture that will be placed outside of the John Hancock Center, on the northeast corner of Michigan and Delaware until about Valentine's Day 2012.  KM Fine Arts directors Anna Hollinger and Tom Kivisto welcomed the group and celebrated the fact that this sculpture will no doubt become a fixture of the public's art engagement during the next few months. Crowds of visitors will be taking pictures with and around this uplifting installation. 

The artist could not attend the opening after all, as he has been ill the past few months.  The 2,000 lb + installation was there in his place.  HOPE has travelled to other art institutions and destinations around the country so far, and the 'hope' is that some day it will end up in the Smithsonian.  So just in case you're wondering, it's also not for sale. 

Following the unveiling, there was a lovely reception for the gallery's Eyes Wide Shut exhibition on the 25th floor of the Hancock.  The exhibition features European Masters, as well as work by contemporary Spanish artist Lita Cabellut, whose large-scale portraits crackle with drama and intensity. 

The gallery is hosting a second reception this Saturday evening in honor of SOFA.  The public is invited to attend to enjoy drinks and food from 6-9pm.  Free trolleys will take you there from SOFA (Entrance 2 at Navy Pier) and the MCA (220 E Chicago) from 5-7pm.