What were you doing 40 years ago this fall? How about 30, or even 10? Were you even born? A sizeable number of our city&#39;s galleries are marking major milestones this fall, so we took some time to ask them about the kind of impact that longetivity and leadership have had in our neighborhoods and in our arts community. A multitude of developments have affected art businesses here and around the world, but when considering the many industry shifts, Chicago dealers have similar reponses: the internet and art fairs have turned things on their head when it comes to selling art, promoting artists and reaching collectors. With the benefit of hindsight, several dealers celebrating significant anniversaries this year offered reflections on all that has changed over the decades, as well as what thankfully remains the same. -GV

Artists and art dealers are often pioneers when it comes to seeking out new neighborhoods in which to live as well as run a business. The vitality and popularity of Chicago neighborhoods today, such as River North and the West Loop, versus 10 or 20 years ago is in part thaks to dealers and artists who blazed early trails. Such geographic changes have had long-rage effects on the gallery scene that are still evident.&nbsp;

Prior to the 1980s the city&#39;s established galleries were centered around Michigan Avenue. A few stalwarts are still located there today, including Richard Gray Gallery, approaching its 50th anniversary in 2013, and R.S. Johnson Fine Art, in business for over 56 years. By the late &#39;70s a few dealers addressed a need for space that was not available along the city&#39;s main retail corridor. Zolla/Lieberman Gallery moved to 368 West Huron in 1976. In 1979 Ann and Roy Boyd moved their gallery to West Superior to the second floor above Young Hoffman Gallery, with Jack Lemmon and Landfall Press. Ann Boyd remembers, &quot;It was a ronderful time. There was hardly any activity during the day, but people who came to see us came for a purpose. We were all feeling pressure to have higher ceilings, more space for art, more elbowroom during openings. Some artists thouht we were crazy until their say the big spaces and recognized the sense of camraderie. Ou rinsurance when we started wa $1,500 a month because our agent though all of our windows would be smashed.&quot; By 1983 16 galleries had opened in what would soon be known as River North.&nbsp;

Around the same time that galleries were begining to establish Chicago&#39;s first gallery district, in 1981 a new event on the city&#39;s art calendar would forever change the art business.&nbsp;Art Exposition&nbsp;launched on Navy Pier that year, and the resulting enegery and attention bouyed Chicago&#39;s reputation as an international art center; it also added fuel to the rapid local gallery growth. By the end of &#39;80s, over 65 galleries filled River North, while more openered around the city, including in Wicker Park/Bucktown and beyond.&nbsp;

Catherine Edelman launched her namesake gallery 25 years ago after graduating from the School of the Art Institute, opening her doors two weeks before the 1987 stock market crash. An April 1989 fire that devestated River North, along with the coinciding crash of the global art market, led to widespread votality well into the early &#39;90s. Some dealers again sought larger spaces and lower rents, spurring a significant relocation to he West Loop. Edelman says, &quot;I think the idea was that we&#39;d all move, which at first seemed like a viable idea, but a lot of us decided to stay. I think that split hurt the power of the Chicago gallery scene. There never used to be a thought where else you&#39;d go opening night.&quot;&nbsp;

Art centers have continued to develop locally in all directions, such as in Pilsen and Bridgeport where distinct neighborhood personalities are evident. The ever-creative art scene now even includes pop-up galleries and installations, a timely result of a resourceful economy. Changes in the global business landscape have also aletered the way we all reach audiences beyond the ones at home. In the past 10 years, we&#39;ve come to view websites, blogs, Twitter and Facebook as critical.&nbsp;

Douglas Dawson Gallery markes 30 years at the end of this year, and Dawson points to technology as being one of the most striking differences since his early days, though he admits that new channels maynot seem as jarring to those starting out. He says, &quot;For older galleries, like ours, with an older clientele, and a long history of print, mailings, personal contact, the evolution of technology and the impetus to make it a valid tool of the business has been challenging.&quot;&nbsp;

Social networking and the web aren&#39;t the only things making the art world smaller. Roy Boyd, who founded his gallery in 1972 in Westrn Springs before moving downtown near the original site of the MCA, says that compared to 40 years ago, &quot;We all know art fairs have taken over. The scene isn&#39;t just local anymore.&quot; Dawson reiterated Boyd&#39;s point: &quot;the changes I&#39;ve seen in the art business in Chicago mirror changes nationally. When I opened in the early 1980&#39;s there was tremendous, self-sustaining energy in the art community. Today our business is predicated on participating in important art fairs. We depend on the clients we meet at those fairs who, if they do not purchase at the show, often will when they visit us in Chicago.&nbsp;

Valerie Crberry, who opened her gallery 10 years ago in the John Hancock Center, says though many see striking changes over the years, and art now reaches many via the internet, up close and in-person can&#39;t be beat: &quot;What has not changed is that the quality of experience for the casual vistor or the experience collector is never better than in the gallery itself, where the directors, staff, and artists are available to share their expertise and enthusiasm in a comfortable space. This experience endures alongside the many and now vital platforms for art viewing, such as online or at art fairs, and proves the value of a basic pleasure.&quot;&nbsp;

Running a gallery is a marathon, certainly not a sprint. Dawson says, &quot;I think the most important issue for an older gallery, as for an older individual, is how to remain vital, relevant, and able to bring energized perspectives to one&#39;s activities. Chicago is a wonderful and receptive city to explore those challenges.&quot; 10 years ago the Boyds hosted an intimate party for their 30th anniversary. &quot;This fall,&quot; Roy says, &quot;we&#39;re going to just have a group show for our 40th anniversary. We&#39;re letting our artists subit their favorite old work, or they can submit something new. We just wanted to recognize the people we&#39;ve worked so well with.&quot;

CGN profiles local Chicago galleries celebrating their anniversaries. 

2012 Gallery Milestones: Decades in the Art Business

To comission a work of art sounds like a ofty endeavor, but as the Hyde Park Art Cent&#39;ers (HPAC)&nbsp;Not Just Another Pretty FaceI (NJAPF)&nbsp;demonstrates, the process of a patron working with an artist is uniquely satisfying, and not at all out of reach. The program returns this fall for a fifth run. What began in 1995 as a way to support Chicago artists and the Art Center has garnered priase from those familiar with the concept, such as artists looking to collaborate and patrons looking to support HPAC, as well as art enthusiasts who appreciate this genius, approachable idea.&nbsp;

At a glance, NJAPF is a kind of matchmaking arrangement for the art world, intended to support Chicago artists while making collecting ore assesible to a broader group of people. Through the &quot;salons&quot; series artists and patrons pair up, questions are answered, artists&#39; art work ix explored and the collaboartion begins.&nbsp;

NJAPF involves many people and from start to finish it can take place anywhere from 18 months to two years. Inititially HPAC builds up the artist roster, where the goal is to assemble a diverse group of artists, encompassing a range of cultural backgrounds, artistic media, styles and price points. Once artists are selected, private and public salons are hosted by interested patrons as well as HPAC. Artists and patrons meet and the matchmaking begins. Eventually parameters are established regarding finances and the nature of the commissioned artwork. Some patrons lay down specific requests, such as a certain type of artwork or style, liked a mixed media portrait, while others may give the artist total control over the process and outcome. Works executed include painting, photography, sculpture, installation and more.&nbsp;

Due to the program&#39;s dual goals, commission proceeds generated by patrons are split equally between HPAC and the artist. Finally, a comprehensive catalogue is produced and the final works are unveiled at a celebratory opening of the three-month exhibition of the work produced during the program. In many cases at the opening party is the first time a patron sees the finished work before taking it home to be a part of, or the start to, their collections.&nbsp;

NJAPF has a proven track record of bringing more awareness and support to Chicago artists, as well as demystifying the notion of collecting art. Brand new patrons as well as seasoned collectors recognize their sponsorship plays a direct role in supporting the arts. -LM

CGN profiles the Hyde Park Art Center and Not Just Another Pretty Face, an interactive art experience. 

Not Just Another Pretty Face: Artists + Individuals Creating Together

Chicago-based esigner Kenneth Walter; of Gray &amp; Walter; has been designing personalized creative spaces for discerning client for 30 years. An advodate of being faithful to a client&#39;s unique taste, even if that leads to uncovering surprises along the way, Walter heralds the benefits of working withing a formalized plan. Not limited by tradition, the designer says he will determine what makes the most sense for a client, and that antiques and contemporary art are a few of his favorite supporting elements for unique space. -GV

CGN:&nbsp;Tell me about your design philosophy and what you do for your clients.&nbsp;

KW: My firm was established in 1989, and today we do all different types of projects, from contemporary hotels and club to historic preservations. I find that I&#39;m very interested in working with a plan&mdash;seeing how a project will relate to a site. I also have to see how a client and the overall project are related to one another. I would never deprive someone, but I will maybe try to talk them into the thing that&#39;s best suited to them. A good professional doesn&#39;t do just one thing. I prefer to work with that is appropriate, but I think a lot of architects and desigers get caught up in a look, and then potential clients get confused when they see only one kind of work in a portfolio and cannot get beyond it.&nbsp;

I describe what i do as &#39;ecletic classicism&#39;&mdash;designed based on classical principles, and classical in terms of order, though not always style. Something could be really far out, or done as a period, or it can be funky. I think you can do anything, as long as there is an overall order.&nbsp;

Things definitley come in and out of fashion. One day people will want silk curtains dripping with trim again. Lucite is back right now&mdash;I never thought I&#39;d see that come back! So, everything that&#39;s old is new again. Chintz will probably come back&mdash;whether it should or shouldn&#39;t isn&#39;t the point, but it will come back, so it&#39;s good to work with a lot of styles.&nbsp;

I think people can have a wonderful art collection and it doesn&#39;t have to have museum-level name or even quality. When we work with clients, we often start out helping to grow a collection. We say, you can buy something that&#39;s affordable by a major name artist&mdash;a lithograph, or a print, and there are also many emerging artists to explore&mdash;you just have to love what you buy. You really can&#39;t even buy art as a major investment unless you&#39;re spending thousands of dollars anyway.&nbsp;

How do you combine antiques with contemporary art?&nbsp;

There&#39;s nothing I love more than contemporary art with antiques. I recommend for clients to look at a piece of art and ask &#39;Will I love it in 5 years? In 10?&#39; For antiques, changes are the real thing will cost more than a reproduction, though sometimes I&#39;m shocked by reproduction price&mdash;it screams new but it&#39;s actually&nbsp;more expensive! Buy the best that you can afford and that you feel you will really love. I think it&#39;s a great idea to go to estate sales&mdash;you never know what you&#39;ll find, and there are some great values to find as you learn. Auction houses are great too.&nbsp;

Do you have any favorite pieces or projects?&nbsp;

One of my favoirte projects was for a young couple who had nothing when they came to me. We helped them set up an art collection as well as their home&mdash;we got them into Ruth Duckworth, Giacometti, Henry Moore&mdash;named artists with provenance from good galleries, many in Chicago. If a client has an art collection started, we help them add to it, or curate it, or update framing and placement&mdash;there is so much to do. It&#39;s lots of fun.&nbsp;

CGN interviews local designer Kenneth Walter or Gray & Walter. 

Designer  Talk: Kenneth Walter

By GINNY VAN ALYEAWright has become the premier auction house specializing in modern and contemporary design in just over a decade. The visionary behind it all, Richard Wright is constantly thinking about new ways to develop his program and showcase design to the world, including introducing some gallery-like programs, such as living contemporary auctions. Wright actually began his career on the ground level of the gallery scene in 1986 and worked his way up, with stints along the way at antiques malls, markets and at Tradeway Gallery in Oak Park. He opened Wright in 2000 and since then, the auction house has sold nearly 20,000 lots across the spectrum of 20th-21st century design, making the action house an international resource for collecting modern design. A devotion to design drives what Wright personally does and what the auction house constantly strives to be. Wright says he’s proud of how the auction house has been able to evolve, and he enjoys the process of changing and growing, saying he doesn’t do any of it quickly, but he does do it consistently. -GV<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2254/original/r-26v037.jpg" alt=""></figure>CGN: What do you think the line is between art and design, if any?RW: I think there is a natural connection between art and design. In our very first action we mixed in&nbsp; little bit of fine art at the time, because it fit well. Since them, we’ve sold sculpture by the designer Harry Bertoia, for instance. The line starts to blur when you look at the work of certain artists, and we’ve made the evolution ourselves of what we feature over time.&nbsp;How did you become interested in contemporary art?I’ve been increasing and improving my own knowledge of contemporary for a while – I’m really self-taught. Since about 2005 I started looking seriously at art and began to learn, but to be totally honest, I was intimidated by fine art for a long tome. With design, people immediately feel comfortable with it, and they most often have an opinion about a piece because they can experience it and see if it’s functional, what it looks like, and so on. It can be much harder to get an honest, direct opinion about contemporary art. I started learning by going to art fairs, museums, and other auctions. I read a lot and tried to start with basics.I’m drawn to area of the art market I can play with. There’s a natural alignment with sculpture and something about the 3-D aspect that’s a good fit. I like art that is smart, undervalued, but not necessarily high-flying. I like art that I think is accessible.&nbsp;Wright started out as an auction house in the traditional sense, offering historically important design pieces. Recently it has offered ‘living’ art – art that’s of now – through Wright 21. What led you to start commissioning work by living artists, such as Arik Levy?Wright 21 is definitely project-based rather than something that’s ongoing, like a dealer/artist relationship. There are clear benefits for both the artist, as well as the auction house in working together this way. The engagement we have with living designers on a personal level – it’s just fun. It’s also taught me a lot about the design process. There’s a learning curve. At a market level there’s still a sorting out of where and how contemporary design is going (everyone hates the term ‘design art’ but I’ll use it here), but as an auction house we think we’ve done the right thing to engage on more of a gallery level with designers today.There is of course a difference between the primary and secondary markets, so we try to be respectful of the primary market but also elevate it in a good way. I don’t want to overstate it, but the backdrop of the recession has had a dampening effect on the primary market, so this takes some time.&nbsp;Wright’s spring 2012 Living Contemporary auction features work by artists such as Sam Francis and Edward Burtynsky, as well as furniture designed by Willy Daro and Gio Ponti. You’ve also planned a selection of Graffiti Art from the 1980s, which everyone seems to be revisiting these days. How do you see 80s Graffiti Art fitting in with design pieces by Eames and Noguchi?We’ve developed a category where we nod to our hybrid offering of design and art. We’ll show some interesting art we believe in alongside furniture pieces we think go with it. We don’t pair just stuff. Whether a buyer literally takes the whole package isn’t really the point, but the matches again are about breaking down a resistance - you can engage with both worlds. It’s a cool little market for us.For this latest auction, if you step outside of big 80s names, like Basquiat and Haring, thee are also some affordable price points.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2255/original/wrightgilead.jpg" alt=""></figure>Wright is a global auction house, but do you see any significance to being based in Chicago?Honestly, Chicago’s been very good to us – we are in a central point [in the country] and we can afford a big facility here. We couldn’t be at this level in New York, so Chicago is great for us. In New York, if you can’t play at the highest level, you might as well be out. Chicago also has a good design image. There is strong architecture, ad a general sort of positive feeling here. I’ve struggled at times because of a lack of a local market, but I have come to see other strengths and it’s been a good fit for the brand.&nbsp;Do you have any advice for collectors or art enthusiasts who may still be unfamiliar with the action world as an art resource?Action houses as resources are underappreciated. All auction houses, and certainly Wright, are here to educate people. When people come here to a preview, they can see things, sit in them, really try them out. It’s all part of the learning process. There’s also something appealing about the market factor for people, since they can see a firm price that someone has paid, as well as enjoy the spectacle or wilder side of auctions. Auction house websites themselves are a great resource – type something in our search fields and you can see anything we’ve ever sold – it’s a free resource of market knowledge.Beginning collectors can be intimidated by auctions. They might think of stereotypes where you scratch your nose and end up buying something by mistake. Really, even if you’re just starting out, auctions are great places to go and learn. Galleries do this too, but auction houses by their nature handle so much stuff. They’re a little more comprehensive because they are reviewing and taking in a lot. They’re a great place to learn. I love going to New York for the big sale previews. You cans see amazing art! You can actually take art off the walls and really look at it. If you have a question, it will be answered by an expert. That access is invaluable.&nbsp;Wright Auction House1140 W Hubbard (60642) • (312) 563-0020View auction details at <a href="http://Wright20.com">Wright20.com</a>

CGN interviews Auction House founder Richard Wright

15 Minutes with Richard Wright 

Yes, collecting art really is something you can 'learn' to do. Collecting art is not so much complicated as intimidating, and the recent Collectors Colloquium was launched as a way to provide interested art enthusiasts with an overview of the art world and to give access to some local experts who can share their wisdom and insights.&nbsp; At the end of the course, participants will have learned some basics, met others who are also interested in art, and hopefully seen first hand how open and welcoming our art scene is. Art collecting isn't really a 101 course you can check off your list and be done with - Ah ha!&nbsp; I've learned how to spot the most valuable up-and-coming artists in order to make my investing forture! - it's a very personal, subjective experience that depends on your own taste and interests.&nbsp; Everyone says it, but it's true. You should buy the best art that you can afford, and you should buy work that you love - ie: you're willing to live with it and enjoy it for a very long time. &nbsp; But there are some helpful starting points to developing your eye and making smarter choices.&nbsp; Most people need some kind of direction to get started.&nbsp; Like any other dynamic topic, discussion is a big part of the learning process.&nbsp; If you've joined us already, we're pleased to have you along for the journey, as you are well on your way to a rewarding life-long pursuit to living a unique life by having art as a part of your life.&nbsp; If you haven't had a chance to join us yet, there's still time!&nbsp; And we of course would like to offer more classes like this in the future.&nbsp; To be notified of future collecting groups, please <a href="http://info@chicagogallerynews.com">email us</a>. Chicago is home to many unique galleries, artists and cultural institutions, and there are a wealth of creative resources to explore and make your own.&nbsp; Welcome to the journey! - CGNSESSIONS TO DATE:• A Passion for Collecting - Discussions with younger collectors who have been in the game for awhile and who have their own very personal stories of art and collecting passions.&nbsp; Panelists shared their collecting philosophies as well as resources.• In the White Cube - An evening with area art dealers who've nurtured the careers of younger artists, developed friendships with collectors, and those who have worked to spotlight emerging artists as well as those who may have been overlooked.&nbsp;• On the Auction Block - an evening with art experts at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, one of the area's most visible and successful auction operations.&nbsp; Collectors learned the sport of buying at auction as well as the sophisticated nature of the auction treasure hunt (and the spectacular values one can find!)NEXT UP&nbsp;• Eye for Hire (February 28, 2012 hosted by Kavi Gupta Gallery, 835 W. Washington) This session will provide an overview of the art advisory profession, and help attendees understand why collectors hire art advisors.&nbsp;• Art as Investment + The (Art) Fair Game (March 27, 2012) This session will provide an overview of how and why works of art appreciate.&nbsp; We'll also cover some highlights of the local and national art fair scene and provide an overview of how to navigate an art fair, particularly now that you've met some other like-minded art enthusiasts!Participants are still welcome to attend on an indiviudal as well as video basis - please email <a href="http://info@chicagogallerynews.com">info@chicagogallerynews.com </a>for more information.

Learn to be an Art Collector

By KEVIN NANCEIf anyone is ideally positioned to carry on the line of major art fairs in Chicago and restore it to health after years of turmoil, it’s Tony Karman. He’s been involved—sometimes tangentially, sometimes heavily—in nearly all of the fairs dating back to the early 1980s, when he worked at the Chicago International Art Exposition as a security guard. More recently, after two decades as one of the local art scene’s busiest drum-beaters and string-pullers, he helped organize four editions of Art Chicago at the Merchandise Mart, which threw up its hand last winter and canceled this year’s event. By that time, Karman had already left the Mart and—with “absolute chutzpah,” he admits in an interview—announced his own fair, the International Exposition of Contemporary/Modern Art &amp; Design, aka Expo Chicago, premiering Sept. 19-23, 2012 at Navy Pier.Mart executives argued that Chicago is no longer a viable player in the art-fair market, which they claimed has “gravitated towards the coasts.” Karman begs to differ. “I’m not a controversial guy—I don’t throw stones—but that statement does not hold water,” he declares. “This is a city that led the world with a great international art fair, and there’s absolutely no reason why we can’t do it again.”In some ways, Karman’s playbook for Expo Chicago is not so different from the one he used with varying success at the Mart: building partnerships and goodwill with the city’s visual arts movers and shakers, including top collectors, dealers, and museums (in particular the Museum of Contemporary Art, who benefit preview, Vernissage, is being revived after an eight-year hiatus); tempting out-of-town buyers by leveraging Chicago’s array of cultural amenities, including its world-class restaurant scene; and enlisting the support of the city, whose civic pride (an income from tourism) would suffer a significant blow if it no longer boasted a major art fair. “It would have been sad if there’d been no fair this year,” says Janet Alberti, MCA’s deputy director. “We were really sorry that the Mart made the decision not to move forward, but Tony’s doing the city a great service by revitalizing the fair.”To that end, karman has a few new cards up his elegantly tailored sleeve. He has pumped Expo Chicago full of star power in the form or architect Jeanne Gang, who has designed a thoughtful new scheme for the booth configuration at Navy Pier’s Festival Hall, and top chefs Michael Kornick, Graham Elliot, Ryan Poli, Patricio Sandoval and Randy Zweiban, who will add a touch of culinary artistry to the paintings and sculpture. And smartly, Karman is mounting Expo Chicago not in the fairs’ traditional spring time frame but in the fall, taking it out of the competition with the year’s biggest art auctions at Sotheby’s and Christie’s in New York and getting an intuitive jump on Art Basel Miami Beach, which has boomed in large part because of its host city’s famously balmy winter weather. “September in Chicago is our December in Miami,” he says. “There’s nothing more beautiful than autumn in Chicago.” &nbsp;Just as important, Expo Chicago is doing what few, if any, of its predecessors ever did: imposing strict discipline on the size of the event. Where Art Chicago and its various components and companions grew so large and unwieldy that some patrons were overwhelmed by the sheer acreage to be covered—which also had the effect of spreading sales too thinly among too many dealers—Karman has taken a beyond-boutique approach, emphasizing quality over quantity by limiting participation to exactly 100 of the world’s top galleries. (For the complete list, which was strategically announced a full five months before the event, visit Expochicago.com/exhibitors.) That’s crucial to the galleries, several of whom complained of market dilution during the more-is-more years at the Mart. “One reason I limited the fair to 100 galleries is that there’s a better chance they’ll see the kind of business they’re looking for,” Karman says. “If I did a show with 200 dealers, I think we’d repeat what happened in the past, and they would hit that same wall.”Most crucial of all, perhaps, is the return to Navy Pier, home of Art Chicago in its storied heyday in the 1980s and the early ‘90s. Part of its appeal is logistical and aesthetic; unlike the Mart, with its relatively low ceilings, Festival Hall allows for 12-foot booth walls (borrowed from Mark Lyman’s annual SOFA show) and an airy feelings of space overhead. But especially for those with long memories, Expo Chicago’s venue is significant for reasons that have less to do with the height of the booths than with emotion and history.“The two magic words that made this work were ‘Navy Pier,’” Karman says. “When we were able to secure the Pier, it allowed nostalgia to take over and and sent a massive signal to the international art world that we’re reconnecting to the legacy of the fair. Back in 1980, there were three great art fairs in the world: Cologne, Basel, and Chicago. The art fair scene has since gotten much larger, of course, but the institutional memory of what this city meant to the international art world—collector, curator, dealer—is undeniable. It would be sad for them, as well as sad for our city, not to have a fair that lives up to that legacy and continues to raise the bar.Of course, its venues alone doesn’t guarantee Expo Chicago’s success. In 2005, a new show, Chicago Contemporary &amp; Classic, set itself up at a Navy Pier in direct competition with Art Chicago, which had left the Pier after an ugly financial dispute. (In 2004, McPier sued Art Chicago owner-operator Thomas Blackman for what it claimed was $375,000 in unpaid rent. The lawsuit settled out of court, and Blackman moved his fair to a tent in Butler Field. Art Chicago’s money woes continued, however, leading to the Mart’s last minute rescue/takeover in 2006.) Chicago Contemporary &amp; Classic, which had announced a long-term lease at the Pier, turned out to be short-lived.Arman hopes to avoid the fate of CC&amp;C, which had included exhibitors of the traditional art and antiques as well as contemporary and modern art, and which positioned itself as a regional fair rather than national or international one. “Every fair needs to know what its niche is,” CC&amp;C’s Ilana Vardy told me when I reported on the event for the Chicago-Sun times. “Chicago needs to serve the market in the city, the needs to serve the market in the city, the state and the region surrounding Illinois. We’re not trying to be another Art Basel, &nbsp;because its not going to happen here that way. There isn’t enough time on the calendar for collectors of that level to keep going to so many fairs. My goal is to rebuild the Chicago fair as a Midwest show.”Like Vardy before him, Karman believes in the importance of the regional market as a key element of the business strategy of the fair and its exhibitors. “The art world recognizes that Chicago plays an important role in the ecosystem, even in this era of potentially too many art fairs,” he says. “My job is not necessarily to turn out the collectors in L.A. and New York and Europe—even though I think we will because we’re an international city that people love to visit. The dealers are really looking to me to turn to our tertiary markets like Tulsa and Omaha, Kansas City and St. Louis, Cleveland and Minneapolis, Dallas and Houston, places with lots of collectors who historically come to the art fair here. Those people are just as important to the dealers as collectors in Paris of Shanghai.But unlike CC&amp;C, which has relatively few top galleries on its exhibitor roster, Expo Chicago has gone for the creme-de-la-creme, which, in a strong vote of confidence, has turned out in force. “To do just a regional fair doesn’t draw the region,” Karman says. “That just doesn’t work in Chicago, where any fair is always going to be judged by the standard of our glorious past, by the legacy and the aspirations of our collectors for 30 years. The only way to do a successful fair here, I feel, is to do it on that level. “On the other hand, Expo Chicago’s emphasis on staying relatively small has had the potential of ruffling feathers among the local gallerists, several of whom would have liked to participate but didn’t meet the criteria established by Karman’s selection committee (composed of Chicago’s D’Amelio and San Francisco’s Anthony Meier). “If I were taking any gallery in, the context of exclusivity would be lost, and so would be the filter that assures the collector that this is a highly curated show,” Karman says. “It would have never stirred any souls, and it would never have been able to compete in the international marketplace. That’s why I did it, and painfully so. It’s also why we’re going to have booth reviews. If they said they were going to bring a Rauschenberg, where’s the Rauschenberg?”Fortunately, even many local gallerists who aren’t in Expo Chicago are pulling for Karman to succeed. “Tony has a lot of fans in this town,” says Linda Warren of Linda Warren Projects in the West Loop. “We’re all in his corner, because if he makes this thing work, it’ll benefit us all.”

From a 2012 issue, CGN profiles Expo Chicago. 

Expo Chicago to revive Windy City’s glorious art-fair legacy 

When Todd Schwebel was a kid, he&rsquo;d pass over the more popular Sports Illustrated for Antiques magazine. Long before the advent of virtual bulletin board sites like Pintrest.com, Schwebel would dog-ear magazine pages, making notes and pointing out to his mother which chair or table he wanted to have someday. An eighth-generation Illinoisan, it was his grandfather who regularly took him to country auctions downstate, where Scwebel would spot bargains for Empire and Victorian pieces when we was still a teenager, sparking an interest in high-quality antiques that would stay with him all his life. &ndash;GV

Todd Schwebel thinks there is a big problem for antiques. Though he&rsquo;s been a collector since he was just a teen, his passion is hardly the norm among his contemporaries. Antiques have fallen so far out of favor with today&rsquo;s sleek, design-minded, transient audiences, Schwebel doesn&rsquo;t know how they&rsquo;ll ever come back in style. It&rsquo;s a crisis that has repercussions far beyond nostalgia, or the fate of a few aging antiques dealers. When Schwebel and I met recently in River North, I wanted tips to share with younger collectors about beginning an antiques collection. We ended up having a conversation about the cultural challenges facing the industry and whether there&rsquo;s any way to save it before it&rsquo;s too late.

In the late 1908s Schwebel bought a 1906 Kenwood residence, which had been the only freestanding house in Chicago designed by architect Benjamin Marshall. In 1921 the Norton family, who owned the house, hired Howard van Doren Shaw to increase the homes size as well as ass his own signature touches. By the time Schwebel bought the house, it was in disrepair; he painstakingly restored it and filled it with period-appropriate antiques. 20 years after he did it again for clients who purchased the same house for their young family. Formerly an antiques dealer specializing in early 19th C. American antiques, today he runs The Schwebel Company in River North, a design firm that provides architectural and design services nationally. The firm has also won many awards for historic preservation, Schwebel still sells investment quality American antiques, fixtures, and decorations, and he&rsquo;s a go-to expert for individual collectors as well as museums. Devoted to American style, antiques from our nation&rsquo;s history are a key part of his creations. Schwebel&rsquo;s business takes him most often to the eat coast. In 20 years situated in River North, among many contemporary art galleries, Schwebel says he hasn&rsquo;t made one waling antiques sale, something he attributes to a profound lack of interest in Chicago.

As Schwebel sees it, many valuable antiques important to our city&rsquo;s history will soon be too far away to get back. Antiques aren&rsquo;t in fashion; people either buy cheap furniture they can thoughtlessly toss some day, or the same trendy, inexpensive furniture their neighbors have, which will never appreciate in value. Schwebel feels that by blindly following brand-name, mass-market designers, people feel their taste is publicly validated. Explaining, Schwebel says, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve met people whose parents have wonderful collections of antiques &ndash; including really beautiful, quality pieces - and the adult children just don&rsquo;t want them. They don&rsquo;t appreciate how quality pieces are significant. So, pieces got to auction and are bought up by those who do know.&rdquo;

Schwebel points to Samuel Marx, a well known mid-20th Century Chicago designer, whose elegant pieces, he says, have been siphoned to collections on the coats; &ldquo;So much of his work has left Chicago and the North Shore because there isn&rsquo;t local interest anymore. It&rsquo;s striking work, and collectors in LA and New York have snapped it up at auction here. It&rsquo;s really hard to get that back now, so something&rsquo;s been lost from Chicago.&rdquo; In general, quality pieces that can still be had cost more than people want to spend if they don&rsquo;t have the knowledge. &ldquo;Since there&rsquo;s no real respect or authority on the topic of antiques here,&rdquo; Schwebel says, &ldquo;I think in some ways it&rsquo;s a reflection of what&rsquo;s wrong with our culture. We don&rsquo;t value history. We don&rsquo;t recognize the treasures we have here &ndash; not just older, but even pieces from the 20th Century. One person I do give lots of credit to is Leslie Hindman for how she&rsquo;s gotten antiques out there. Ultimately we still need more leadership on a cultural scale.&rdquo;

Schwebel suggests, &ldquo;I think because of a branded, &lsquo;celebutante,&rsquo; media culture people have these fleeing tastes.&rdquo; Even those who are savvy manage to be influenced by others taste, opting for what is easiest, rather than what takes the time and effort to built up.

There are several forces working against antiques, according to Schwebel;: &ldquo;Antiques are a forbidden zone for some if they don&rsquo;t have the opportunity to learn.&rdquo; He adds that would-be-collectors end up turning away from or sometimes fully against historic pieces. Depending on the period, antiques&rsquo; cultural and political associations can be minefield for collectors, since pieces are tied to history in sometimes complicated ways, for instance where some European colonial pieces are concerned. It is up to collectors to make educated decisions about what they chose to own.

&nbsp;

The bottom line according to Schwebel, is that people aren&rsquo;t being told about antiques often enough. He believes we have a duty in Chicago to support our decorative arts and to preserve local collections. Younger than east coast cities, much of our identity is split between a gritty past and modern architectural marvels. However, we can&rsquo;t throw everything over in favor of the new. &ldquo;I worry that some day other aspects of the city&rsquo;s cultural scene will also be threatened,&rdquo; warns Scwebel. He points out that without enough diversity in patrons&rsquo; collecting passions, area museums will suffer, losing out to high profile institutions and collections on both coasts.

How would Schwebel begin to address the antiques problem? &ldquo;You&rsquo;d need a critical mass of younger people interested to make a difference. One solution is to fight fire with fire.&rdquo; By embracing the very celebutante &nbsp;culture that&rsquo;s chipping away at history and individual taste, the thought is that a TV show featuring a high profile designer or collector couple could turn the tables. Antiques Roadshow is a good but staid example of what Scwebel has in mind, he says, because it imparts real information. However, many show guests are hoping only to discover hidden value they can cash in. A better, more social show would be about creating collectors vs. consumers.

Antiques appeal to collectors in part because history is built into objects crafted by hand, which have stood the test of time. Pieces used for reasons now obsolete may still be enjoyed as a way to tangibly recall history and culture.

Antiques are never really out of style, though favored periods change. It takes personal devotion like Schwebel&rsquo;s, plus time and investment, to develop a collection. Such a commitment can tie you passionately to history in ways that will support the future.

The Future of Antiques: A Conversation with Todd Schwebel

By GINNY VAN ALYEA

Buzz abounded with the stunning news that the 30-year old Art Chicago fair (renamed Next Art Chicago but never mounted as such) has been cancelled by fair owner Merchandise Mart Properties (MMPI) a little more than 2 months before it was due to take place in late April.&nbsp; Many in the art community are disappointed at the news and will have to rearrange their spring calendars and adjust to the first spring in Chicago without an art fair in 30 years.&nbsp; Still on the cultural horizon will be the Merchandise Mart&#39;s venerable International Antiques Fair, April 27-30, and the new EXPO Chicago taking place at Navy Pier.

MMPI had this to say about the abrupt cancellation of Next Art Chicago via an emailed press release to vendors and partners:

After a thorough analysis of the art fair landscape, MMPI has determined not to move forward with the production of the 2012 edition of Next Art Chicago, and that Chicago will not remain a primary focus of its art fair business activities...It is our conclusion that the great majority of the art fair market in the United States has gravitated toward the coasts.&nbsp; This is where MMPI will be reallocating its considerable resources.

CGN featured an article by writer Kevin Nance in our January-March issue discussing why Chicago collectors don&#39;t collect Chicago art - a question that has dogged many in the art community for many years.&nbsp; Nance gave an overview of the ongoing Pacific Standard Time survey of art in LA.&nbsp; CGN&#39;s publisher also talked about why Chicago is always caught in the middle between New York and LA, when really we have legs up on both ciities because of some uniquely midwestern strengths that just happen to get overlooked.&nbsp; The Merchandise Mart was the owner of Art Chicago for just a brief time period, but unfortunately it chose to move &#39;its considerable resources&#39; &#39;toward the coasts&#39; - therefore chasing the same trendy dreams others have already been seeking.&nbsp; Chicago&#39;s been down this road before and has been left for younger, sexier enticements, but we&#39;ve also survived as much many times over.&nbsp;

Now, we look 100% hopefully and earnestly towards Expo Chicago, the highly anticipated truly international art fair that will be launching in Chicago&#39;s original art fair confines, Navy Pier by the lake, September 20-23, 2012.&nbsp; The long-running SOFA art fair, founded in Chicago, also at Navy Pier, also takes place again this fall for the 19th year.&nbsp; Onward and upward!

<a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-02-08/entertainment/ct-ent-0209-art-expo-dead-20120208_1_art-chicago-ken-tyburski-mark-falanga">The Chicago Tribune </a>also reported on the story.

MMPI Cancels Art Chicago after 30-year run... Chicago Looks to Fall Art Fair on the Horizon

By KEVIN NANCEIs the glass half-empty for the Chicago art scene, or half-full? It depends on whom you ask, what you focus on and how ambitious a response you propose.In the upper, unoccupied, rather lonely part of the glass, there’s the fact that the Merchandise Mart recently pulled the plug on Next Art Chicago, which it rescued so gallantly a few years ago, only to see it suffer during the recession and struggle to compete with other fairs in Basel, Miami, New York, London and elsewhere. After what they described in a parting statement as “a thorough analysis of the art fair landscape,” the Mart’s Staci Boris and Ken Tyburski bailed on Chicago like it was the Titanic, concluding that “the great majority of the art fair market in the United States has gravitated toward the coasts.”For Chicago artists and gallery owners, who increasingly feel that local collectors prefer to buy elsewhere, the recession has been hard. There’s a battle-fatigue, even a malaise, in certain precincts. “There’s still such a fantastic art scene here, so many great galleries – but an energy is missing,” says Kasia Kay of kasia kay art projects in the West Loop. “It’s really kind of sad.”In the lower, still quite fluid part of the glass, hopes are high for former Art Chicago director Tony Karman’s new fair, EXPO&nbsp;Chicago, set to debut at Navy Pier, September 20-23, 2012. “Tony’s taken the torch and is running with it at the moment,” says Linda Warren of Linda Warren Projects. “There’s a real buzz out there because he’s investing a lot of energy into it, trying to be the very top tier of art fairs in the world. If it happens, I think it’ll help bring our art scene back.”There’s some disagreement about that. Even if EXPO Chicago is&nbsp;wildly successful, gallery owner Carrie Secrist says, no city can assume that one art fair, which now has&nbsp;so much competition around the world, can revive an ailing art scene all by itself. “That’s over,” Secrist declares. “If a comeback happens, it’ll have to happen another way.”Still, there are positive signs. “As the economy has started to come back over the past few months, our business has been stronger,” the River North gallery owner Roy Boyd says. “We’ve seen some green sprouts.”And at City Hall, the new mayor’s administration appeared to be arts-friendly,so far. The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) hit the ground running earlier this year when it began organizing dozens of community meetings to gather input for the new Chicago Cultural Plan, the first time such a plan has been seriously revisited since initially launched in the 1980s. Many in the arts community are still holding out for more concrete signs of support from City Hall.Either way you look at it – half-full or half-empty – the question remains: How do we fill up that damn glass? How do we refocus attention – locally, nationally, internationally – on Chicago as an art center? How do we leverage the city’s unique character, including its vast array of cultural resources, to provide a shot in the arm to an art scene that some regard as in the doldrums?A Hail Mary approach would be to mount a major citywide event modeled, at least loosely, on Pacific Standard Time, a recently concluded series of more than 60 exhibitions in Southern California focused on Los Angeles art from 1945 to 1980. PST, as it was known, drew mostly positive reviews, brought cohesion to the city’s sprawling art scene and raised its national and international profile, enviable results, and certainly all worthy goals for any Chicago counterpart. But PST, several years in the planning, was largely organized and funded by the Getty Foundation, which contributed about $10 million. The Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Art, while not exactly aloof from the Chicago art scene, are not known for their deep involvement with it, at least not at the paternal level of the Getty in L.A.; certainly neither can match the Getty’s deep pockets.That isn’t to say that a Chicago-style art celebration, even one with as grand a scope as L.A.’s, couldn’t be pulled off here. “I think it could be done,” Boyd asserts. “It would take a massive effort to spearhead it, of course, and a great deal of cooperation between a number of different people and entities who don’t normally work together that closely, but it could be done.” In Boyd’s vision, major Chicago Institution, galleries, artists, collectors, art-loving philanthropists and foundations – including the MacArthur, the Pritzker and the Terra – could band together and mount a coordinated citywide event that could give Pacific Standard Time a run for its money. “Having the museums and the galleries and everyone moving together as a united font would certainly lend a focus and a power to any effort like that,” Secrist says. “That’s probably the quickest way to bring back more of a national focus to Chicago.”But how would herd all those cats? You’d need to field an all-star team with the vision of a Daniel Burnham, the networking skills of a Lois Weisberg, the fundraising prowess of a John H. Bryan and, probably, the political clout of Rahm Emaunuel.Until such a dream team surfaces, perhaps the problem would be best attacked, at least for the time being, on a smaller, more manageable scale, with an approach that is multifaceted and less monolithic. One of several possible models might be Gallery Weekend Chicago, a collaboration that began in fall 2011 between a group of local galleries (including Andrew Rafacz, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Devening Projects + Editions, Donald Young, Kavi Gupta, moniquemelcohe, Rhona Hoffman, Shane Campbell, threewalls, Tony Wight and Western Exhibitions) and local collectors to bring in out-of-towners for a “privately curated” sampling of the Chicago art and cultural scene, including gallery and museum visits, hard-to-get reservations at top restaurants and an architecture river tour.“We’ve seen a decline in what’s been going on here, but we still have incredibly thriving institutions and galleries, and so we came together last year to see how we could share that with collectors from all over the country,” Monique Meloche says. “Berlin has been doing something like this, and it’s been wildly popular there. Both New York and L.A. have tried to produce their own versions, so we thought, why not? We have such great institutions here, such great architecture, and a national culinary profile. People love to come to Chicago, so it seemed like a natural.” Last year’s event drew about 50 out-of-towners, and the group hopes to triple the attendance at this year’s follow-up, scheduled to coincide with Expo Chicago in September. (For details visit <a href="http://www.galleryweekendchicago.com">galleryweekendchicago.com</a>) “We don’t think it’ll get much larger than that, because we don’t want it to become a marathon,” Meloche says. “We want to keep it manageable for people so they can spend some quality time at these spaces.”In her opinion, in fact, the sensory overload provided by a major art fair – or a Pacific Standard Time knockoff – might not be what Chicago needs after all, at least not now. Instead of one big jolt of shock therapy to rouse us from our collective depression, maybe a series of smaller zaps would do just as well or better. “If you do a ‘Chicago Standard Time,’ maybe you’d narrow the focus too much on the art scene, and frankly I’m not sure it would draw people here like Pacific Standard Time drew people to L.A.,” Meloche says. “We need to be showcasing the whole culture of Chicago, not just the art scene – including the architecture, the world-class institutions, the restaurants, everything. I mean, when you talk to out-of-town people about coming to Chicago, their eyes light up. We just need to invite them.”

Kevin Nance talks to members of the Chicago art scene about an arts revival in 2012

An Invitation from Chicago to the World

Douglas Dawson Gallery is a serene art destination hidden behind a steel entry wall off of Morgan St. in the heart of the Chicago's meat packing district. When you walk up the stone walkway under the cover of the wood trellis you are aware that you are about to enter a gallery unlike any other in the city. The gallery turns 30 at the end of this year, and for the occasion gallery directors and partners Doug Dawson and Wally Bowling spent some time over tea one rainy summer morning to talk about running a contemporary gallery that deals in ethnographic art and ancient artifacts. Unique challenges face them as they try to reach the next generation of collectors while managing new realities of sourcing and authenticity, but the two have relied on experience and perspective to get them where they are today. - GV&nbsp;Doug Dawson credits his entry into the gallery business to a potent combination of naïveté and terror. 30 years ago, when he moved to Chicago from a political collective in northeast Iowa, Dawson had never been in an art gallery. He admits,&nbsp; I very naïvely decided to open one. In retrospect&nbsp;it all seems like great strategizing, but in fact it was dumb luck. &nbsp;His timing was also fortunate, since he happened to rent a River North loft space in 1983&nbsp;when the area was just beginning to buzz. Dawson reflects he was delighted to find himself suddenly in the middle of what was fast becoming the hot contemporary art neighborhood of Chicago.Today, the gallery has been in the West Loop for seven years. Dawson has seen many changes since opening the gallery three decades ago, but one constant has been the gallery's focus on tribal art. When he first opened he used a contemporary gallery model to hold openings and complementary activities like lectures, as well as thematic exhibitions. Dawson credits this structure with helping him reach a larger, more energized audience of contemporary collectors than just those who collected tribal art. The contemporary juxtaposition, he explains, means that someone who encounters an ancient piece doesn't have to have expert knowledge about Burkina Faso; it doesn't matter if you've never heard of the Ashanti tribe. A new context can dispel insecurities, and, Dawson says, help fill in the gaps later.To continue to offer new contexts and to keep things fresh, the gallery occasionally showcases contemporary art, working with artists who see the ancient work in new ways&nbsp;–&nbsp;a strategy Dawson explains complements other pieces in the gallery. He says,&nbsp;"As much as we need to keep our clients interested we need to keep ourselves interested. In dollars it s a small part of the business, but in interest it generates a lot. It's harder and harder to do shows just on ethnographic art, so this helps fill our openings calendar as well as put older works in a new light." Many of Dawson s collectors are also interested in minimalism, conceptual art, even antiques, so parallels are easily found. &nbsp;Dawson and Bowling cross boundaries in other practical ways as well. Dawson explains, "We participate in contemporary art fairs – we actually prefer them to tribal art fairs. If you interview our collectors most will tell you they're contemporary art collectors. Collecting tribal art has a long and dynamic history that surprises many people. As Dawson says, "In fact, early French artists were collectors of this material too – they were affirmed and inspired by it. Their own art was ratified by it. Interestingly there has been a major paradigm change in that relationship. If you look at French artists in 1915 they were looking at tribal art and seeing in it issues they were dealing with in their own art. Today it's just flipped completely - it's understood and evaluated by looking first at 20th Century art. People come in and say&nbsp;'That looks just like a Giacometti,' for instance. That's how it's validated."All these overlapping interests would seem to indicate a broad audience for tribal art, but Dawson admits that engaging a young audience with this material can be challenging today. He says, "There's less interest in non-western culture. Young people don't travel like our generation did. There's a kind of ambivalence now. And tribal art certainly isn't cool. Someone can spend $200,000 on a pre-Columbian textile, for example, take it home, put it on the wall, have a party, and 98% of the people there will have no idea what it is, let alone how much they've spent. It doesn't make the kind of impact that contemporary art can for people who collect by the numbers. You can't brand it."Another challenge that affects Dawson's market, as well as the antiques market he says, is what he sees going on with interior design. He notes, "All dealers are loathe to admit that's a really major engine in the art world but it is. Trends in interior design now seem very conservative, very corporate. We hear young people aren't really using interior designers anymore. They buy a loft and put in a TV screen bigger than the house we grew up in, a Crate &amp; Barrel sofa&nbsp;and lots of electronic toys. That's kind of it." When asked to think about how&nbsp;much best-selling furniture and art at chain&nbsp;stores appeals&nbsp;to these same transient younger people, Dawson discussed how so many pieces&nbsp;are in fact inspired by, if not copies of, originals&nbsp;from far flung countries or long ago eras. As he sees it, "If people feel they can obtain an apothecary coffee table that looks like it came from a remote village in South East Asia with the click of a button – and free shipping – why would they seek out a well-traveled dealer who's actually gone to the trouble to procure the real thing from a real village?"&nbsp;Dealers, and individuals, he points out,&nbsp;used to have to travel much more to pursue such treasures. But Bowling adds that even if you travelled that way, especially on your own, you wouldn't necessarily buy&nbsp;such things anymore.&nbsp;He says, "So it's kind of a catch-22. When we used to travel more, it was more readily available. You'd get excited about pieces in-situ. People just got excited about the third world, but now it all looks very western. Villagers are wearing t-shirts shipped from the US.&nbsp;There are no ceramics.&nbsp;Instead, you see Michael Jackson's face printed everywhere. It's a different perception of the world now, generally."The number of younger collectors who frequent the gallery is small, but Bowling cites a handful who are new to tribal art. He believes,&nbsp;"If you know you want to collect something, pre-Columbian ceramics are amazing. A lot of people think because of the age, prices must be out of reach; we do have to reflect the market, but if you look at what goes at the major auction houses today, these things are much less than contemporary counterpoints, and they have some history."Dawson thinks any younger collector should first be curious. He advises, &nbsp;"Don't expect to buy right away, but do look and wonder on any kind of level&nbsp;–&nbsp;aesthetic, technical, historical. When we were younger we used to go to so many galleries and just see and absorb.&nbsp;He is frustrated by art students who come in but don't really look at pieces in the gallery. He's lectured classes in the space, only to have no one come back, and he wonders where they are getting their messages.&nbsp;For me the ideal is being curious and asking questions, wondering about the people who made these things. It broadens my idea of human experience. That's what art is. I think it's important people know about the world."A museum experience is naturally a quite different from&nbsp;the one a gallery provides, especially in a field like tribal art. Locally, Dawson looks to the Art Institute and its excellent collection. He says the head of the department that deals with tribal art is probably the best in the United States, but it still remains a department that has a very low profile in Chicago. He says,&nbsp; "There s no energized community around this material here. That affects business. There are some other dealers in Chicago who are participating in the same market that we are, but no one is doing international shows and seeking the same national level. &nbsp;I'm not demeaning anyone, but it would be nice if there were more galleries dealing in this kind of art in order to give people something to compare."These awareness challenges are all the more reason that visitors should be attracted to Dawson's space and unique field. In the gallery visitors encounter prime examples of tribal art as well as moving insights into world history. Bowling, a trained architect himself, points out that the space was designed to look like the houses their clients might have. Small rooms and spaces allow you to discover things. He says, "There's an intimacy that you don't get in a museum. You can look at a piece here and respond in your own setting."&nbsp;Dawson says visitors are invited to come in, touch things, ask an expert questions. It's a rare point of access. &nbsp;Dawson and Bowling have gone to great distances to give clients that kind of up-close access, traveling the globe to art fairs and remote destinations to bring the best of the world s tribal art to collectors. Their specialty also involves regularly going through hoops. One of the primary obstacles demonstrates how recent issues of our own security have resulted in newer challenges off dealing in tribal art. Dawson says, "The Patriot Act really has become sort of a nightmare in the art business, where everything is suspect. Dealing with the Federal Government, the Department of Fish and Wildlife and U.S. Customs – to get a clarification of what you can and cannot do, it's become almost impossible."Dawson and Bowling say they travel a lot less than they used to, partly because of the recession, and partly because they haven't needed to replace inventory as often. Bowling says they do more domestic travel and less foreign, and that the overseas trips they do take now are&nbsp;more for pleasure. Still, they manage to travel about a quarter of the year, but art fairs largely dictate their schedule and destinations. Recent ventures to&nbsp;South America, Asia, and throughout Africa&nbsp;would make any globetrotter envious. Trips usually involve seeing contacts, visiting museums, and staying up to date with other collections. &nbsp;Travel is often not when acquisitions are actually made, since as Dawson points out, objects are almost never come from the country of origin. He explains, "We buy things that have impeccable provenance and authenticity, and to do that we must spend a lot of time going through a great deal of steps. We have a good museum business, and it's more and more difficult to sell to museums now because of concerns about provenance and authenticity. For instance, we're more likely to look to buy things from this country or Europe than we are from Mexico or Peru or Indonesia."Authenticity is a serious matter, particularly since Dawson has a strong museum business.&nbsp;"Not long ago,"&nbsp;Dawson says, "we had a large prehistoric African terra cotta figure and the head had been broken off. In that world of African archeological ceramics there's a lot of forgery - mixing of pieces and reconstructing things. The client wanted to be sure we had the right head for the body. We sent it to a firm&nbsp;in suburban Chicago for a host of tests, like thermoluminescence, which determines when a ceramic was submitted to a certain temperature. Both the head and the body came out equally correct in that test. Then, they ground up samples from both parts and those came out perfectly. They X-rayed. Then, they drilled into a point where the ceramic hadn't gotten hot enough to carbonize organic material, and they found animal hair that had been used as a bonding agent. These pieces are 2,500 years old. They pulled a hair out of the head, and a hair out of the body and did DNA tests. The hairs came from the same female goat. Ultimately they said it was&nbsp;highly likely – the most definitive statement they'll make – that the two parts were made at the same time, from the same lump of clay, by the same person. We will go that far to determine authenticity."Regarding their base in Chicago, Dawson says it's a double-edged sword: "We do have some Second City syndrome here, where people will prefer to buy things in New York or Paris, particularly in the art world, since that has a sort of cachè.&nbsp;That said we have been here for 30 years. Chicago is a great city that draws a lot of people in for numerous events."&nbsp;He admits to a familiar dealer quandary, "We couldn't survive in Chicago just on Chicago. It's because we've developed a national reputation that we can do what we do here. But I think that's true of everyone. That's what keeps everyone open in this city." Dawson says that above all they've enjoyed a great run in Chicago. Most of the obstacles they've faced have in fact been in place from the beginning, and here they still are after three decades. He concludes, "For our space, this is a protected manufacturing district, so we are able to have this sculpture gallery and to make the gallery a destination. Obviously we could not have all of this in too many other cities."<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/douglas-dawson-gallery">Douglas Dawson Gallery</a>

An interview with Douglas Dawson and Wallace Bowling for the gallery's 30th anniversary

Douglas Dawson Gallery: 30 Years of Tribal Art

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418870/gnsbx6reet8thfy9rgo3.png"><figcaption>Antiques mix with art by Jacob Hashimoto, Theaster Gates, Judy Ledgerwood and others.</figcaption></figure>By GINNY VAN ALYEAI drove to visit Deone Jackman at her home in Hyde Park on a perfect fall Chicago morning. Lake Shore Drive was wide open, and Lake Michigan was colored an ideal shade of cerulean blue, enhanced by the drapery of orange leaves still clinging to the trees along the bike path. Hyde Park often feels like an escape from downtown to me, but until I stepped into the entryway of Deone's 9th floor lake front apartment, I had no idea just what awaited me.&nbsp;*Deone says she has always collected things from her travels. Judging by the many exotic artifacts and statues from far away lands placed throughout her apartment, she must have logged many miles to find so many striking objects.&nbsp;"As a kid I was always cutting things out of magazines and putting them up on walls, long before I had actual art to display," she says.&nbsp;Deone's entree into serious art collecting did not begin in a small way when she acquired work by two of Chicago's most well-known artists: Roger Brown and Jim Nutt. She remembers the acquisitions as "big, compelling, scary purchases."Though I had come to her apartment to talk to her about her art collection, Deone told me upfront that she still thinks the idea of being 'an art collector' is rather grandiose – a familiar, but somewhat vexing topic for those considered by others to be collectors. Regardless of how Deone chooses to view her history of buying and living with art, there is no disputing that her Hyde Park home invites discovery. Deone has covered the walls with remarkable and varied works of art I immediately recognize – pieces by Ed Paschke, Kerry James Marshall, Cheonae Kim, Judy Ledgerwood, Curtis Mann, Jin Soo Kim and Gladys Nilsson – and she has filled her life with enduring relationships with many Chicago artists.&nbsp;Behind many of these works on display are relationships. One which Deone is particularly proud of is the one she's developed with the Hyde Park Art Center (HPAC). A passionate supporter of the Center, it's clear that HPAC has given her a great deal in return. At least a few of the artists whose works may be found throughout Deone's sprawling home, such as Cat Chow, were discovered through HPAC's Not Just Another Pretty Face (NJAPF) program – a biennial benefit that pairs patrons with artists. Patrons select an artist they'd like to work with – in a given price range – they meet the artist, establish a budget and then discuss the commission to be created. After a period of more than a year, a catalogue featuring contrasting perspectives on the experience is published, and the final works are unveiled at a special reception at HPAC in front of patrons and the artists. NJAPF artists split their commission with HPAC, and the program encourages a new group of people to support contemporary artists, as well as understand the joys and possibilities of commissioning artwork. As Deone attests because NJAPF builds very personal bonds between patrons and artists, it can lead to long term support for the creation of art in Chicago.&nbsp;*<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418871/xftvpzoqypbguyfdpq1x.png"><figcaption>Jackman's inviting, round living room faces east, towards Lake Michigan, and overlooks Promontory Point Field House in Burnham Park.&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Deone has had the pleasure of enjoying several artistic collaborations. After encountering a series of kite constructions by Jacob Hashimoto at a private event at the MCA Warehouse, she decided she had her own project for the artist. Deone wanted Hashimoto to expand on what he'd done at the MCA and create hundreds of his small kites to install in the ceiling of her second home in Michigan. It turned out to be a 2 1/2 year project, and she ended up with about 2,000 kites to cover not just part but the entire ceiling – a breathtaking result of what seemed at the time like a chance encounter.&nbsp;Deone admits she's a bit impulsive when making some purchases, but she smiles when she confesses she sometimes has to rearrange rooms. "That's the joy of it," she says. Changing things up often means they don't become part of the wallpaper, but Deone also has always felt compelled to arrange objects – so much so that her late husband was always asking her to just sit down.&nbsp;As a visitor, certain groupings become apparent, like the area in Deone's office, that she refers to as her "Wall of Women," including works by artists such as Mickalene Thomas and Julia Fish. But for the most part the way the collection has come together is idiosyncratic. The variety in Deone's collection is apparent in the inclusion of quite a number of antiques, which complement, even soften, the contemporary art. A wood, slant front desk looks at home in the dining room by a large-scale Roger Brown, while an elegant side table beneath two works on paper by Judy Ledgerwood adds an appropriate delicacy.*More meaningful than the art works themselves are the relationships Deone has with the artists. "Any artist I collect, if it make sense to become friends, I love to know them. It's incredibly important in collecting – more so than the objects."&nbsp;She says she considers Chicago an accessible place to get to know artists and therefore to collect art. Deone things it's partly the nature of the city, but she also believes that many artists who choose to live and work in Chicago are inclined to build honest relationships with collectors.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418871/f2y5hr2lxdaqatgduzaa.png"><figcaption>Deone's portrait by artist Ben Gest, commissioned via Not Just Another Pretty Face</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;One of Deone's closest artist relationships is with Theaster Gates, a fellow HPAC supporter. Deone became interested in what Gates was doing with his Dorchester Project, and she was moved by his focus on bringing about positive, creative changes throughout the arts to the Woodlawn neighborhood – an area of town Deone says most Hyde Parkers had long been told to stay clear of because of the risk of danger and violence. She sees Gates's artistic, as well as geographic, choice as a compelling investment in personal life as well as urban space, and she says she appreciates that she has been able to watch his project take shape and expand. Endeavors like The Dorchester Project, which began as a way to transform a poor area of Chicago through reinventing abandoned buildings and creating inviting, cultural spaces while challenging notions of economics, race, and the status-quo, have helped Deone understand how complex the art world can be for an artist who must balance the demands to be successful while also doing what they desire. "You learn about the pressures artists face and the choices they must make. I feel really privileged because it feels like a personal experience for me. Theaster is open about what it's like, and I admire his willingness to share with the community and with me. He doesn't make it a mysterious process."&nbsp;Our tour of the apartment finished in the sitting room, where we could admire the view of Lake Michigan and Promontory Point, almost as much as Deone's two lazy cats were enjoying the midday fall sunlight. Deone returned to her favorite topic, the Hyde Park Art Center, when we began to discuss why openness in art is so critical to the collecting process and to exposing the joy of exploring contemporary art.&nbsp;There are some leaders in the art community who are constantly striving to make art accessible and to make it a living subject. Deone says, "HPAC is such a facilitator of this. They help make art understandable, comfortable." It is undoubtedly her greatest art relationship.&nbsp;There will always be preconceptions to refute about contemporary art, barriers to break through and effort to put in in order to learn and better understand, but just as any relationship – friendly or romantic – progresses through many stages of development, a love of art can begin with butterflies of excitement and end as a deep and enduring companionship.&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Collector Conversations: Deone Jackman

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418577/hnmzoc6jsgvyqprlnabe.jpg"><figcaption>Contemporary design and furniture complements the art - pictured here a range of works, including a sculptural piece by Nick Cave</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;By GINNY VAN ALYEAThe label 'collector' can convey the notion that buying and acquiring art is an insular pursuit, reserved for insiders wih connections and expensive taste. Collectors Marilyn and Larry Fields prove that a passion for collecting and living with art can begin at any age, and their shared enthusiasm is a lesson to anyone interested in learning about contemporary art and the artists who create it. Their story of how they filled their lakefront high-rise home with works by some of the greatest contemporary artists of our time in a few breath-taking years is a unique inspiration. The art the Fieldses have collected complements striking design pieces from the 1940s and '50s and fills&nbsp;their home&nbsp;with style and their life with&nbsp;meaning. Their private home gallery, located in an adjacent condo,&nbsp;is devoted to exhibiting works from their collection on a rotating basis. On a rainy afternoon, I enjoyed keeping up with the Fields's frenetic conversation and sharing their passion for the art and artists who have touched their lives. –GV&nbsp;To walk into the home of Marilyn and Larry Fields is to enter a tranquil,&nbsp;expansive art space. Stepping off of the elevator onto their private floor, I encounter&nbsp;a towering collage of hundreds of photographs that&nbsp;Jason Lazarus scoured from the photo-sharing site Flickr;&nbsp;each image&nbsp;depicts someone's&nbsp;personal experience&nbsp;during the Iraq war. This was just the first of many powerful pieces I would see. Seated with&nbsp;Marilyn in the couple's round living room, overlooking Lake Michigan, she explains,&nbsp;"We certainly live with art&nbsp;24/7. It's really become our passion."Married for 34 years, the Fields say they've always bought art. If something was visually appealing, they'd buy it. Larry says that at one point they were interested in posters and art glass, picking out a piece here or there, but he admits, "That was mostly haphazard—nothing really made a collection." They&nbsp;aimed&nbsp;for a new level in 2000&nbsp;after putting a down payment on a condo in a Streeterville&nbsp;building designed by French architect Lucien Lagrange. They didn't move in for five years, but in that period several decisions affected their collecting savvy: they became very involved with the Museum of Contemporary Art— Marilyn joined the Women's Board in 1998, while Larry became an MCA trustee around 2004 – and they began attending an annual art extravaganza, Art Basel Miami, in 2002.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418578/bhbvu7ogjhkntgj7nmaz.jpg"><figcaption>The Fields's apartment overlooks Lake Michigan</figcaption></figure><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2288/original/fields1.jpg" alt=""></figure>The Fields' home is a balance of art, architecture and contemporary design. Though Marilyn and Larry collect as a team, their roles at home&nbsp;are different. Marilyn has taken great care to develop the character of the home through furniture and design, collecting 1950s modern furniture as well as pieces by 1940s French designers Jean-Michel Frank and Andre Arbus. When they finally moved into their apartment in 2005, Marilyn describes opening up the art and furniture as, "One of the most exciting moments—we'd bought all of these beautiful pieces and they'd been in storage for years." For Larry, "We looked at which pieces had dialogue with each other. It's fun buying, but it's even more fun installing."&nbsp;Each piece in their collection exists in relation to the others around it. According to Marilyn, "We love how each piece&nbsp;speaks to the other. We try to make it all work. But most important, it has to appeal to us."Larry wants to know, "What's the contextual idea? How is it somehow related to society today? Is it process oriented? When you meet an artist, they can open up your eyes to a way you haven't seen the world." Marilyn says: "We've grown tremendously and become more sophisticated collectors because of the MCA. Meeting the curators and artists, you really take so much more from the art that you're buying. It's given us a different type of focus. We've also met so many amazing people and made many friends in the art world, including other collectors."&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418579/iqej5hrgss0wip2locqp.jpg"><figcaption>A pair of works by Kara Walker and a painting by Ed Ruscha displayed in the Fields's sitting area</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;The Fields have collected art from many cities in many countries, but they feel a great deal of pride for the City of Chicago, as well as an obligation to support it art community. Larry and Marilyn agree that the time seems to be right in Chicago for a boost for some artists and galleries. Larry point to success stories of young artists like Theaster Gates, Rashid Johnson, Angel Otero, and William J. O'Brien, each of whom have work in the Fields' collection. To Larry&nbsp;because of the international attention these artists have recieved, he suspects that people who may have been previously reluctant to purchase work from a Chicago gallery (instead of say, in New York) may now have more confidence buying art here. Larry says he and Marilyn try to support younger artists when they're getting started; for instance they have acquired a piece from each of Gates' series. Larry states, "It takes a village to support artists here: galleries, art schools, non-profits, museums—they all work together to create a nurturing experience."&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418580/xxewgf2voim2nogyx3l6.jpg"><figcaption>Mark Bradford's sculpture featuring a switchblade embedded in a rock recalls Sir Lancelot's sword in the stone&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;The couple credits the opening of Millennium Park in 2004, followed by&nbsp;the&nbsp;Art Institute of Chicago's&nbsp;Modern Wing in 2009, with finally drawing a more international crowd to the city. Larry explains, " I think Anish Kapoor's 'Bean' [Cloud Gate] in Millennium Park has become sort of symbolic of a new city-wide pride. It has drawn people to the city just for this kind of art experience." Marilyn adds, "That was not something that used to happen. The amount of funding the community raised was pretty incredible. The gardens, Jaume Plensa's&nbsp;Crown Fountain—it's all perfection. " Larry hopes that what has been successful about Millenium Park could someday be done to update other sites in the city as art showcases, such as the iconic Navy Pier.&nbsp;Navy Pier will in fact be transformed for a weekend this September when EXPO Chicago debuts, returning an international contemporary art fair to a much-loved venue. Marilyn recalls that during Chicago's art fair heydey in the early 1980s, Vernissage was the party for the premier contemporary art fair in the world. As part of the MCA's Women's Board, which is once again hosting Vernissage on September 19, she remembers, "There was Art Basel in Switzerland, but not much else. From 1982 here until it ended in 2004 it was really phenomenal. Galleries who came from around the world were very, very disappointed when it ended. The thought of bringing it back to Navy Pier, where everyone's heart was, is exciting, and many of those original galleries are coming back." To run a successful fair here again, this is a critical place for a certain scene, and Marilyn agrees that Vernissage is an important element that will get people excited about the return of the fair.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418581/iahrznme3mornpkvtifd.jpg"><figcaption>In the gallery space a John Baldessari painting dominates. A hidden room features a closet and a kitchenette covered 360° in acrylic resin. Also pictured is Erin Swinson's sinister sculpture of a small deer struggling with a shadowy cape.&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Having discussed collecting, art in Chicago, and the upcoming EXPO, Larry relished the opportunity to introduce me to his favorite works, so I made a concerted effort to keep pace as he rattled off names of artists and the story behind each piece. Both Marilyn and Larry have personally placed each work of art, but they've also largely kept the experience of others in mind when deciding where certain works should be. Certain spaces are meant for quiet pieces, such as one of Sol Le Witt's minimalist cubic constructions placed in a window overlooking the back of the MCA. Nearby is a subtle Fred Sandback installation, as well as a work by Italian painter Lucio Fontana. On a bench in the entryway is a commissioned book by Deb Sokolow, featuring an amusing conspiracy story about Larry –&nbsp;who works as a cattle futures trader –&nbsp;and some cows mysteriously being found in a warehouse on the west side of Chicago. Marilyn calls it a clever homage to Larry.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418581/alt468jlnitkcwytkecx.jpg"><figcaption>Pictured in center: Mark Tansey's Utopic</figcaption></figure>In the tranquil entryway, muted by opaque green glass panels, a handful of large-scale paintings are meant to make a dramatic first impression. Mark Tansey is a favorite of the couple. His&nbsp;Utopic, in his signature inky blue, looms on the wall opposite the front foor, featuring a dreamy scene from Anna Freud's study. Larry notes that the hermaphrodite statue picture on the chaise actually exists in the Louvre. Freud, Marx and Nietzsche are looking down from inside their portrait frames, psychoanalyzing her sexual identity.&nbsp;In the Fields' long, open dining room, four 1970s-looking photographs by Richard Prince are lined up opposite a wall of windows overlooking the Lake. Larry excitedly explains&nbsp;the placement, "When we have dinner parties, the guests at the table can pick their favoite lady. The ladies are all looking to the left, to the east, in the room. What are they looking for? Love. We made sure to place Robert Indiana's&nbsp;LOVE sculpture at the east end of the buffet to create a story line for everyone."&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418582/sw1vetni2puqpv9eiiex.jpg"><figcaption>A view of the Fields's second gallery space adjacent to their main living space.In the foreground a soundsuit by Nick Cave.&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Larry tells me that they move works around in the apartment's private gallery about 2-3 times a year, whereas most art in the main apartment stays put. An initial impression of the gallery is of whimsy and interaction, exemplified by Anish Kapoor's target-like, shiny whirlpool, which draws your attention as you enter the room. Set into the wall itself, the viewer has the sense of&nbsp;falling down a rabbit hole to infinity—it's like having a Millenium Park&nbsp;"Bean" at home, without the crowds.&nbsp;&nbsp;Groupings, common in the gallery space, are evidence of Larry's fondness for curating. Marilyn explains, "He really loves delving into each work of art and sharing all the stories." Larry puts works together according to a&nbsp;theme, such as surface, era, concept, or global geography. He enjoys seeing how things go together and how they speak to each other. One group focuses on an African American aesthetic, showcasing Mark Bradford's bags of soccer balls, as well as a flag by David Hammons, and pieces by Rashid Johnson, Hank Willis Thomas, Lyle Ashton Harries, and Kara Walker. Larry is undeniably proud of all of the works in the collection—it's as if the artists are his children and he's the proud parent. Art conjures up different things to different people, and as tour guide Larry offers his own insights while also allowing&nbsp;others to say how a work's message might appear to them. He reflects, "I think art can leave a personal space to think about what it means to you."&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418583/yksyeb3d6azkhygicefo.jpg"><figcaption>A work by Anish Kapoor</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;The Fields are frequently generous with their time as well as their knowledge, leading tours of their home for groups interested in contemporary art. Marilyn admits that though she's a very private person, "I want someone to come here and really learn –&nbsp;to think this is it." Larry adds, "As an art collector, I think you have a responsibility to know the art and to also open up your home and be able to share it and help others see. You must know about the artists and understand their work and why it's here."Of course, the ultimate goal of collecting is appreciation and enjoyment. Together Marlyn and Larry agree, "It's about not taking yourself too seriously. That's what it's all about—fun."#<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418584/ox8j86zkjci0kxmbfvfy.jpg"><figcaption>Larry paired Maurizio Cattelan's marble Everyone is Broke with Tony Tasset's colored rocks.&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;</body></html>

CGN interviews local art collectors Marilyn and Larry Fields. 

Collector Profile: Marilyn + Larry Fields

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418577/s1qjaiq9vl88di0psvhk.jpg"><figcaption>Charles Van Doren Shaw's Ragdale House in Lake Forest</figcaption></figure>By Mary DeyoeSometimes what we all need is a change of scenery or pace. It is incredible how much even the slightest adjustment to our everyday schedule offers new perspectives and a refreshed state of mind. Artists are of course no exception to this, and the artist residency exists almost solely to offer space, time and resourches for artists to focus and work. This past summer; when thinking ahead to Chicago Artists Month in October; I looked into 10 different Chicago-area residencies and discovered that, despite their use of the same label, each program is defining on its own terms what it mean to be a residency. Following are individual profiles of the various program personalities.&nbsp;Among the traditional retreat-style residencies you wild find Ox-Bow, Ragdale and ACRE, each set in an idyllic "country" environment. The impulse to escape the hustle and bustle to find a calm and quite place is not a new practice for artists or writers—certainly that desire motivated what Monet did at Giverny and what Jackson Pollack and lee Krasner found appealing in East Hampton.&nbsp;About 30 miles north of Chicago in Lae Forest, you can easily miss the entrance to&nbsp;Ragdale as you drive down Green Bay Road. Once in the driveway every noise from the busy road dissipates. The barn and main house—the Ragdale House—were designed by Charles Van Doren Shaw in 1897 as a retreat for his family. It was formally established as a residency in 1976, and since then more buildings have been added, including a sculpture studio in 2006—an indication of Ragdale's efforts to welcome more visual artists (and performing artists), as the program's greatest number of residents are writers. Eacg group is thoughtfully planned so as to create as much harmony as possible during the artists' two week stay. "The community is important," said Regin Igloria, Director of the Artists-in-Residence Program. "We want to make sure there is a mix of people from various cities and stages in their careers." Ragdale residents have complete freedom to make their own schedules; they are asked only to meet nightly for a family-style dinner. Ragdale's peacefulness is difficult to describe, but any visitor would wish to stay awhile and admire the sweeping landscape and bright airy studios, while resident casually pass through the open kitchen.&nbsp;Ox-Bow, located in Saugatuck, MI, i one of the oldest and most well-known residencies in the region, established as both a residency and school in 1910. Residents, primarily visual artists, come from around the world for 2-5 weeks. In addition to receiving studio space and time they are invited to participate in recreational activities and attend nightly lectures (during fall sessions only.) "The community is one of the primary benefits," says executive director Elizabeth Chodos. "Artists [and staff—comprised primarily of artists] bond with each other in a way that is difficult to do in other settings...they can let their guard down."Similarly,&nbsp;ACRE (Artists' Cooperative Residency and Exhibitions), as well as providing time and space, offers a host of activities and programs. These range from the calm and sophisticated—wine and cheese pairing lessons, bike rides—to the racously playful—a cross-river tug-o-war—to the academic. 6-10 international visiting artists meet with residents for a single session (including musicians—ACRE has a fully equipped recording studio) to share skills, lead workshops and give lectures. Co-directors Emily Green and Nick Wylie feel it is important to include an exhibition piece, and each resident has the opportunity to exhibit work at one of ten current partner galleries in Chicago. "This is &nbsp;great way to extend the community," Wylie says. This tendency to add practical professional development elements to a residency is, I discovered, very common among city-based residencies.In the same professional growth vein, the&nbsp;BOLT residency run by the&nbsp;Chicago Artists' Coalition provides 10-11 Chicago artists 24-hour access to studio space for a year, but they do not offer living space. During the residency artists must learn to balance their daily lives with their studio time. What BOLT lacks in living space, it more than makes up for in professional resources. "The residency acts as a holistic incubator," explains Cortney Lederer, Director of Exhbitions + Community Outreach. In addition to studio space, residents are given &nbsp;solo exhibition, they meet monthly as a group with Lederer, and they have opportunities to meet with and exchange ideas with artists, curators, program directors and other people from the Chicago community, such as Art Institute curator Lisa Dorin and former MCA curator Tricia Van Eck.&nbsp;threewalls gallery each have residency programs that focus on Chicago and the region. HPAC's residency launches this October and is by invitation only. The goa is to look to the Chicago arts community for inspiration. "The benefit [for the artsist, many of whom are from outside of the US] is not escape," explained Megha Ralapati, Residency Coordinator, "but being immersed in the Chicago environment." Kate Lorenz, Associate Director of HPAC says "We encourage artists to take risks, and we aim to facilitate connections between artists, other people and resources in the community."threewalls' artist-in-research-residency also acts as a facilitator between artists and the community. Their residency, though, is open to artists, writers, musicians, curators, critics, arts administrators, etc. Residents are provided with studio space (and living space), but that space may be used for public programs, conferences, discussion series, meetings, work-space and more. "We are looking for people who are interested in creating projects in the Midwest," said program director Abigail Satinsky. This doesn't mean the workis site specific, but their work/research must be tied somehow to the region. threewalls was originally estalblished as a residency program by graduates of the School of the Art Institute in an effort to keep artists living and working in Chicago.&nbsp;Anchor Graphics is tucked into a small but ethereal space in a Columbia College building. Bright light flows in through the floor-to-ceiling windows and the walls are covered with work that ranges from prints with simple bold text, to pieces with fine, intricate details. The three-week residency program (which includes an apartment) is designed to give an experienced printmaker unlimied access to the studio. "Its not about the results," says David jones, executive director, "rather we encourage residents to use this time to take risks."&nbsp;Spudnik Press, like Anchor Graphics, has a residency specifically for printmakers. Theirs, however, is geared towards the completion of a specific project and culminates with an exhibition for the resident. Profits from artwork sold during the show go towards funding the next resident. Unlike writers or painters who are arguably more mobile, printmakers need access to large expensive printing presses. Residencies like Spudnik's and Anchor Graphics are invaluable for both the access to professional tools and unfettered support.&nbsp;Primarily a craft-based organization,&nbsp;Lillstreet Art Center&nbsp;also provides tools an artist might not otherwise be able to access, such as ilns and presses. During one-year residencies artists are integrated into the organization by teaching classes and giving two public presentations. When considering that our area offers a number of residency programs, Emily Shroeder Willis, Director of Artist Programs says, "I think it's important to keep an open relationship with other residencies. We are not in competition; we learn from one another."This is exactly the spirit that led leaders from several of the residencies to form&nbsp;CAARP (Chicago Area Arts Residency Programs),&nbsp;a grup which meets to exchange ideas and assist one another in continuing to attract and support outstanding artistic talent and practice. Often, artists don't just participate in a residency once; they will likely find reasons over time to apply to several and to take advantage of multiple programs and experiences.&nbsp;The exception among these residencies with physical centers is&nbsp;TRANSIT, which does not exist in any one location. TRANSIT's motto, "helping artists go places", reveals their mission: to facilitate opportunities for artists to work both in and out of Chicago. Artists apply with their projects in mind, and TRANSIT accomodates each artist's needs. Explains founder and director Meredith Winer, "We tailor everything."&nbsp;Perhaps TRANSIT's motto is applicable to all of the residencies. Whether by phyically, professionally or pscyhically, all of them afford artists the opportunity to go places—to make new connections, to take risks. Both by attracting new artists to the city and supporting local talent residences provide a fertile ground for new conversation, questions and discoveries about art.&nbsp;</body></html>

CGN profiles different artist residencies in the Chicago area. 

Chicago's Unique Artist Residencies

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418577/jrn2it4pa7jhnqh7zglc.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;Born in Prague, artist Jan Tichy lives and works in Chicago and teaches at the School of the Art Institute (SAIC). This fall, several impressive projects coincide at area art institutions throughout Chicago at the Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP), the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Expo Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago, and Richard Gray Gallery. CGN's Laura Miller met with Tichy to hear about all that's happening for the artist-educator this season.&nbsp;LM: Tell me about working with the Museum of Contemporary Photography for the past year on a project involving their collection.&nbsp;JT: Last year MoCP curator Karen Irvine asked me to consider new ways of interpreting their collection of more than 12,000 images and to create an exhibition that would explore it from a different perspective. MoCP was one of the first museums to upload digital images of their collection to their website as a way to connect with the public. I realized soon that the access and search tools are quite inappropriate for an interaction with this amazing digital archive. So, I considered ways to improve the access to the online collection and decided to create a think tank of Chicago MFA students (Columbia College, SAIC, UofC, UIC) that would bring updated perspectives on how to identify and develop strategies for better online interaction. We introduced applications, web design strategies and interactive elements that will hopefully give better access to a greater community.&nbsp;While coming to work at MoCP I realized that the museum itself is not really accessible/ visible from the street, despite its prominent Michigan Avenue location; many Chicagoans don't even know about it. So, I proposed to establish a digital gallery on the outside of the museum. Two large monitors will be installed on MoCP's exterior walls at the corner of Michigan and Harrison. The digital galleries will display exhibitions from the collection, curated specifically for that purpose by a wide range of curators from around the world. My exhibition there this fall will explore the collection using my own time-based tool of video and projection and will hopefully expose some hidden jewels.&nbsp;What else can we expect from you this fall?&nbsp;At Expo Chicago I'm really excited for the U.S. premier of&nbsp;Things to Come&nbsp;(1936-2012), a three-channel video installation made from 80 seconds of never before exhibited film footage that Laszlo Moholy-Nagy created in 1936 in London. H.G. Wells commissioned Moholy-Nagy when working on an exhibition design for his show at Loyola University Museum of Art three years ago. It took me sometime to realize the potential hidden in these film snippets; using Moholy-Nagys analog techniques in digital media with the initial H.G. Wells criteria, I hope to bring new life to it.&nbsp;I have older works in group-exhibitions this fall at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Richard Gray Gallery. For the Art Institute of Chicago's Ando Gallery, I'm working on a site specific installation to coincide with an exhibition of contemporary Japanese garments from SAIC's Fashion Resource Center. Outside of Chicago I'll be participating in this fall's Architecture Biennale in Venice in the Israeli Pavilion and working with No Longer Empty in NYC.&nbsp;You've been involved in several large-scale collaborative projects with local college students, community members, and art institutions—2011's powerful&nbsp;Project Cabrini Green, 2009's Lighting the Crown Hall at the IIT, now the MoCP project, among others. How do these collaboration evolve?&nbsp;As an artist and educator I believe in a creative collaboration between faculty and students as one of the models of successful art education, a theory that Moholy-Nagy was practicing in Chicago 60 years ago. I also share the belief, formulate and practiced by curator and educator Mary Janes Jacobs, that in the contemporary art world, art school offer a great platform to develop professional art productions.&nbsp;Project Cabrini Green is a good example of how this model benefits students, the institution and the community as well as an artist and a commercial gallery. The project required huge amounts of time and involvement. Together with Efrat Appel we collaborated with 25 dedicated students and faculty from SAIC to develop and create all the different layers of the project and worked with over 100 teenagers from four after school programs in Cabrini Green to create the content. It wouldn't be possible without the active support of Richard Gray Gallery and the administration of SAIC. Including the MCA and CHA there were over 200 people involved in the project.&nbsp;How did you make the transition to Chicago?&nbsp;It was actually very easy, maybe because I moved from Prague to Jerusalem when I was 19. During my MFA studies at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Tel Aviv, I participated in a collaborative project in Helsinki initiated by SAIC. Eventually I was accepted to their Sculpture program. I finished my MFA at SAIC in 2009 and stayed to teach at the Department of Art and Technology Studies. I fell for Chicago from the beginning, and the city was kind to me. I had the extraordinary opportunity to create projects for a few signature buildings like Crown Hall, the Hancock, Spertus, Montgomery Ward, and Cabrini Green. There are more under way (Chicago Cultural Center in 2014.)After living, working, and exhibiting around the world, how do you find Chicago for art?&nbsp;The way Chicago is built—physically, socially, and culturally—there's space and opportunities for many cultural activities, and plenty of people want to do things. I serve on advisory boards of ACRE and threewalls, non-profits that provide the local art community with accessible spaces and rich programming. These organizations, like many other independent art spaces, apartment and pop-up galleries, are the vital source of culture for the community and an important spawn of the next generation of cultural producers.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Artist Insights: Jan Tichy

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418577/uklpwy8zxyvxyrcsondw.jpg"></figure>By MARY DEYOEI explored a number of alternative art spaces across the city recently for&nbsp;Chicago Gallery News.&nbsp;Artists, curators, writers, and others passionate and focued within the community introduced me to their homes, storefronts, and co-ops, demonstrating what a vibrant and vital component these spaces are to Chicago's art scene. Wanting to learn more, I began a new series in&nbsp;CGN dedicating one article each issue to an alternative space in Chicago. I don't purport to know about every site yet, but I like to think I could some day.&nbsp;For this issue, I met up with former MCA Curator Tricia Van Eck to learn how her current project, 6018 North was developing. The space is a 100-year old mansion that will serve as "green, non-profit space for experimental culture, instalation, peformance, and sounds."-MDThe yellow house at 6018 North Kemore in Edgewater sits wedged between two large brick apartment buildings. It has a deep, covered front porch, and large picture windows on the first and second floors. There is no other structure like it on the block, which is lined with four-plus-ones. Currently the house, which had to be gutted after pipes burst over a year ago, is undergoing a deep, green retrofit. Rather than starting from scratch, two teams of student from IIT are redesigning the current structure to be more energy efficient, so it can accomodate the variety of artistic practices, performances, and gatherings that will take place in this multi-functional and collaborative space.&nbsp;Knowing that Van Eck had already held some events in the space, I was shocked when we walked through the front door. There were no interior walls, just wooden studs and exposed beams; the floor was stripped and uneven. Looking more closely, I saw a long wooden table. It was propped on sawhorses and painted with colorful stripes. The benches along the table were white radiator covers that had star-patterned grills. A few glass bottles and vases with flowers were sitting on a side table, and a large white board covered from edge-to-edge with charts, lists and winding arrows, hung on the wall at the head of the table. These were the remnants of a recent Fluxus film screening and dinner party. Van Eck can seat up to 40 guests at the table, and she has no interest in spreading the group among smaller, seperate tables to make room for more. "It's about everyone being at one table, being a part of one unit, one conversation," she said.&nbsp;Each of the dinners hosted at 6018 North has had a theme. The guests are asked to consider a certain issue regarding art in Chicago and how to address it. Recently, the conversation focused on responsibility of art writers. The current and familiar debate is whether the city serves as an incubator for talent. Many artists come here to study, but then they leave because the market is stronger in places like New York, Berlin and L.A. The question around the table that evening was whether bringing deliberate attention to Chicago is the responsibility of the art critic. The guests were split in their opinions; the artists seemed to think this was the responsibility of the writers, while the writers saw it the other way around, and believe they should be free to focus on art criticism. Van Eck intends to continue to engage the community in these types of conversations as she considers how 6018 can best address these issues and be an innovative resource for Chicago art.&nbsp;The various features of 6018 North will include a Fluxus library and a performance space in the basement; a screening room on the third floor, which will also support sound installations; and a garden and living mural (or green wall) in the backyard. The house will also be home for Tricia and her husband, who plan to live on the second floor, and to an artist-in-residence. The annual residency program will begin as early as this May. Each residency will last 5-6 weeks, and in each cycle Van Eck plans to host at least one writer, chef, visual artist, gardener or landscape architect, and curator.&nbsp;Although construction on the house may not be fully complete for more than a year, the next project and programs at 6018 are well underway. Van Eck is a finalist for a grant from Art Place, and if she receives the grant, funds will go towards the residency program. The diversity of performances, exhibitions, residents and guests was desiged purposefully to create a "clinate for experimentation" both within the space and throughout the wider Chicago community.&nbsp;If the current momentum behind 6018 North remains, the space will surely be a magnet for talented artists, leaders and entrepreneur from both Chicago and other major cities. Learn more about the project at <a href="http://6018North.net">6018North.net&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;</body></html>

CGN profiles 1068 North, an alternative space and art residency. 