By Jacqueline LewisAfter almost two years of secretive construction, the world’s biggest Starbucks opened its doors on Michigan Avenue to winding lines of eager guests on Friday.<figure class="image"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/8E-jZ-rbIEflzNLPuGB2RjIJnrzavuaoFB46M4yFPb4udBznpUnZnDg47_PLsmb-w59a_dv6vqNBlGmXVbt2JJS6Ga9b_XwuBDpFyAcoP1IY8-d7z9LpsMe7AfXrSyE3fNR1h2gy"></figure>At 9am on November 15th, Starbucks enthusiasts pushed their way into the long awaited Starbucks Reserve on the corner of Michigan and Erie. Once the flagship store for Crate &amp; Barrel, the building has been seemingly empty for two years. Now, this newly unveiled mega store is enticing to art, architecture and coffee enthusiasts alike!<figure class="image"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/WCKeGpp51MhPOxh-wlj_H3gy5Q6xjboWiUvvwJ4RvQerv9grT4XIY7QeN2N_aLfnuF-9D9nixPeIiG_3H5wpbIytN-m6s6JMKa_yW96EWxbM-LRgVrDaK9CqC3wan99zPXS7stCe"></figure>The corner space boasts of 4 stories and a rooftop for a 35,000 square foot, coffee experience. Each floor has something different to offer, from liquid nitrogen gelato and Princi pastries, to barrel aged cold brew and a curated cocktail bar. If you are looking for a basic coffee, check your local Starbucks instead because this place is more of an experience than a coffee shop.<figure class="image"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/EoIOnp1CtEAfhg8lg3mHr_0v1B2y4sGJ77f0LWNTfBK00RXop0Iy6z2-9ZdnZgYJBUgaCHI_1Vo1vrSMVKE0ur8q60bR_NMPt64LE9CjEn4mHezcxzvPRnB9OWnU8abFdj8VT7vX"></figure>The outside of the building resembles a french press, which is one of the many available brewing methods available inside. The interior celebrates the process of creation through its architectural choices. Instead of hiding the brewing and bean processes, the machinery is the store’s main focal point. Each floor twists around large golden shoots (Starbucks’ tallest steel casks) that blend sculpture with function. The casks moves and rests recently roasted beans while visitors watch as they accumulate throughout the day.<figure class="image"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/ERT2OGUnxkJawWNk1SDKpsvzEqItqkA_vbNa6BkNBe-I5TCk2AL-yH5nuUStqCPcsB3j4wRQ6N0KpKFISJIye-n2BvFVTJlgerTCsi9DnpX1SqB31Aat-sh4acBtY5Fu2N6eS8sR"></figure>“The design of the Chicago Roastery was inspired by the iconic Chicago landmark, and the city itself,” said Jill Enomoto, vice president of Roastery Design &amp; Concept for Starbucks. The floor to ceiling windows allow for this natural light to enter and bring the bustling city into the space. At the same time, the light, the ceiling design, and the curved elevators (the first in the Midwest) direct visitors upwards through the space.<figure class="image"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/dSl5HuajO7J5lgfWiO1ekCn0O6Ndp3hLD4Z7Bi_dBLPEGZpa1dfaROzM4jFBbaSWY9XBrtDhnU_rgcudFIz9HTxq2nbgMPLEhjEr5sbocKzDgwJXHCVUKtwAcA-WA6UwLI5dsn8G"></figure>On top of the intriguing architecture, the walls are lined with artwork from local Chicago artists. There is a mural by Eulojio Ortega that follows the staircase on the back wall up all five floors. The mural tells the true story of coffee. It explores the agricultural side of coffee, thanking the farmers and coffee farms that support the entire coffee industry.<figure class="image"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/znTR46BrkWWN-VpSxSGf2mniXKyEtSPwfjNzmlpZXlhDwjQeGTeVTGf4bI8KS9YfbKqEVprhPHjJ5ElU8fWE_Q-FvAwSfrJ4b87ga-ZjVxmQpgOg4ndAn1QZ6h6wvVdrlRiAMNME"></figure>The store is also selling location specific, commemorative memorabilia by Chicago artist and designer Mac Blackout. This includes a hand painted, $6,500 La Marcozza Linea mini espresso machine as well as a painted jukebox.As opening day comes to a close, the lines are still long with an average wait time throughout the day of 2.5-3 hours. Chicagoans are definitely not missing their first chance to view this coffee store masterpiece!<figure class="image"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/J716DdqWHqsKZ9X44MNouAsh9ObETIkcVv8hMJm6kEE1mtQeBfF9siIqZ_4UiCjRMoIriG_ZgyWb9XLFffvk1l_CRRHn1i1FMJNuKMPZoybZkgfx5d9Q8iHOPXj3WtVjMQ0-ZFKa"></figure>&nbsp;More info may be found <a href="https://www.starbucksreserve.com/en-us/locations/chicago">here</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;

Chicago's Coffee Mecca is a Lot of Buzz and a Little Bit Art 

<html><head></head><body>By GINNY VAN ALYEAWe are coming up on a busy weekend of art, but we can't forget that Halloween kicks things off this Thursday. Followed by Day of the Dead on Friday!&nbsp;Whether you are still looking for artistic costume inspiration, or just want to see Bob Ross costumes three ways, we hope you'll enjoy our summary of artist-inspired looks on the internet, as well as our wrap up of festive exhibitions and art events taking place around Chicago this holiday!&nbsp;Trick or treat!&nbsp;&nbsp;<h3>Dress up as an artist – Or if you are an artist, pretend to be another one!&nbsp;</h3>• <a href="http://thrifteye.com/2015/10/halloween-costume-ideas-yayoi-kusama/">Yayoi Kusama</a><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418631/dorx1wkdbu4ff2gnmlfd.png"></figure>&nbsp;• Munch's <a href="https://www.ebay.com/i/133147572542?chn=ps&amp;norover=1&amp;mkevt=1&amp;mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&amp;mkcid=2&amp;itemid=133147572542&amp;targetid=809743846505&amp;device=c&amp;mktype=pla&amp;googleloc=9016202&amp;poi=&amp;campaignid=6470742422&amp;mkgroupid=80120006760&amp;rlsatarget=pla-809743846505&amp;abcId=1141156&amp;merchantid=118867360&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQjw6eTtBRDdARIsANZWjYYZNUzp92Nftv0I6Lon3_X8Xkkkn3Gewobm2cU4Wkcvt6qFx6Z-lAIaAh2KEALw_wcB">The Scream</a><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418632/w4vmniply7o5ttgrkchc.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;• Bob Ross<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418633/wk69l2msvasb2hu6xjlo.gif"></figure>You can be <a href="https://www.partycity.com/adult-bob-ross-costume-accessory-kit-751709.html">Bob Ross</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ross-Wearable-Painting-Couples-Costume/dp/B07GL3BVF4/ref=asc_df_B07GL3BVF4/?tag=hyprod-20&amp;linkCode=df0&amp;hvadid=241925891693&amp;hvpos=1o7&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvrand=6685068640271660877&amp;hvpone=&amp;hvptwo=&amp;hvqmt=&amp;hvdev=c&amp;hvdvcmdl=&amp;hvlocint=&amp;hvlocphy=9016202&amp;hvtargid=pla-571959136977&amp;psc=1">you and a significant other</a> can be Bob Ross at work, or you can just <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bob-Ross-Painting-Tunic-Dress/dp/B01GNOVZ82/ref=asc_df_B01GNOVZ82/?tag=hyprod-20&amp;linkCode=df0&amp;hvadid=312142324708&amp;hvpos=1o5&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvrand=6685068640271660877&amp;hvpone=&amp;hvptwo=&amp;hvqmt=&amp;hvdev=c&amp;hvdvcmdl=&amp;hvlocint=&amp;hvlocphy=9016202&amp;hvtargid=pla-524451010921&amp;psc=1">be a canvas</a> for some happy little trees. The possibilities, as always, are truly endless.&nbsp;&nbsp;• <a href="https://mymodernmet.com/famous-paintings-art-history-halloween-costumes/">Go as a Group</a><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418634/dd1hpka60h7pzcahnonz.gif"></figure>Last Halloween marked the 22nd annual Halloween parade in the city of Kawasaki in Japan. 2,000 fish-net clad art lovers dressed as famous paintings. (Via My Modern Met)&nbsp;• POP! Goes the CostumeGet your own 15 minutes and channel <a href="https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/articles/13-halloween-costume-ideas-inspired-by-the-art-world/">Roy Lichtenstein</a>, or if limiting costumes to your own children is more your speed, go for an <a href="https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/articles/13-halloween-costume-ideas-inspired-by-the-art-world/">Andy Warhol </a>mini me.<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418635/bomzdwl4q37ipsa36ak7.gif"></figure><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418636/n5mbw45pvhnmwwktny1m.gif"></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;<h3>Go in Search of Spooky Art</h3><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418637/dqn8s08wagnnymoyhpec.gif"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/organizations/pagoda-red--2">• Pagoda Red</a> is offering a selection of unique and antique spooky finds, from ravens and folk art crows to a portrait of mysterious sisters and a pair of scissors...&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418638/qp5xquekqedlfcczqnu8.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/vga-s-cosplay-ball">• Video Game Art Gallery</a> (VGA) is hosting a special (and ticketed) event where you are invited to rock a costume inspired by your favorite game character and enjoy an evening of art, games, music, hors d’oeuvres, and drinks while supporting exhibitions and programs in VGA Gallery's 2019-2020 season. Winners of the costume contest will be eligible for prizes. This year, VGA is proud to honor artist, professor and curator Jon Cates for his deep and significant contribution to video games and new media art.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418639/iamcjf3ra0fcxndj762s.png"></figure>• <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/i-walked-with-a-zombie-1943">The Block Museum</a> is screening I Walked with a Zombie (1943). The collaboration between RKO producer Val Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur is one of the most celebrated in the history of horror, and I Walked with a Zombie may be the pair’s masterpiece. This subtle and unnerving supernatural tale, inspired by Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, unfolds on a West Indies sugar plantation, where a voodoo curse seems to possess the soul of the plantation owner’s wife. The film’s mesmerizing low-key cinematography conjures an atmosphere of exotic dread and uncertainty, but the darkest shadow cast in this Gothic melodrama is the one cast by the island’s ugly history of slavery and colonialism.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418640/x3f4onzshqs3qgat40b5.jpg"><figcaption>Possession</figcaption></figure>• The MCA celebrates Halloween with a <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/bad-femme-halloween-double-feature-hosted-by-kat-sass-and-siichele">double-feature centered around evil women</a> characters. Watch two historical art house horror films, Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977) and Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession (1981) hosted by Chicago horror drag queens Kat Sass and Siichele.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418640/cozshmcqq6fayjgs4o4t.jpg"></figure>• This weekend the <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/dia-de-muertos-day-of-the-dead-2019">Snite Museum of Art</a> in South Bend, IN hosts a lighter celebration of Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead). There will be ofrendas&nbsp;(small altars) honoring the lives of those who have passed before us constructed&nbsp;by local artists and organizations. Enjoy music and dancing by local performers. Participate in educational and entertaining children's activities.</body></html>

Boo! Have an Artful Halloween...

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418621/actl48sttebh7xjwjomu.gif"><figcaption>Visitors wait to enter the new Green Line Arts Center in 2018&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;By JACQUELINE LEWISVisitors who venture from Chicago’s established art centers can experience even more of the free, public spectrum of art that the city has to offer this fall. If you have wanted to check out these locations but aren’t familiar with where to go, use this list as a starting point and tour the uniquely creative, community-focused South Side in order to become acquainted with some of the area’s longest standing Institutions as well as glimpse exciting new cultural developments. Spend an entire day moving between each of the locations listed here, or stop in to any one on your own time, and you will start to appreciate what these often under-explored spaces have to offer. &nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/organizations/smart-museum-of-art">Smart Museum of Art</a>Start in Hyde Park at the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum, where you can see multiple works by internationally-known artists in an intimate yet spacious museum that offers a rich permanent collection as well as a dynamic exhibition schedule. During EXPO Art Week an opening reception for Samson Young: Silver Moon or Golden Star, Which Will You Buy Of Me? takes place September 17, 7–9pm. In his first solo museum exhibition in the U.S., Young premieres a trilogy of animated music videos that explore varying concepts of social progress and utopia.Founded in 1974 this (free) museum’s collection includes works by artists from Toulouse-Lautrec and Otto Dix, to Frank Lloyd Wright and Nick Cave. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://arts.uchicago.edu/apl/glpac">Green Line Performing Arts Center</a>The University of Chicago’s Green Line Performing Arts Center is the most recent addition to the UChicago Arts + Public Life initiative, connecting academics with local artists in the neighboring South Side communities. Opened in late 2018 the center offers a professional theater space, the first in the community in decades, with a focus on community involvement, specifically training in the performing arts. &nbsp; &nbsp; arts.uchicago.edu/apl/glpac&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/organizations/hyde-park-art-center-hpac">Hyde Park Art Center</a>While you are still in the area check out the Hyde Park Art Center, a hub for contemporary art – founded in 1939 – located near the lake on South Cornell Ave. Mounting about 20 exhibitions per year, offering classes for the public, plus hundreds of free events, there is something for everyone at every stage of arts engagement. HPAC even offers classes in curation as well as many opportunities for visual artists. Intersectional Touch, on view thru November 4, exhibits artists from HPAC’s professional development initiative. Artists may also apply for their own exhibitions. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/organizations/stony-island-arts-bank">Stony Island Arts Bank</a>Not quite two miles south of HPAC, past the Midway Plaisance and Washington Park, you will arrive at the Stony Island Arts Bank, founded by artist Theaster Gates in 2015 in the Dorchester neighborhood. A one-of-a-kind gallery, media archive, library and community center, the Arts Bank offers free classes – even yoga, dance and meditation – weekly events and art programming. The Bank, as it is locally known, holds extended hours on Fridays and Saturdays and is home to an extensive media archive that includes Frankie Knuckles’s vinyl collection. If you don’t know him, he is known as the Godfather of House Music. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/organizations/south-side-community-art-center">South Side Community Art Center</a>Heading back north, between Bronzeville and Bridgeport, you will find the South Side Community Art Center, a Chicago Historic Landmark that has been thriving for 77 years. Founded by Dr. Margaret Burroughs and other African American artists, SSCAC promotes the legacy and future of African American art through its series of exhibitions as well as a popular artist talks that cultivate conversation and engagement with others in the Chicago art scene and beyond. sscartcenter.org&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/organizations/bridgeport-art-center">Bridgeport Art Center</a>Along West 35th Street the Bridgeport Art Center, a 500,000 square foot arts base located in the former Spiegel Catalog Warehouse, prides itself on being a “multidisciplinary creative home” to more than 150 artists. With plentiful space to create and share art, including three galleries as well as multiple artist studios, small businesses, and even museums, on the 3rd Friday of each month from 7–10pm, you’re invited to enjoy free, lively opening receptions and events. There is parking in an adjacent lot. &nbsp;<a href="https://www.shanecampbellgallery.com/">Shane Campbell Gallery</a>Heading north towards downtown a final stop on the tour is the Shane Campbell Gallery, located in the South Loop. Campbell moved his gallery to the area after years in West Town. He offers exhibitions, as well as a shop bursting with media, music and rare books specifically curated by the artist on view – a unique opportunity to purchase books and glimpse the mind of the artist on display.Upcoming exhibitions by Zak Prekop of Brooklyn and Chris Bradley from Chicago are lined up for fall 2019.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;A New Direction – Following Changes on the City's South Side<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418622/zdrnpoy7gqjperiplcya.gif"></figure><a href="https://oi.uchicago.edu">THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE</a>In honor of its centennial, the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago is hosting celebratory exhibitions and plans all fall, including the completion of the Gallery Enhancements Project to improve the visitor experience in the galleries and to display artifacts from the museum’s collection that have not previously been publicly displayed. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418624/imzaf2fuwlsr1won6iyk.gif"></figure><a href="https://www.bronzevilleartdistrict.com/">BRONZEVILLE</a>Gallery Guichard, with the Purpose Foundation, received a formerly vacant lot from the City of Chicago to transform it into an exterior gallery with rotating sculpture exhibits.&nbsp;Illinois Tech Master of Landscape Architecture students, Jiaming Sun and Yu Si, designed a fence for the Great Migration Sculpture Garden in Bronzeville. Named for the experience of African-Americans moving from the South to the North between 1916 and the 1970s, the garden includes a commissioned solar pyramid by Chicago artist Shala.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418625/ys1nmv2wqcvnvidgkbte.gif"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/organizations/logan-center-exhibitions">THE LOGAN CENTER</a>Gifted by the Reva and David Logan Foundation, a rotating selection of Henri Matisse’s Jazz prints is now on permanent display at the Logan Center.&nbsp;Reflecting the spirit of inquiry at the University of Chicago, and working closely with artists, students, scholars, and the community, Logan Center Exhibitions also presents innovative exhibitions by emerging and established artists and supports ambitious new commissions and research projects.&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Following The South Side Spectrum: A Community Defined by Creativity Not Geography

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418621/bjdlsuugxpzadbqlkwcl.gif"><figcaption>Andy Warhol. Triple Elvis [Ferus Type], 1963. The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. © 2019 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY</figcaption></figure>By JACQUELINE LEWISAndy Warhol – the influential artist who turned cultural icons into high art – will be exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago in the first major Warhol exhibition to be organized by a US institution in 30 years.Warhol was a famously prolific artist, whose unmistakeable work has managed to be continually popular throughout the modern age. At a time when we are all laboring to manage and understand our consumerist, technology-jammed lives, the chance to view so much of Warhol’s art in this career sweeping exhibition may present some answers to our questions about a pop culture that continues to evolve, as well as the role of media in our society then, as well as now.Andy Warhol – From A to B and Back Again opens at The Art Institute of Chicago on October 20 and runs through January 26, 2020. This retrospective follows the entire scope of one of the world’s most recognized and renowned artists, featuring over 350 works, from his earliest images through the very end of his career, presented with an arsenal of research and scholarship attesting to the breadth and interconnectedness of a visionary’s lifelong creative pursuits.Warhol had the genius concept to present and distort cultural icons in a way that continues to challenge viewers into the 21st century. His work seems to have anticipated the issues of our current digital age, making his work as relevant and intriguing as ever.Instead of focusing solely on his most famous Pop artworks, this exhibition allows visitors to experience these classic works within the broader spectrum of a massive career. Displaying all aspects of Warhol’s career – from paintings and drawings to prints, videos and countless other media – gives visitors the privilege of seeing a more fully realized image of Warhol through an iconic exhibition that no one in Chicago this fall should miss.The Art Institute of Chicago • October 20, 2019 – January 26, 2020 • <a href="https://www.artic.edu/">artic.edu</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418622/fduxgesodvnullrddcl6.gif"><figcaption>Andy Warhol. Diana Vreeland, about 1956. Private collection. © 2019 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.</figcaption></figure><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418623/cnga8scdq3vywiamisoh.gif"><figcaption>Andy Warhol. Mao, 1972. The Art Institute of Chicago;Mr. and Mrs. Frank G. Logan Purchase Prize and Wilson L. Mead funds. © 2019 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.</figcaption></figure><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418624/pupmsdvedklhq0qw8tnv.gif"><figcaption>Andy Warhol. Self-Portrait, 1986. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; gift, Anne and Anthony d’Offay in honor of Thomas Krens. © 2019 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Editor's notes:&nbsp;1. Stefan Edlis, the donor of many of the Art Institute's key Warhol works that are featured in this exhibition, <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/10/15/20916071/stefan-edlis-dies-obituary-94-refugee-plastics-art-institute-museum-mca-donations">passed away </a>on October 15, 2019 at the age of 94.&nbsp;2. River North gallery Hilton | Asmus currently has an exhibition on view of works by artist David Gamble, who tells a story through photographs of how Warhol really was, what he loved and how he lived. <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/david-gamble-andy-warhol-s-living-room">Andy Warhol’s House</a> runs thru November 12.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Charting Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again 

<html><head></head><body>By GINNY VAN ALYEACGN has conducted dozens of <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/interviews">collector interviews</a> over the years, and they continue to be some of our most popular features. The chance to see works of art in people’s homes is an opportunity to see art outside of a commercial or institutional space and to understand the personal nature of collecting.We wondered what works continue to join an evolving collection? The following four collectors were kind enough to update CGN on what they’ve recently acquired.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418595/tt6magll9g755xjuurj2.gif"><figcaption>Chris Uphues, The Happy Garage</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Collectors: BRIAN WESTPHAL AND MICHAEL MCVICKARArtist: CHRIS UPHUESRead CGN's 2016 interview with Brian and Michael <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2018/5/building-a-home-for-art-reviving-an-industrial-space-in-ravenswood">here</a>“We started talking to Chris about creating a new piece in January of 2018. The prior installation, known as ‘The Happy Garage’ has its own Instagram following (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/thehappygarage/">#thehappygarage</a>) and had suffered some vandalism and was showing some wear, so we were interested in getting a refresh, but Chris had a bigger project in mind. Because the side of the garage is corrugated, he proposed preparing a dozen 4’ x 8’ panels with his mural, which would then be affixed to the garage. He began work on the piece (at least the painting part) in early June 2018, and it was completed at the end of the month. The new piece is approximately 24’ x 14’ and has become a well-known backdrop for photographs, including fashion shoots and weddings.2018–19 has otherwise been a dry year for new acquisitions but a great year for travel.”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418596/ksnf1jjstpavhnpse6t2.gif"><figcaption>Brian Calvin (b. 1969) SAIC MFA 1994, Untitled, Marker and pastel on paper, 25.5 “ x 19.75”, 2018. Purchased from Corbett vs. Dempsey (Chicago)</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Collectors: NANCY AND BOB MOLLERSArtist: BRIAN CALVIN&nbsp;Read CGN's 2016 interview with the Mollers <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2016/4/nancy-and-bob-mollers-down-to-earth-collectors">here</a>“This is the second work by Brian Calvin in our collection, and is hanging in our home now. We do not keep works of art in storage.”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418598/njog0sxso3qdcmzqp9jc.gif"><figcaption>Devan Shimoyama (b. 1989) Yale MFA 2014, Sensitive, oil, color pencil, jewelry, flashe, collage and glitter on canvas stitched over panel, 48” x 36”, 2018. Purchased in 2018 at EXPO CHICAGO from De Buck Gallery</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Collector: TIM GARVEY&nbsp;Artist: DEVAN SHIMOYAMA&nbsp;&nbsp;“I’ve always been interested in and collected works by outsiders — self-taught visionaries like Henry Darger and Martín Ramírez. More recently I’ve been complementing their work with that of new ‘outsiders’, trained artists who represent viewpoints and subjects not traditionally seen in museums or mainstream galleries. Recent purchases include works by Devan Shimoyama, a young artist who recently had a great solo show at the Warhol Museum, and who is represented by Kavi Gupta and David De Buck; and another by David Alekhuogie, a recent Yale MFA repped by Commonwealth and Council in LA.” &nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418599/sbgsdjzhnnvc5ktjjqzj.gif"><figcaption>Ari Norris, Bushing Hammer, 2018, Cast Resin, Paint, 9 x 8 x 4”</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Collector: JASON PICKLEMANArtist: ARI NORRISRead CGN's 2016 interview with the Jason <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2016/8/collector-jason-pickleman-s-creative-life">here</a>“I purchased this recent acquisition for $400.00 from David Salkin Creative. It is currently installed at my gallery, Lawrence &amp; Clark – where all my newly acquired works first go!”&nbsp;</body></html>

The Newest Thing: What Collectors Are Buying Now

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418610/eypw8flqvb0yu0deeipq.gif"><figcaption>A visitor talks to the dealer from Proyectos Ultravioleta of Guatemala City&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;By GINNY VAN ALYEAOn a picture perfect Chicago morning in the city's most photogenic part of downtown, the nonprofit&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newartdealers.org/">New Art Dealers Alliance</a> debuted the Chicago Invitational at the restored Chicago Athletic Association Hotel, one year after it <a href="https://news.artnet.com/market/nada-new-york-shuts-down-1330418">cancelled</a> its New York fair. At the time NADA announced the new fair, it was a win for Chicago, but the reality is even better.The fair opened to VIPS at 10am, one day before EXPO Chicago's Vernissage, just a mile away on Navy Pier. I made my way through hotel guests and young professionals popping into the CAA for coffee to walk the first of three floors of the exposition. Running September 18-21, the Invitational overlaps with but is distinct from EXPO.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418611/mtnfgfvj0wm0hd19svr8.gif"></figure>&nbsp;The addition of a new fair in the city with a commitment to newer voices and unconventional initiatives in the art community will broaden the scope and appeal of events taking place during this busy time in Chicago and build on and extend the profile of the city as a hub for contemporary art and culture.&nbsp;Earlier this year NADA Executive Director Heather Hubbs said, “Historically, Chicago has been a hotbed of artist-run galleries and alternative spaces. The city then and now embodies the experimental spirit of NADA, and we look forward to connecting our exhibitors with this audience.“The fair takes place in various spaces throughout the iconic Chicago Athletic Association Hotel, with a curated selection of galleries in the hotel’s historic Stagg Court and Tank spaces, and a takeover of 13 hotel rooms on the fourth floor. Word spread throughout the fair on Wednesday morning that though dealers were given the option to have the room beds removed for a $120 fee, most opted to work with the beds in the room and to fully work within the confines of a hotel fair. In the larger, some what more conventional spaces with side-by-side gallery booths on the first as well as the fourth floor, dealers featured solo shows as well as gallery selections. CGN's highlights are shown below.&nbsp;Fair organizers emphasize that the inaugural edition of the Chicago Invitational further exemplifies NADA’s expanded commitment to year-round programming and producing alternatives for galleries to exhibit artwork in a new setting. NADA recently held the New York Gallery Open, a new initiative designed to bring visitors and collectors to over 50 art spaces across New York City for public tours, talks, and performances, and NADA House, the organization’s second off-site exhibition on Governors Island, which was recently on view from May through August 2019.<a href="https://www.newartdealers.org/fairs/2019/chicago">The Chicago Invitational</a> runs through September 21, 2019 at the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel at 12 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418612/axlxcrgdnnmvvmdkfqdd.gif"><figcaption>Et al. Gallery from San Francisco featured Brook Hsu's verdant lucite boxes placed atop crisp white pillowcases and sheets, with coordinating framed see-through menu panels pasted to east facing windows overlooking Millennium Park.&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418613/fbik1xnpkju0qv9jqh7l.gif"><figcaption>Floral still lifes by Shana Sharp of Good Weather Gallery from Little Rock, Arkansas stood in for real flower arrangements as well as in place of clothing that otherwise would be hanging in the closet. At the bottom is another panel by Brook Hsu.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418614/t1haflhogr4dpfejqxub.gif"><figcaption>Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago, displayed a mega-sized pair of black pants by artist Amanda Ross Ho across most of a king-sized bed.&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418615/dhtf4av6lmsa4mii9iwu.gif"><figcaption>Misako &amp; Rosen Gallery of Tokyo featured a cheeky white canvas with blue painted letters that stated "Oil on Canvas" by Ken Kagami.&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418616/q0kafs3hku55kegmmngk.gif"><figcaption>Galerie Christian Lethert, &nbsp;from Cologne, Germany displayed a series of small scale, framed color collages made from acrylic on plastic film by Imi Knoebel.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418617/lmnvppug3bl0lpdhycbv.gif"><figcaption>Chicago-based DOCUMENT hung a series of embossed monotypes by Elizabeth Atterbury on its outer wall, while inside they featured a selection of work by gallery artists, including several photographs.&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418618/cfghf4evtdjliokigbwy.gif"><figcaption>Proyectos Ultravioleta of Guatemala City curated a booth full of small collages made out of magazine cutouts by Viennese artist Elisabeth Wild, who is 97 years of age.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418619/de4el0qhuf37vw7qyebx.gif"><figcaption>Regards showed work by artists such as Judith Geichman and Devin T. Mays, as well as John Pittman's The Mondrian Trio, made of Alkyd/Wood with concave strips of primary color carved out of each beige block of resin.&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418620/enrntgktrgqn0pfgmoy2.gif"><figcaption>PATRON, also from Chicago, mixed two and three dimensional work. The center of the booth features an installation of three works by Alex Chitty, Linnet I, II and III, which trace the flight patterns of the common linnet bird in constructions made from powder, coated steel and cast aluminum.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

NADA's First Chicago Fair Invites Viewers to Engage With Art

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418595/p2gumrlsxc7cfmtfmscs.gif"></figure>By GINNY VAN ALYEATo my children it probably seems like I do this job all the time; when I come to my office it means I am not with them. To others I’m never actually at my desk, busy with school pick ups and errands. I admit I don’t get around to as many galleries and museums as often as I would like to. There are also plenty of days where I just want to be with my own kids without one eye on a deadline. Such is life as a working mom with two young children of my own, and a hundred other ‘gallery children,’ as CGN founder Natalie van Straaten used to say.I couldn’t do the work I do at CGN if not for the help of several key people (Alby, Elvia, Emily) and if it were not to fulfill the positive mission that has always been a part of the magazine and this art community. Work that means something to others is reaffirming and important and it’s worth not giving up on. As artist Phyllis Bramson says <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2019/9/phyllis-bramson-reimagining-imagism-s-chicago-legacy">in her interview</a> with Alison Reilly for this issue, “I want my work to mean something to myself and those around me.”I have been thinking of persistence as well as regeneration since I wrote about <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2019/4/30-years-later-the-1989-river-north-fire">the 1989 gallery fire</a> this past spring. External forces – not just fires, but recessions, real estate, art fairs, and the internet – have continually forced the art community, as well as most small businesses, to adapt in order to survive. Despite the many challenges there are still those who are committed to making and selling art and working hard. At the time of the fire there were 65 galleries in River North alone, with a few more in other parts of the city. Today, while the concentrations are much less pronounced and the business landscape keeps changing, CGN still lists well over 100 spaces. They each work to support their artists and their own positive missions too. Isn’t that remarkable?<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418596/gn60gygp89od1ehooct5.gif"><figcaption>Emilia and Ilya Kabakov pictured with the Miami rendition of the Ship of Tolerance on the Watson Island waterfront in 2012, in conjunction with the Miami Children’s Museum and Art Basel Miami Beach. Photo: Jenia Friedlyand. Copyright © The Ship of Tolerance</figcaption></figure>So many conversations featured in this issue carry a hopeful message I am pleased to be able to share:• Artist <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2019/9/richard-hull-chicago-s-lasting-impression-on-an-artist">Richard Hull</a> came to Chicago 40 years ago at the encouragement of his professor. His career has thrived here, and today he enjoys helping and teaching his own students at SAIC.• Gallerist <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2019/8/mariane-ibrahim-a-west-coast-gallery-moves-to-chicago-for-its-authenticity">Mariane Ibrahim</a>, who built an international reputation in Seattle, says she moved here because all roads lead to Chicago; it’s a city whose authenticity is a rarity in the U.S.• For collector <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2019/9/collector-robert-buford-embracing-the-connectivity-of-art">Bob Buford</a> art is a means of having conversations with people of every age and walk of life. He says it’s the most inclusive thing he’s ever been a part of• Artists Ilya and Emilia Kabakov’s <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2019/8/cultivating-winds-of-change-the-ship-of-tolerance-docks-at-navy-pier-for-expo-chicago">Ship of Tolerance</a> comes to Navy Pier during EXPO. The ships these artists have built over 14 years have united struggling communities and children around the world through messages of hope. &nbsp;Even when meeting a CGN deadline means last minute surprises and a week of all-nighters, I believe it’s worth it, because the stories of and testaments to resilience I learn from so many in the art world I am able to pass along to my children and those around me.&nbsp;I hope you enjoy this fall issue of CGN and all the messages within it.&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Publisher's Letter, Fall 2019 – Keep it Positive: There's a Lot to Celebrate 

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418595/czfmtrrxnsth5abnyao6.gif"><figcaption>Ship of Tolerance © Zug Tourismus, Fotografie Daniel Hegglin</figcaption></figure>By GINNY VAN ALYEA“People can communicate with culture. They don’t need language,” says artist Emilia Kabakov. Together with her artist husband, Ilya, the Kabakovs, two of Russia’s most famous artists, are working to heal communities from the inside out through an ambitious, utopian art project called the Ship of Tolerance, which has been growing in reach and reputation since 2005.&nbsp;This September the ship’s port will be Navy Pier, where its launch will align with <a href="https://www.expochicago.com/">EXPO CHICAGO</a> and the <a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/">Chicago Architecture Biennial</a>.By building an ancient symbol of exploration and progress, the ship, in cities around the world, the Kabakovs have found a resonant means of constructive communication.&nbsp;“All this war and misunderstanding comes from fear,” proclaims Emilia. “When we communicate and we eliminate fear, those problems will hopefully get better. That’s really important for children.”When the Chicago Ship is finished, it will have been nearly two years in the works, an extension of the international program initiated by the Kabakovs, both of whom were born in the Soviet Union and eventually fled Communism — Emilia left in 1973, and Ilya in 1987. Married in 1992, today they consider the United States home.Previous interpretations of the Ship have taken place in Siwa, Egypt; Venice; San Moritz; Sharjah, UAE; Miami; Havana; New York; Moscow; Zug, Switzerland; Capalbio, Italy and Rome.&nbsp;The first version, in the oasis town of Siwa, was in a very old and isolated religious art community with a long history, “It’s like a story book – Alexander the Great went there,” recalls Emilia. “When we brought students from Manchester, England, with their teachers, to build the Ship of Tolerance in Siwa, on both sides they hadn’t met children from another country.” Today that ship, and the message it carries, is still there.<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418597/eke4vc2fj8to7by0xm2z.gif"><figcaption>Emilia and Ilya Kabakov pictured with the Miami rendition of the Ship of Tolerance on the Watson Island waterfront in 2012, in conjunction with the Miami Children’s Museum and Art Basel Miami Beach. Photo: Jenia Friedlyand. Copyright © The Ship of Tolerance</figcaption></figure>When the Kabakov’s sixth ship was being built in Cuba in 2012, Emilia remembers her granddaughter Orliana asked the children questions like, What did they think tolerance was? How could they improve the situation in the war? What did they prefer?&nbsp;Originally the artists intended to construct two ships to be simultaneously unveiled in Miami and in Havana, to honor the cities’ close historical and cultural ties, but political factors prevailed. Instead one ship was based in Miami during Art Basel and another resided on the grounds of Old Havana’s historic fortress, Castillo de la Real Fuerza, during the Havana Biennial. One ship was eventually given to the Maritime Museum, where it reminds the two worlds to work together and talk about tolerance. Keeping the ship in a host city ensures the positive strides that were made do not recede.Emilia says though the concept is simple, “The drawings are done by children, after they talk about tolerance,” organizing things is another story. Everyone involved in bringing the ship to Chicago – the project is partly a family affair, as the Kabakov’s daughter Viola is the concert organizer, and her daughter Orliana is the youth ambassador in Chicago – is very thankful for the help given by the teams at EXPO CHICAGO and Navy Pier to make it happen and build enthusiasm for the project.Each ship must start with outreach to school children, ages 8 to 12, to discuss the meaning of tolerance and the merits of other cultures, races, and ideas. The children work with local teaching artists to expand on a variety of artistic as well as conceptual exercises. At the end of the workshop, they draw pictures that will become part of the installation. In Chicago MacArthur Middle School is one partner. “They saw it on the internet,” says Viola, “And when they heard we were coming they wanted to participate. We also have members of area churches, synagogues and mosques in Chicago participating.”Viola stresses they make every effort to bring local children, and those from other cities and countries, together in a short period to put on an opening dance or music performance. The limited time means the kids must communicate with each other any way they can. For Chicago there was so much interest that several concerts will take place, since as many people as want to be a part of the project may participate.<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418597/gmuv2fujmxjdrncrmb9w.gif"><figcaption>Sails for the Havana Ship of Tolerance</figcaption></figure>“When we started at MacArthur,” explains Viola, “we went to show them a video presentation of the ships and samples of the sails. We started the conversation about tolerance and how it affects their daily lives and we did it class by class. For the last five months they have been having this conversation and then producing the sails, which they send back to us in New York, where my parents decide which colors go on the mast of the ship.”Even the ones that aren’t chosen are stitched together and displayed in various museums, in airports or on the street, so children have the opportunity to see their work everywhere.When the sails are ready, a team of master carpenters from Manchester arrives to start building the wooden ship – based on the Kabakovs' design – from the keel up, hopefully also working with local teenage volunteers, who learn carpentry skills as well as cooperation.<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418599/pf674dckszpucvgz7u2a.gif"><figcaption>Ship builders in Rome, Italy</figcaption></figure>Chicago’s ship will measure 50’H x 24.6’W x 65.6’L and will launch during EXPO CHICAGO as part of IN/SITU Outside, a program for large-scale public sculpture. Additionally there will be a special exhibition booth of the Kabakovs’ artworks at EXPO CHICAGO, and the artists will participate in the /Dialogues program in partnership with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.While the project itself takes years to bring to life, the key components of the ship are made over a matter of days. The true message of the Ship of Tolerance comes more from the effort put into the act of creation rather than the work itself.“The artwork is just the presentation. If you write a note to someone at this moment, you concentrate very strongly on what your message is and what you are thinking about. So for children the conversation about tolerance is the real art,” says Emilia. Much like slipping a message into a bottle before it’s tossed into the sea, there’s no telling how far the message will drift. The Ship of Tolerance will carry the pure, earnest wishes of so many children into the minds of many more.By now the Kabakovs have done many projects around the world with thousands of children – from various cultures and of different religions. People tell the artists they are changed after a ship arrives in their city.In a world where the headwinds are always strong, Emilia emphasizes, “We are not fighting against something. We are fighting for something.”&nbsp;For a list of programs planned for Chicago visit <a href="https://www.expochicago.com/">expochicago.com</a> and <a href="https://shipoftolerance.org/">shipoftolerance.org</a>.&nbsp;Events begin September 17, 2019.&nbsp;</body></html>

Cultivating Winds of Change: The Ship of Tolerance Docks at Navy Pier for EXPO CHICAGO

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418595/kgok8puzmhnck18vva0s.gif"></figure>By CGN Staff&nbsp;An event coming up on the area's busy fall art calendar is the one of the country’s premier fine craft shows, the 35th annual <a href="http://americancraftexpo.org/">American Craft Exposition</a> (ACE) which will take place September 20-22, 2019 in suburban Glencoe.Presented by The Auxiliary of NorthShore University HealthSystem, and taking place at an always-amazing destination, the Chicago Botanic Garden, ACE brings together over 140 superior artisans exhibiting one-of-a-kind pieces, luxury collections and uniquely creative, museum quality artwork in 12 media – baskets, ceramics, fiber decorative, fiber wearable, furniture, glass, jewelry, leather, metal, mixed media, paper and wood.The weekend promises to be a celebration of beautiful things and artistic ingenuity.&nbsp;This event is also a major fundraiser supporting research and care at NorthShore University HealthSystem, specifically the Psychiatric Urgent Care Program currently being run out of Evanston Hospital. Last year, the event raised over $550K.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418597/uaxbozo5zjozrww2dwvf.jpg"><figcaption>A past artist winner</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Artists support ACE’s fundraising goal by participating in the voluntary Craft for a Cause program and donating a percentage of a designated sale.Approximately 8,500&nbsp;visitors attend each year. Out of the 149 artists exhibiting at the 2018 show, approximately&nbsp;30 were new to the show, including&nbsp;three Emerging Artists.&nbsp;Show Dates 2019:September 20–22, 2019. Preview party on September 19Friday 10–6 Saturday 10–6 Sunday 10–5&nbsp;Location: Chicago Botanic Garden1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe, IL&nbsp;Tickets are on sale now. More information&nbsp;may be found <a href="http://americancraftexpo.org/">here</a>. Additional images from 2019 artists are pictured below.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418598/q2serywimm1qonumquvd.gif"></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418599/efyeswjdp5eefsqvgm9a.gif"></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418600/yvpknziotlibtrr5aga4.gif"></figure> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

September's American Craft Exposition Benefits NorthShore University HealthSystem's Psychiatric Urgent Care Program

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418254/qcqzkkkidpkpcqn62do6.gif"></figure>By GINNY VAN ALYEAHeadline-making auction results never fail to draw in established collectors tracking art’s hottest names, speculators monitoring investment opportunities, and of course many casual observers. Art prices are frequently at the heart of the attraction of the global art market as well as the source of the intimidation people new to the art world feel when they wonder why a piece of art costs what it costs.With more than 130 galleries operating in the Chicago area, there is no single best way to work on behalf of artists and collectors, but there are a few key ways to keep the lights on year after year: save, and build a good reputation.Here we share five examples of the financial expense side of running a physical gallery in Chicago in order to pull back the curtain on what the numbers can look like in our local art market. While the overall income figures remain mostly private, I am grateful to these five local art dealers, who each agreed to be candid about a significant portion of their own unique operational costs and to share why being in the art business is worth more than money. &nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418255/einf9jez1st82h62poxs.gif"><figcaption>A view into McCormick Gallery</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/organizations/mccormick-gallery">McCORMICK GALLERY</a>Features both modern and contemporary art, focusing primarily on painting, works on paper and sculptureLocation: West LoopPrincipal: Tom McCormickYears in business: 50, although McCormick Gallery opened in 2000Number of artists represented: 20 living; 12 estatesNumber of art fairs per year: We used to do up to 10 per year. Now it’s down to 3, and shrinking! In 2018 our 3 fairs totaled $115,000 in expenses.Major expenses: Commissions to artists on sold works: $996,110. Salaries: $101,659 (I don’t take a salary)Other necessary expenses: taxes, framing, shipping, publications, utilities, repairs, etc.Annual rent: $72,000. We own this building, which helps, but I have to pay the mortgage and taxesCGN: What single factor has mostly kept you afloat?TM: I am at heart very conservative with money. I started almost 50 years ago, very modestly as a picker and runner (antiques, textiles, paintings… whatever), and didn’t have a proper gallery until I was in my 50s. So I built up a very solid base of knowledge and experience and never got too big for my pants, which helps in the down times. I think a reputation for being honest and reputable is very important. We also believe in giving clients artwork they will love and want to live with at a fair price. That’s sort of old fashioned, I suppose.CGN: What makes the gallery business worth it for you?TM: I make a good living, so no complaints there. After all this time I’m pretty good at this and don’t know what else I’d do. While I am more and more disheartened by the whack-a-doodle art world, and what passes for “contemporary art”, I still love finding and selling a good painting. I like the artists we represent and enjoy seeing careers flourish. I love the occasional letter from a satisfied client who writes to say how much they enjoy their purchase. That pretty much makes it worthwhile. &nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418256/i010fci7dlnfifyep51z.gif"><figcaption>Western Exhibition’s booth at the 2019 Art Los Angeles Contemporary art fair, held in February 2019, with works by Elijah Burgher, Edie Fake, Robyn O’Neil and Deb Sokolow.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/organizations/western-exhibitions">WESTERN EXHIBITIONS</a>Contemporary gallery that shows artists who work across most media, also featuring artist books and multiplesLocation: West TownPrincipal: Scott SpehYears in business: 15Number of art fairs per year:3–5Number of artists represented: 21Expenses: Without sharing dollar amounts, here’s a list of expenses that are part of the business, in no particular order. I’m sure that I’m missing something: Insurance (Art as well as liability); Utilities; Photography; Advertising; Framing; Shipping and supplies (FedEx and art handlers); Rent; Professional organization dues; Accountant/bookkeeping fees; Quickbooks; Credit card processing platform; Software (MS Office / Photoshop, as well as an Inventory management system, plus Constant Contact); Artsy; Telephone; Office supplies; Refreshments for opening receptions; Website host; Artist book inventory; Hardware and paint; Physical improvements/maintenance; Artist dinners; Tickets to non-for-profit galas/benefits; Employee wages; and my wages (LOL).CGN: Single biggest expense:SS: Combined art fair costs, which include art fair application fees, booth fees, art fair shipping, lodging, travel, and entertainment.CGN: What single factor has mostly kept you afloat?SS: I don’t have mouths to feed, I’m on my wife’s health insurance, and our rent is relatively cheap. And I don’t own a car. My personal life expenses are pretty low.CGN: What makes the gallery business worth it for you?SS: It beats working! &nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418258/zgosctoelzfxxa3pef3d.gif"><figcaption>Courtesy of VGA Gallery and Gallery 400, Opening night of Chicago New Media 1973-1992, 2018</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/organizations/vga-gallery">VIDEO GAME ART GALLERY (VGA)</a>Focused on increasing cultural appreciation of and education about video games and new mediaLocation: Wicker ParkExecutive Director: Jonathan Kinkley (Co-Founder with Chaz Evans)Years in business: 6Number of art fairs per year: 4-5CGN: Single biggest expense:JK: Artist fees and staff compensation was around $20K in 2018, higher than normal because we had a huge exhibition Chicago New Media 1973-1992 that was grant-supported, allowing us to pay artists, scholars and workers. Also, we are nonprofit.CGN: Average annual art fair fees (booths, travel, shipping):JK: About $3–5K in 2018, all for local fairs like BitBash, C2E2, Minefaire, GDEX. In 2019 since we are traveling Chicago New Media to the Ars Electronica fair to reach 100K people, with the help of the Terra Foundation, that presentation will cost around $10K. We estimate $3–5K for additional local fairs but also for a trip to present at Games For Change Festival in NYC and also the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.CGN: Annual or monthly rent:JK: In 2018, monthly costs averaged around $500. VGA has generous landlords (my wife Melissa and I!) who subsidize rent and post the space on AirBnB when it is not in use by VGA, freeing up funds for programming. We worked with a law firm to draft a transparent lease that was approved by the VGA board.CGN: Annual revenueJK: About $70,000 in 2018CGN: What single factor has mostly kept you afloat?JK: The Chicago video game and art community believes in us, and that takes the form of material support through grants, donations and volunteering, plus hundreds of people buy VGA prints. Sheer grit and determination are factors too!CGN: Why is it all worth it?JK: This is a tough question I confess I ask myself often. We bring pure delight and wonder, and people’s reactions are amazing and appreciative. The artists too, are so hungry and deserving of recognition. Without VGA, kids at Humboldt Park Library wouldn’t learn how to make games; artists working in games and new media wouldn’t be appreciated in artistic spheres. Books about gaming wouldn’t be published, and people seeking art and games wouldn’t have this dedicated place to go.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418259/ehl1zlbvisp1intjw56j.gif"><figcaption>Works by Meg Leary and Scott Horsley installed at Bert Green Fine Art, summer 2019</figcaption></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/organizations/bert-green-fine-art--2">BERT GREEN FINE ART</a>Exhibiting emerging, mid-career and underrepresented artistsLocation: The Loop/Michigan Ave.Principal: Bert GreenYears in business: 20Number of art fairs per year: 1–2 art fairs a year at at cost of about $8,000 per fair.Number of artists represented: 14 represented, plus about 20 more exhibited but not represented.CGN: Did you have a ‘real job’ before becoming an art dealer? Was it more or less lucrative?BG: I had been curating freelance since 1982, directly out of college, but did not open my own gallery until 1999. In the meantime I was a freelance graphic designer but did now and then hold the occasional job, never as a career and never was my previous work especially lucrative.CGN: Single biggest gallery expense:BG: The rent ($15,000 per year)CGN: Annual revenue:BG: It varies, but gross sales are usually between $150–$200KCGN: What single factor has mostly kept you afloat?BG: Low overhead, especially cheap rent.CGN: Why is it all worth it?BG: Being self employed is liberating and allows for an amazing amount of independence and freedom. Plus, the world of art and artists is unconventional — the people who inhabit that world are the most interesting characters and do not fall into the predictable patterns of tiresome career-based drudgery and unhappiness that so many people experience. &nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418260/a5vlmyg1znaghw37iebp.gif"><figcaption>The gallery's inaugural exhibition in the new West Town space featured the work of Joel-Peter Witkin in May 2019</figcaption></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/organizations/catherine-edelman-gallery">CATHERINE EDELMAN GALLERY</a>Devoted to the exhibition of prominent living photographers, alongside new and young talent.Location: Newly in West Town (after 31 years in River North)Principal: Catherine EdelmanYears in business: 32 in December 2019Number of art fairs per year: 4-6Number of artists represented: Approximately 30CGN: Major expenses?CE: My single biggest expense is rent. I pay over $100,000 a year in rent and have for a long time. I have always had long term leases, but everything was off the base rent [from 1987], which when I started was either $11 a square foot or $13. Now rents are $31–$34. We just moved to West Town, where rent will still cost me $31/sf but it is $2,000 less per month for almost twice as much space as what I had in River North.CGN: Average annual art fair fees (booths, travel, shipping):CE: They all average to $40,000–$45,000 per art fair, all included. I do 4–6 per year, depending on my energy level.CGN: How do the fairs stack up for you financially?CE: Up until a year and a half ago we probably netted anywhere from 2–4 times our expenses. The last year and a half I’ve been losing money at art fairs, which is a first for me. I don’t know what changed, but it’s been pretty consistent, well except for EXPO CHICAGO – we always do well there. Miami, we usually are pretty good – six figures net, but we lost money the last two years, which is just unheard of. I know some of it is one of my artists, who is a real mainstay financially, is not producing work that’s of quality that he used to, so where we might have done $1 million of sales of his work, it’s dropped to $200,000. Because the art fairs cost so much money, and the average piece of art that I bring is between $2,000–$10,000, that’s a lot of art that one has to move if it doesn’t come from him. I have to sell 20 $2,000 pieces to make up for one work that is $40,000. I specialize in discovering new people and bringing their careers up, so it’s a hard balance.CGN: There is a financial obligation tied to representing artists. How many artists do you represent now?&nbsp;CE: Probably around 30 – I think that’s been consistent. I work on projects now, so that can be a year, year and a half and then they go. I’m finding that’s much more rewarding for everybody. It’s not as much pressure on the artist to produce things that I like, but it has to be a really strong body of work if collectors are going to get behind it. [Collectors] like to see things year after year, but artists just aren’t working that way, or at least the photographers that I engage aren’t working that way any more. The lineage used to be really simple, but I’m assuming that’s because a lot of the kids coming out of art school now aren’t focusing on just one specific medium anymore. They’re kind of combining things – maybe they want to try audio with video and photography, and it takes some time to figure that out. I find that exciting, but it also is nerve wracking. You can’t really represent it the same way.CGN: What single factor has mostly kept you afloat?CE: My passion for what I do and the fact that I save well. When we were doing really, really well I saved, so that now when things are a little funky we’re still OK.CGN: Why is it all worth it?CE: Because it’s what I do. At a certain point, you make the decision about ‘Is this really what I’m doing for the rest of my life?’ Because unless you’re the one percenters, so that you buy your way into the art world and can buy your way into the blue chip artists, the 99.9% of us who are not that way and who are the ones who really do support the art world, it’s difficult. There are a lot of highs and lows, and you only do this if you really love what you’re doing, because you don’t do it to get rich, although it’s afforded me a very good life.But I’m clear it’s a finite number of years I’ll do this. I’ve said when I’m finished with the gallery, I’ll start a not-for-profit. With 30 something years behind me, it’s going to take a long time to start a new business.Now I’m starting CASE Art Fund – we seek to raise awareness of human rights issues by supporting fine art photographers and their work. We finally have our 501(c)(3), and we have a different way of thinking about costs. For instance it only costs $2,000 for an outside wall at an art fair, but at $1,800 a photo – and we’re making only 25% [of the sale] as well as covering the production costs of the work – we have to sell nine photos to cover the net of $2,000 [of that wall at the fair].&nbsp;Once again it’s not about making money, it’s exposing the art to the right audience. It’s a whole different engagement. It’s not for me, it’s not for them; it’s for the greater good.&nbsp;</body></html>

Money Talks: What Does It Really Cost to Make a Gallery Last?

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417834/cxzgwry7qbfgbdviqzwu.gif"><figcaption>We love Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate&nbsp;in Millennium Park too, but there are so many things to see &nbsp;throughout Chicago! &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>Summer in the midwest is basically one mad dash to be out in the fresh air as long as possible, before the doors of winter snap shut again. Many area gallery owners and artists are often busiest inside, welcoming visitors to see summer shows. We figure they relish the chance to get out and enjoy the city as well as the art that is all around us.Deborah Maris Lader, an artist, musician and the driving force behind the <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/organizations/chicago-printmakers-collaborative--3">Chicago Printmaker’s Collaborative</a> let us in on what she would do on a day off or a day out with visitors to Chicago.&nbsp;By Deborah Maris Lader, as told to Ginny Van AlyeaSince I spend my days in my studio surrounded by artists and/or making art, I enjoy the rare “day off” by feeding my other senses, while simultaneously stocking my visual cupboard with new material. My perfect day would be waking up to my morning matcha, while watching the birds gather at the feeder outside my window. Hopefully I’ll have picked up an oat jammer cookie at Baker Miller the day before to go with my daily soft boiled egg breakfast. If it’s a warm day, I’d bike down the lake trail to Maggie Daley Park and rent some shoes to scramble around on the self-belay rock climbing walls. If it’s cold I’ll rent ice skates and glide on the ribbon. I love walking along Lake Michigan in all kinds of weather, usually starting at the bird sanctuary at Montrose Harbor.Then I’d go to the <a href="https://imss.org">Museum of Surgical Science</a> in the Gold Coast, which is a fairly serious funhouse of medical history filled with both gory and beautiful curiosities and inventions. Where else can you see a bowl full of kidney stones?Lunch would be something leafy – Left Coast Cafe, or the chopped salad at Cafe Selmarie. In winter, I’m a fan of the Tom Yum soup at Sticky Rice. Since I’m also a musician, I’d run over to the Old Town School of Folk Music, pick up some accessories at the store, and catch up with my musician friends, who I’d likely run into in the lobby. If I’ve got friends in town, I’d give them a tour of the WPA murals throughout the building, which used to house the old Sulzer Library.<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417836/ojh7uxwxgy3kpc1eb1dc.gif"><figcaption>Deborah Maris Lader (center) with her fellow band members.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;In the evening, my top picks are to head to <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/organizations/millennium-park">Millennium Park</a> for a summer concert, or catch a Shakespeare in the Park performance, or a concert at the Old Town School of Folk Music, Evanston SPACE, or City Winery (my band plays all 3 venues, so I can get good tickets!).Dinner is at my new favorite, Kitsune on Lincoln Ave. It’s one of the most original food experiences I can think of. I’ll eat things there that I would never normally eat, just because it’s so unusual. I had my first bite of bone marrow there (and I don’t really eat beef, but whatevs). In general I love so many places in my neighborhood (Lincoln Square). When I have visitors, I like to show it off.I recently had arty friends visit, and we did a workshop at my studio at Chicago Printmakers Collaborative. I gave them a tutorial in woodcut and screen printing. Later we headed to Northman Cider pub for a cider tasting, and saw a play at Lookingglass Theatre. We also of course did the Chicago Architecture Center's Architectural Boat Tour.If friends are in on a weekend, we’ll attend an opening, usually someplace a bit smaller or offbeat, <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/organizations/adventureland-gallery">AdventureLand</a>, or <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/organizations/firecat-projects">Firecat Projects</a>, or <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/organizations/addington-gallery">Addington Gallery</a>, or pretty much anything Aron Packer is doing (usually a pop up). &nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417837/wettl1tpvr1kmfnkrkyl.gif"><figcaption>Deb Lader playing atop CPC on Western Ave.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Other favorite places to take visiting friends:• <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/organizations/chicago-cultural-center--2">The Chicago Cultural Center</a> (78 E Washington) Ogle the mosaics, stained glass and grand staircases.• <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/organizations/navy-pier">Navy Pier</a> (600 E Grand) can be fun. I love walking outside along the pier to see the boats and watch people.• The Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool (Fullerton and Cannon Dr.), next to Lincoln Park Zoo, is an example of Prairie School landscape architecture designed by Alfred Caldwell in 1936.&nbsp;• The Garfield Park Conservatory (300 N Central Park Ave) is truly amazing. It’s great in the winter when you need a blast of Amazonian-like jungle humidity. And greenery.• <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/organizations/millennium-park">Millennium Park</a>! (Randolph and Michigan Ave.) There is so much to love – the Frank Gehry bridge, the Lurie garden the Crown Fountain, The Bean [Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate] &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;My tourist tips:• Skip the “Chicago pizza” experience• Rent a bike (and helmet) on the lakefront trail to see the city skyline• Pick up a <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/magazine">CGN Arts Guide</a> for a comprehensive listing of all the galleries and spaces in the city! &nbsp;Helpful Freebies:• Walk around downtown. It doesn’t cost anything, it’s good exercise, and you’ll see all kinds of cool stuff.• Hungry? <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events?filter=openings">Gallery openings</a> have free booze and food.• Actually, it never costs anything to walk into any gallery in the city and look at art. How great is that?</body></html>

Tourist For a Day: When an Art Insider Takes Time Off

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417567/emlef6f6b5ujdjq44fff.gif"><figcaption>The Angad Arts Hotel is located in the heart of St. Louis’s Grand Center Arts District. It is the first hotel in the world where guests are able to book their luxury accommodations not only by room type, but also by emotion of color.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;By CGN STAFFIn the art world you’re often encouraged to think outside the box in order to consider alternative perspectives, but what if the box itself is the inspiration?Summer is the season of road trips – and staycations – if you have a weekend or to to spare, or need an excuse to visit relatives or show friends around town, consider a stay in one of these artistically amped hotels. Often inspired by the artistic and cultural communities that surround them, you can devote your stay to a contemporary art immersion from start to finish.From Milwaukee to Saint Louis, and Indianapolis to Cincinnati, once you’ve visited one creative metropolis, you may start thinking about where to head next. Perhaps you’ll even see art in your dreams...&nbsp;Milwaukee, WI – Saint Kate Arts Hotel<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417568/n3dgyassddn1jruonkvk.gif"><figcaption>The brand new Saint Kate The Arts Hotel in Milwaukee, by the Marcus Group, opens in June and features elements in each room that are designed by artists, such as this guest room blanket by Christiane Grauert.&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>What: Saint Kate The Arts Hotel. With a range of rooms available at various price points, the website states, "Stay in a living, breathing piece of art. The Canvas rooms are given to local artists as blank slates—and the completely unique finished products are yours to explore. A portion of the proceeds from each stay will benefit local and state-wide arts initiatives." Items listed as room amenities? Local art, art and design books, drawing Paper, and a ukulele.Where: Downtown MilwaukeeDetails: <a href="https://www.marcushotels.com/portfolio/stay/saint-kate">www.marcushotels.com/portfolio/stay/saint-kate</a>&nbsp;Indianapolis, IN – The Alexander<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417569/ky9zqduymx7vdtbyqkvx.gif"><figcaption>Nestled in the City Way area of downtown Indianapolis, The Alexander pairs contemporary design with hospitality. In every room, lobby, and dining space is a piece of art commissioned or curated from local and international artists.</figcaption></figure>What: The Alexander Hotel. In every room, lobby, and dining space is a piece of art designed to inspire you during your stay, commissioned or curated from local and international artists. Blocks from both the Banker’s Life Fieldhouse and Lucas Oil Stadium, this downtown hotel is minutes from area museums, professional sports,&nbsp;and the Indiana Convention Center. &nbsp;Where: Indianapolis's City Way neighborhoodDetails: <a href="https://www.thealexander.com">www.thealexander.com</a><h3>&nbsp;</h3>Cincinnati, OH – 21 C<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417570/mwv2yo7hviu0nzbfq3nn.gif"><figcaption>In downtown Cincinnati the Historic Metropole Hotel was reimagined in 2013 as a contemporary art museum. Adjacent to the Contemporary Art Center, designed by Zaha Hadid, 21C Museum Hotel is a multi-venue 8,000 square foot museum open to the public 24/7, as well as an award-winning 156-room boutique hotel.&nbsp;</figcaption></figure><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417571/iplqjbyduqdj4hegopra.gif"><figcaption>Also at 21C in Cincinnati, you can take weekly docent tours of the hotel and the art center or buy Kehinde Wiley dinner plates in the gift shop for $99 each.</figcaption></figure>What: At 21c you can discover contemporary art in the most unexpected places, from the sidewalks to the elevators. Specially commissioned site-specific works can be found throughout the museum; meanwhile, rotating exhibitions transform the galleries into ever-changing spaces. As you approach, enjoy Werner Reiterer’s <a href="https://www.21cmuseumhotels.com/museum/exhibit/untitled/">Untitled</a> as it hovers over the sidewalk, breathing in and out; then, walk through&nbsp;<a href="https://www.21cmuseumhotels.com/museum/exhibit/healing-tiles/">Healing Tiles</a>‘&nbsp;glowing pool of organic patterns, and don’t miss an evening viewing of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.21cmuseumhotels.com/museum/exhibit/lightmail/">Lightmail</a> in the solarium. The museum is open to the public 24/7; and exhibitions and cultural programs rotate often. On view until August 2019 is a spotlight on LaToya Ruby Frazier.Where: The heart of downtown Cincinnati, "The Queen City." Adjacent to the Contemporary Art Center and across the street from the Aronoff Center for the Arts.Details: <a href="https://www.21cmuseumhotels.com/cincinnati/">www.21cmuseumhotels.com/cincinnati/</a>&nbsp;Chicago, IL – The Peninsula&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417572/fhahj84s1bhm07ikhuij.gif"><figcaption>In 2016 The Peninsula Chicago marked EXPO CHICAGO with the contemporary art exhibition, Whoville, featuring highlights from the Beth Rudin Dewoody collection, which included over 30 works, some by Roger Brown, Nick Cave, Theaster Gates, Art Green, Kerry James Marshall, Bruce Nauman, Gladys Nilsson, Ed Paschke, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Christina Ramberg, Tony Tasset, H.C. Westermann and Karl Wirsum. The hotel has continued the alignment each year.</figcaption></figure>What: The Peninsula Chicago is the five-star hotel that brought traditional Asian service to a city already renowned for the warmth of its hospitality. The hotel has become an integral part of Chicago life and is considered the top choice for everything from accommodation to celebrations and corporate events. For this, the hotel credits its strong links to both the local community and international heritage.&nbsp;Where: Chicago's Gold Coast, along Michigan Ave. and a short walk from the Museum of Contemporary Art as well as the Richard H. Driehaus Museum.&nbsp;Details: <a href="https://www.peninsula.com/en/chicago/5-star-luxury-hotel-downtown-chicago">www.peninsula.com/en/chicago/5-star-luxury-hotel-downtown-chicago</a>&nbsp;St. Louis, MO – Angad Arts Hotel<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417573/y4ulugiudjdvhbpwrsrb.jpg"><figcaption>A yellow "happiness room" at the Angad Arts Hotel in St Louis</figcaption></figure>What: Angad Arts Hotel boasts that it is a wholly new hospitality experience that embraces the visual arts, performance, fashion, literature and gastronomy. AAH offers superb, gracious hospitality combined with curation of socially inspiring experiences. It is the first hotel in the world where guests are able to book not only by room type, but also by emotion of color.Where: The heart of St. Louis’s Grand Center Arts DistrictDetails: <a href="https://www.angadartshotel.com">www.angadartshotel.com</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Immersive Art Invites You to Stay: Midwestern Art Hotels Worthy of a Road Trip

<html><head></head><body>In order to thrive, Chicago artists need an active local collecting community. A unique program – Not Just Another Pretty Face (NJAPF) – created to benefit the Hyde Park Art Center also supports artists, while showing collectors the surprising ways to make art part of your life. NJAPF allows the Art Center to play matchmaker for artists and potential art buyers, facilitating a fun, accessible commissioning process that builds lasting relationships between artists and patrons, creates a new base of support for artists, and invests in the vitality of Chicago’s cultural community.2019 marks the seventh installment of the program. A series of salons began early this year, and an exhibit unveiling the works will be presented in December, along with a catalog documenting the collaborations. We asked Linda and Mark Shapiro and artist Candida Alvarez, who worked together during the previous iteration of NJAPF, to share the story behind their artist–patron collaboration.&nbsp; – Ginny Van Alyea, CGN Publisher &nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417517/vmbhwqchtjb0amw8u7li.gif"><figcaption>Candida Alvarez’s Dignity and Tranquility Last Forever hangs in the front room in Linda and Mark Shapiro’s home.</figcaption></figure>Hyde Park Art Center: Tell us about your experience with Not Just Another Pretty Face.Linda Shapiro: We were fortunate to work with Candida right before she had an amazing exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center in 2017. I’ve always admired her as an artist, and it’s been fun to follow her work.Mark Shapiro: When she invited us to her studio, we had the chance to meet an old friend and neighbor in a different context and to see how an artist works.Candida Alvarez: The commission with Linda and Mark was special because I have known them for years. Their son was a school buddy with my son. I was so touched.HPAC: Describe the piece that resulted from your collaboration.LS: Candida was very responsive to us. She made a beautiful square painting. I really like squares, and she picked up on it.CA: I asked them to share photos and things that meant something to them as a family – a special collection of objects, travel and family photos, landscapes. Those images were my beginning point for the formal structure of the painting. The color was found through the photographs.LS: We sent her photos, mostly of family, with the theme “At Home in Hyde Park.” We have a son, who for years wore a red fleece to school. There’s a little red splotch in the corner that I’ve decided is Michael’s fleece.HPAC: Two years later, how do you reflect on the process?LS: The whole process was great – going to a salon, sitting and reviewing artists, visiting Candida’s studio, attending the unveiling, and now living with the art!CA: The entire process was fluid and surprising.LS: We’ve never commissioned a piece of art before, and it was fun. We’ll do it again next time! &nbsp;To get involved with Not Just Another Pretty Face please visit <a href="https://www.hydeparkart.org/njapf-2019/">hydeparkart.org</a> or contact Maria Nelson: mnelson@hydeparkart.org • 773-324-5520, ext. 1014Publisher's note: since this interview was published in the summer print edition of CGN, the full list of artists participating for 2019 has been released, including: Juan Angel Chavez, Kelli Connell, Antonia Contro, Chad Kouri, Laura Letinsky, Industry of the Ordinary, Jay Tichy, Mary Lou Zelazny, and many others.&nbsp;</body></html>

Collaborative Benefit: Hyde Park Art Center Plays Artistic Matchmaker

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418039/ctrqml6fnzvcqendmh7c.gif"><figcaption>Haley Scott, AKA @sugarmilkk</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;By SARAH ADLERLee Godie sold her work on the steps of the Art Institute.A self–taught artist, she insisted her work was better than Cezanne’s. But, it was the late ‘60s, decades before the advent of the Internet, and nearly half a century before Instagram would commandeer the public conscience. In terms of self-promotion, well, the steps of the Art Institute would have to do.Although the internet has revolutionized everything – how we connect with one another, how we look at art, even how we create art, a simple fact remains the same: artists who are starting out, and those without traditional gallery representation, must be their own best advocate. Independent artists are tasked with a critical step after making their work: how to effectively share their art with a wide and engaged audience. Self–promotion can now be created and distributed, for the most part, digitially, originating entirely from the privacy of home or the studio, rather than out on the steps of a major institution. And many of the digital channels available are also, in large part, free.I spoke with two artists without gallery representation on how they self-promote, and in particular, how they use the omnipresent social media application Instagram to do so. I also looked at greater trends in how artists feel about the controversial platform: does its universality and the algorithm of instant gratification ultimately undermine the art, even while bolstering the reach of one’s portfolio? I also wondered, what happens to galleries in the midst of all these great changes?•Haley Scott is a Chicago-based photographer who, on Instagram, goes by the sweetly enticing handle, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sugarmilkk/?hl=en">@sugarmilkk</a>. With more than 6,700 followers, a bio that proudly claims, “DETROIT MADE * CHICAGO BASED,” punctuated by the link to her professional website, Scott’s feed is a melange of photos united by rich hues as well as a sense of something intimate: there are close-up action shots of limber basketball players contorted into yoga-like positions, friends posing in moody lighting, and selfies of the artist herself modeling her own heavily tattooed arms. In many ways, Scott’s Instagram serves as both an ode to her work as well a window into her own identity.“I know for a fact that whatever my brain is twisted up in makes me see colors differently,” she says, speaking of both her work as well as her personal Instagram. Last summer, a swath of luscious pinks and purples dominated her images; by December she favored rich blues and darker tones.This kind of casual, light relationship to Instagram&nbsp;seems to be the exception amongst many artists today, at least according to several popular articles. <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/zn8ezy/how-instagram-is-changing-the-art-world">A 2016 piece in Vice</a>&nbsp;by the artist Brad Phillips claimed nearly the exact opposite with its doomsday title, “How Instagram is changing the art world” and subheader, “The app has made me more successful than ever, but at the expense of my own art.”Written in the tone of an artist who is self-consciously biting the hand that has (literally) fed him luxurious six-course meals, Phillips acknowledges the ways in which his own presence on Instagram&nbsp;has dramatically boosted his art practice. Amongst his professional entrees, solo gallery shows and a book deal. His long list of drawbacks, however, underscores a kind of insidious aspect of the social media platform: that it sets up a system of instant gratification, it deletes any merit of privacy or creating work for oneself, and it can arbitrarily choose content to censor (if it transgresses vague community guidelines). In many ways, his criticisms aren’t too different from that of a regular (read: non-artist) user of the application.“The app has been both an amazing and horrible tool for me, as well as other artists,” Phillips proclaims.His frustration at the outwardly capricious nature of Instagram’s algorithms is mirrored by Hailey Losselyong, another Chicago-based artist who goes under the handle <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hai_ey/?hl=en">@hai_ey</a>. Referencing the coveted ability to post active links in one’s Instagram ‘Story’ – a feature that, oddly, is only available to some, seemingly due to a high number of followers or some other account verification (another process with secret guidelines) – Losselyong says, “I think it’s strange that not everyone has access to all the app’s features.”<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418040/iojutaegi7evkbf5g5uq.png"></figure>&nbsp;Despite her grievances with Instagram’s selectiveness, Losselyong warns that it is easy to hate on Instagram, when, in fact, it is also an incredible marketing tool, especially for artists who aren’t represented by galleries, or who do not employ or have access to a public relations team. Instagram, which is projected to surpass 111 million users&nbsp;in 2019, can serve as a very effective form of advertising. “It’s kind of a place to do a less refined version of a portfolio,” she says.Like Scott, Losselyong does not shy away from the selfie. Her intricate, stylized drawings, characterized by fluid and looping lines, are followed up by equally glamorous images of the artist posing, making her feed a kind of ode to not just the art but the life of an artist: subversive, creative, edgy. In one image she sports a head of bleached white-blue and purple hair, using only a blue emoji as the caption. It isn’t a historically typical artist’s portfolio.The effect of Instagram on art spreads beyond the individual artist. When it comes to galleries, Instagram has also introduced radical change. A <a href="https://news.artnet.com/market/emerging-art-dealers-dealing-gallery-crisis-asked-dozen-nada-1414870">2018 Artnet.com article</a>&nbsp;by Julia Halperin and Tim Schneider describes the phenomenon as an “Instagram takeover.” Gallerists acknowledge that they have discovered artists and evaluated images of art by using the app. Some also claim collectors pay more attention to a gallery’s Instagram posts than their email blasts (which, it’s worth noting, mostly replaced mailed announcements). Halperin and Schneider write, “By providing an unmediated, simple, and ever-present line of communication with collectors, Instagram has allowed the gallery to propel conversations begun with collectors at fairs into finalized sales back at the gallery at a later date…”Like other social media tools, Instagram offers for galleries –&nbsp;which, are in simple terms, small businesses –&nbsp; access to free marketing and publicity. While algorithms may interfere with this in ways that wouldn’t happen in a magazine, per se, much can be said about the fact that not only is the content free, but it’s accessible to everyone. Instagram can ideally be a space to expose contemporary art to anyone who wants to engage with it, regardless of their ability to visit museums or frequent galleries.Instagram, therefore, remains in a kind of polarized space. In many ways, the continual pressure the platform fosters – to create work and then promote perfect images of it – both helps and hurts artists. This modern means of sharing, beyond the steps of a museum, can also create great anxiety while pursuing independence, encouraging a singular quest for likes. According to Scott though, sharing her art on social media doesn’t change the fact that she has never done her work for anyone else. “It’s just the Aquarius rebel in me.”<a href="https://www.instagram.com/chigallerynews/">@ChiGalleryNews</a> follows many artists and galleries. Below are a few that have notable followings and frequently high post likes.<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418041/fiscikszk8hqatlavkpr.gif"><figcaption>From left: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/verticalgallery/?hl=en">@verticalgallery</a> – post likes: 755 • 33.9K followers; <a href="https://www.instagram.com/huntslonem/?hl=en">@huntslonem</a> – post likes: 1,183 • 107K followers; <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sarahraskeyfineart/">@sarahraskeyfineart</a> – post likes: 466 • 29.9K followers; <a href="https://www.instagram.com/yvettemayorga/?hl=en">@yvettemayorga</a> – post likes: 358 • 4,434K followers &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

#INSTAArt: Instagram's Independent Art Connections

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417563/isqrm1gy4fjpynwira7m.jpg"></figure>By GINNY VAN ALYEAAs of Monday, May 20 Chicago has a new mayor, in case you haven't heard. Lori Lightfoot was sworn in yesterday as the 56th mayor of Chicago, becoming the first African American woman and the first openly LGBTQ person to hold the office. We also heard that her physical office is now home to some personally chosen works of art, including a last-minute loan from the <a href="https://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu/">Smart Museum of Art</a>&nbsp;at the University of Chicago, as reported by <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/amanda-williams-lori-lightfoot-mayors-office-1552828">artnet.com</a>A&nbsp;work by Amanda Williams, commissioned by the Smart Museum, that was part of the just closed <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/solidary-solitary-the-joyner-giuffrida-collection">Solidary &amp; Solitary: The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection</a>, drew Lightfoot's notice. A call was made, and the the piece was delivered to the newest chief occupant of City Hall.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417564/baozlcdrng0eapnzlvrw.jpg"><figcaption>Amanda Williams. Photo by Jean Lachat, courtesy of the Smart Museum of Art. &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>Beyond what's on her walls, it's worth noting that Lightfoot was the only one of the 14 mayoral candidates this year who made support for the arts officially part of her platform. Now that Lightfoot is in office, the mayor has shared a list of 31 people who are part of just her <a href="https://bettertogetherchicago.com/transition-team/">Arts and Culture committee</a> – from artists like Theaster Gates and Amanda Williams, to nonprofit arts leaders like Esther Grimm (3Arts), Hector Duarte (Chicago Public Art Group) and Nick Cave (SAIC).&nbsp;Lightfoot benefits on day one (and two) from the fact that everything is ahead of her, and nothing has yet gone wrong, as it surely will in a city of Chicago's size and with a city like Chicago's problems and obstacles. For now, we look to her proposed road map, where she emphasizes, "Real transformation will occur only when Chicagoans believe that their government works for them and their communities, responding to their needs and concerns."&nbsp;It's clear the mayor's office hopes to foster change by using the arts as a prime vehicle for localized as well as general progress in Chicago. In a time where funds are not only scarce but already overextended elsewhere, the transition team's statement about Arts and Culture says, "Artistic power is fundamental to reimagining the creative, innovative, and cultural roots of good governance. The new administration can demonstrate transparency and accountability by dedicating funding up front to arts and culture that is competitive with other global cities, in a clear and open manner, while addressing regulations that unfairly impact certain artist and particular neighborhoods. Our youth should be empowered and emboldened to light the way forward."There is no doubt that, well-funded or not, one of the biggest tourist draws in Chicago is our vibrant cultural scene that includes not only public art but also theater, music, performing arts, and more. The arts are serious job and business generators. In a state with a threadbare economy, our arts are valuable assets that benefit many individuals as well as groups.&nbsp;Some recent figures from the <a href="http://www.artsalliance.org/advocacy/resources/talking-points#2">Illinois Arts Alliance</a>:<ul><li>In Illinois, there are nearly 34,000 creative enterprises -- both nonprofit and commercial -- that employ over 140,000 people. These enterprises are essential to the state's economy: they put people to work, buy from local businesses, generate government revenue, and are a cornerstone of tourism and economic development.</li><li>In Chicago, the nonprofit arts alone are a $2.2 billion industry that supports over 60,000 full-time-equivalent jobs, generates a total of $1.3 billion in household income to local residents, and delivers more than $200 million in local and state government revenue.</li><li>The arts attract tourists to Illinois. There are over 100 million Americans who include the arts along with historic sites, cultural events, and ethnic festivals in their trips each year.</li><li>In Chicago, cultural tourists tend to stay longer and spend two-and-a-half times more money in relation to arts and cultural events than Chicago residents.</li><li>The arts are a magnet for talent and investments. They attract companies that want to offer their employees and clients a creative climate and a vibrant, livable community.</li></ul>So while Mayor Lightfoot has an uphill battle ahead of her, with many more critical topics and fields other than the arts, it's encouraging that her office is officially recognizing the role the arts can play in a healthy economy as well as in vibrant neighborhoods far from downtown. The arts can help the mayor reach, and lift up, the residents in all 77+ Chicago neighborhoods. &nbsp;&nbsp;Earlier this year when the first part of the election was underway, candidate Lightfoot joined with a group of local artists at City Hall and announced a <a href="https://lightfootforchicago.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/LL-Position-paper_ArtCulture.pdf">policy</a> to advance arts and culture in Chicago.&nbsp;Her policy proclaimed, "The arts are powerful. Now more than ever, it is essential that we lift up and invest in our unparalleled Chicago artists. A robust Chicago arts community inspires us, engages us, questions the status quo and has the power to bring our diverse city together in conversation around the critical challenges of our day..."Lightfoot’s plan to advance arts and culture includes the following:<ul><li>Prioritize funding for the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events for increased equitable grantmaking and microfinancing to individual artists, arts organizations and arts corridors.</li><li>Audit and streamline city licensing and permitting regulations, including the Public Performance and Amusement license.</li><li>Develop an Artist-in-Residence program to build job opportunities for artists and mentorship opportunities for young people.</li><li>Bring together ideas and resources from the city, philanthropy, culture and the arts to develop policies and strategies to keep artists living and working in Chicago.</li><li>Build investment in Chicago’s public art program by overhauling the Percent for Art ordinance.</li><li>Enhance the voices of socially-active artists to encourage civic engagement and support developing creative conversations and solutions to our city’s biggest challenges.</li></ul>The arts must be supported and fostered, and they also must be promoted so that more people who live here are aware of what they contribute.&nbsp;In 1986 Mayor Harold Washington's administration developed the original Cultural Plan for Chicago, and it was borne out of a two-year, citywide effort to analyze the City's cultural needs and opportunities and to act on them. Mayor Washington died in office the following year.<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417565/z8qufefgykufhpzyqxt5.jpg"><figcaption>Mayor Harold Washington, whose administration created the original Cultural Plan for Chicago.</figcaption></figure>The City of Chicago and cultural community members came together in 1995 to revise the plan. And Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration again revisited the plan in 2012 after he first arrived in office, launching the Chicago Cultural Plan 2012. The Year of Public Art in 2017 was also spearheaded by the Department Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) and Commissioner Mark Kelly, followed by the year of Creative Youth in 2018.&nbsp;The arts have not been neglected in the past, but for those who actively rely on and are connected to the current cultural community in Chicago, there is always much at stake with a new mayor in office and many have applauded Mayor Lightfoot's regular and public statements on behalf of the arts.&nbsp;When asked about the significance of loaning the work by Amanda Williams to the Mayor for her office on the day of her inauguration, Smart Museum of Art Director Allison Gass told artnet.com, “Chicago is a city full of hope about shifting histories and moving toward equity, and the fact that the new mayor wanted a work of art about that says a lot,” Gass added. “We believe in the power of art to help shift perspectives, and hopefully the map in the office will help do that.”<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417566/lva4go7idyk0usbmzfsh.png"><figcaption>Additional works by area artists have already made it onto the walls in City Hall. Artist Dan Devening shared, via Instagram @devening_projects, that his work (shown behind Lightfoot's head), Negative, from 1989, is installed, along with works by Tony Fitzpatrick, Dawoud Bey, David Klamen, and others.&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;As stated in Lightfoot's ambitiously worded arts policy from February 2019, "Arts and culture are as essential as clean air and water. They sustain us, create joy, unleash our radical imaginations, and challenge us to see the world in new and better ways. They unite us while recognizing differences and defining our common humanity."&nbsp;What happens next will be key.&nbsp;</body></html>

A New Mayor's Welcome Embrace of the Arts in Chicago

<html><head></head><body>When visiting galleries, wandering a museum or strolling through a fair, the art you encounter is complete. Most of us do not see the process a work of art goes through on the way to completion; we do not often see the artist at work, in the studio testing ideas and concepts or on site tending to an installation.For our summer issue of CGN we asked a handful of artists to share what they are working on now as well as to describe their process so we might glimpse what really happens behind the curtain and see what is still a work in progress. –GV&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417221/cqltn7xdnuln01rrxule.gif"><figcaption>Tony Fitzpatrick</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;TONY FITZPATRICKFitzpatrick is a prolific artist who is always sourcing bits and pieces of found materials for his drawing collages. He’s currently working on a series called The Garden Of All Other Ecstasies as well as making maquettes for a large scale local project that will be publicly announced in late spring.“These works are about the Gardens of our Desire. What moves us, and keeps us up, and makes our hearts beat faster... There are thorns, dirt, bramble and burrs. There is conflict, sweat, and the smell of the earth.”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417222/grtrxdrebizhezm5ufq9.gif"><figcaption>Jordan Martins</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;JORDAN MARTINS“I’ve been working through ideas relating to camouflage, signalling theory, and gestalt psychology, including the way plants and animals conceal or advertise themselves visually.The work I’m preparing for Goldfinch for my show in September 2019 is, in a sense, beginning with the idea of a painting behaving like a plant or animal in this active way, rather than an inert object on display.In part this is being worked through with the kinds of patterns built up within in each piece, but also in how individual pieces can relate to another in the space, to conceal or distort themselves or perhaps suggest a level of instinctual communication between them.”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417223/i7ic1ecxbnoskwnshqxc.gif"><figcaption>Zack Wirsum</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;ZACK WIRSUM“These days in the studio I am preparing for a show in October at Jean Albano Gallery. My current body of work is mostly memory related in concept and content; a combination of observational painting from recollections and nostalgic re-explorations of subject matter that fascinated me as a child, now from the perspective of adulthood. The two small paintings [pictured here] are examples of the later working studies for a larger painting about a birthday party for a cryptid attended by monster movie and Disney characters, tentatively titled Feliz Cumpleanos El Chupacabra Expanded Guest List. I am playing with the composition of the party invitees and tweaking coloration. The larger painting, in the background with the masking tape blocking cues and partially obscured by the studies, is about the 1930s Boston Red Sox spring training in Hot Springs Arkansas. It depicts baseball players climbing the wooded Ouachita mountains in full uniform as part of their conditioning, which I learned from a historical plaque. The stylization of the ball players I concocted reminded me of samurais, so I utilized colors I imagine a samurai would chose to paint their house with. I am still working on the patterns and layout of the rock formations and boulders the athletes are scaling. The masking tape is helping to inform these decisions.”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417224/hdhtkw8kfxgsnkblmmam.gif"><figcaption>Anna Kunz</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;ANNA KUNZAnna Kunz is working towards a collaboration with Emanuel Pratt and the team at the SWEETWATER foundation, which will include new suspended paintings and structures.Parts of the collaboration will be on view in the Artists Garden and Theatre at the Taste of Chicago this summer.Recent exhibitions include Inquiry into Abstraction, University of Cincinnati, curated by Mark Brosseau, and All is Well and Good at Circle Contemporary, curated by Eric Ruschman.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417225/mnu7asympymjiocnumjk.gif"><figcaption>Diana working on a scale model – with helpful Legos – for a show at Carrie Secrist Gallery</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;DIANA GUERRERO-MACIÁ&nbsp;“I use slow craft practices to make hybrid paintings and objects. My core values are: material making is meaningful, craft is a form of consciousness, and the decorative has work to do.Materiality is a meaning that is distinctive. I make surfaces that are collaged, pieced, dyed, and stitched as a reconsideration of the field and form. My early works were constructed from discarded clothing, cut apart, flattened and pieced back together by hand in a way to expand the materiality of painting. I was influenced by Modernism and the Arts and Crafts Movement. In my practice, I admired the Pattern and Decoration movement and artists who used craft and collage methods to challenge categorization of art, craft and design.As a Latina artist, I learned the value of material culture in real-time. My Cuban immigrant parents taught me hand-work, material re-use, and improvisational “making-do.” They understood the need to balance the decorative with the utilitarian to resist subjugation. My artwork comes to me intuitively, through my lived experience.&nbsp;I’m not trying to answer with logic, rather, I look to where my hands-on pursuit leads me.”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417226/p1thvew0uzk41nltufph.gif"><figcaption>George Klauba</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;GEORGE KLAUBAIn October George Klauba will have a solo exhibition at Hofheimer Gallery of his new body of work. He will have 20 oil paintings and drawings on wood of tattoo–related imagery. As of this spring he had completed 10 paintings. The sketch pictured here is one idea in showing women and men tattooed. Klauba explains, “I usually use the head or face of the subject in animal form to blend a similarity of the person’s inner make-up or angst. It’s part of the belief that tattoos mirror the inner side of the person or soul.”</body></html>

Artists and Their Art: Revealing Works in Progress

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418346/bjbbn0rcgjrs20t4sf1h.gif"><figcaption>Image taken by <a href="https://www.blkflwrs.com/">Chris Garcia</a></figcaption></figure>ART Is... is an ongoing series for CGN by former intern Riley Yaxley, who seeks to write about underrepresented perspectives and voices in the arts community.&nbsp;&nbsp;By RILEY YAXLEYWhen I met Jordyn at an apartment in Pilsen, I was greeted at the door by their overly-excitable, orange tabby cat, Cheddar. An episode of Broad City was playing on the TV while I hung my coat and knelt down to pet Cheddar. My black MCA tote bag – the heavy-handed hallmark of any young, self-described art aficionado in Chicago – was coated in Cheddar’s soft fur for weeks after our interview. While riding the train I would mindlessly pluck them out, one at a time, while trying not to feel guilty for the writing that I hadn’t started yet.The day of our interview was the second time that we met in person, however, we had followed each other on Instagram for a year and had a brief encounter at the opening of Trans Art Is: Love and Liberation. I’m struck by how comfortable I immediately felt with them. When they laugh, and they laugh often, their body leans back slightly, and each peal of laughter involves their entire body.My heart sank when I checked Jordyn’s Instagram the night after our interview. They had posted to their story saying that they didn’t really identify as an artist and that they would be taking a break from Instagram for a little while. I was immediately self-conscious. Had I miscalculated my questions or even misinterpreted their work? Had I alienated them during our conversation?Jordyn’s hiatus from Instagram ended after about two weeks. They posted a photo of <a href="https://www.alexandeffee.com/">Alex &amp; Effee</a>, two queer, trans women of color who speak, write, and model together as a couple. The photo caption read, “I didn’t want to post anything again until I was 100% confident in it. Happy to say I am with these.”I understood this sentiment. It’s a terrifying time to be an artist. The response to one’s work is readily quantifiable in the number of likes and comments that the post receives. The conceptual artist John Baldessari once said, “For an artist, going to art fairs is like watching your parents have sex.” Being an artist on Instagram can have the same mechanic, horrifying quality. The boundary between the artist and the audience is disregarded. The threat of irrelevance is a constant fear.&nbsp;Because Jordyn’s work so brazenly documents the nude human form, they have to censor their photos before posting them to Instagram. One of Jordyn’s posts was taken down earlier this year, despite having been blurred. A few days after posting the image Jordyn's usual engagement levels dropped sharply – the likely culprit was Instagram’s indeterminate algorithm that arranges content on a user’s feed. Each time Jordyn posts a photo there’s an implicit anxiety in watching the audience’s response in real time – like standing in the corner of the room and watching the audience and your artwork clumsily groping one another in your own bed.<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418347/nvjwjm6lh6uyrcivgtgf.gif"><figcaption>Image Courtesy of the Artist</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;The opening for Trans Art Is: Love and Liberation was on Valentine’s Day in 2019 at the Andersonville Galleria. The exhibition was hosted by <a href="https://chicagotherapycollective.org/">Chicago Therapy Collective</a> and featured the work of 15 trans and gender non-conforming (GNC) artists and aimed to build platforms and create space for trans and GNC individuals. Ken Folk, a nonbinary trans, queer, Haitian artist from Texas, curated the show with the intent to explore how sexual agency and intimacy for trans and GNC individuals can become a means of empowerment in a history that has reduced them to objects of fear or subjects of sexual objectification.&nbsp;The exhibition description included the following quote from Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider:“In touch with the erotic, I become less willing to accept powerlessness, or those other supplied states of being which are not native to me, such as resignation, despair, self-effacement, depression, self-denial. …In order to be utilized, our erotic feelings must be recognized. The need for sharing deep feeling is a human need."One of Jordyn’s photographs was used in the flyer for the exhibition, which depicted two individuals cradling one another, with one model turned away from the camera and the other with their head nestled in the crook of the other model’s arm. This photo is a representation of the human need for deep sharing: the intimacy of two nude forms in a gentle embrace. During our interview, I remarked to Jordyn that, despite the nudity in their work, their photographs don't feel erotic. They admit that their work fits into the curatorial space of love and relationships but that they don’t like focusing on sex in their photographs. Each of Jordyn’s photographs feels like peering into a private moment that is also peering back at the viewer, betraying the relationship between the exhibitionist and voyeur.<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418348/tgjagoubt0by2ckom289.gif"><figcaption>Flyer Photo for Trans Art Is. Image Courtesy of the Artist</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;When I ask Jordyn about the other gallery shows they’ve done, they recount a handful from the past few years, such as SICK MUSE: UTOPIA in 2018, Rømantique in 2018, and a show at the Clark Street Collective’s first exhibition back in 2017. Jordyn tells me, “I got a lot of followers on Instagram after that event. It was very Instagram focused - we had our usernames on the wall.” And just like with Trans Art Is, Jordyn was personally solicited by the organizers or curators who had seen their work on Instagram. It made me think that traditional studio visits are being replaced by digital encounters with artists work.The relationship between the body and land is a critical concern in Jordyn’s photography. Jordyn describes the process of shooting people naked in landscapes where you can “see all the similarities between the human body and the actual landscapes.” They were recently in Denver on a trip and shot the models naked in the mountains. They described the process for everyone as exhausting, sweaty, and with dirt all over themselves. Jordyn’s photographs are edited in Adobe Lightroom, using preset filters purchased from other photographers. The peachy pinks, the natural browns, and the earthy tones are drawn out in the photos, which helps to emphasize the parallels between the textures of skin and landscapes.When they moved to Chicago, Jordyn originally planned on attending SAIC. After being accepted and registering for classes, they couldn’t balance having a job and taking courses. Jordyn says to me several times throughout the interview, “I am so glad I didn’t go. I don’t have any debt.” Art school can feel like an ill-advised trap designed to charge exorbitant amounts for tuition while offering few guarantees to students for employment after graduation. However, Jordyn admits that there are helpful resources that friends who attend schools like SAIC and Columbia do have, such as easy access to make prints. For Trans Art Is, Jordyn personally spent over $100 dollars on making prints for the show. Jordyn’s work proves that sometimes being a savvy Instagram user may be more immediately useful than having a college degree.Jordyn began taking photographs at age 12 while growing up in north western Ohio. “I’ve wanted to live in Chicago my whole life. My entire life has been like me pursuing Chicago,” they explain wistfully. I understand the impulse, having grown up in a similarly rural area of Michigan. We have each romanticized the city as an escape from our conservative hometowns, whereas Jordyn puts it, “There are too many God hates f*gs signs everywhere.”But Jordyn acknowledges that living in the city is lonely, where they joke that they recently made a friend – in-person – for the first time in three years of living here. Jordyn compares New York and Chicago saying that, “People in Chicago are polite, but not kind, and people in New York are kind, but not polite.”&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418349/xmbydgp0yayiue5oyfbu.gif"><figcaption>Image Courtesy of the Artist</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;The struggle between the social and the digital feels like it has consumed almost all aspects of our lives as of late, especially in the unprepared realm of art galleries and museums. In As Eve Said to the Serpent: On Landscape Gender and Art, Rebecca Solnit writes that there is “the much-promoted ideal of the user never leaving a well-wired home and the goal of eliminating the world and reconstituting it as information.” Instagram, and the Internet as a sprawling, intangible entity, has given us new ways of communicating, new ways of initiating and maintaining relationships, and new platforms to display and market our work, but the nagging fear seems to be that an element of human connection is lost.Jordyn’s Instagram allows the audience of followers to directly engage with and enjoy art, but the impulse to be a part of an exhibition in a physical gallery is hard to dismiss. The excitement of being in a space, like at Andersonville Galleria, where I had to traipse up three flights of stairs to a bird's nest loft space that was so packed &nbsp;I could barely nudge my way into the room without spilling my (necessary) glass of wine, is undeniable. Social media might be attempting to reconstitute our world as simply information, but Jordyn’s work proves that we are still intimate beings seeking out these moments where we can unabashedly bare our selves to one another.See more of Jordyn’s work on their Instagram <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sleepykiwis/">HERE</a> and on <a href="https://www.sleepykiwis.com/">sleepykiwis.com</a> &nbsp;Note: there is, of course, nudity.&nbsp;</body></html>

ART IS… Jordyn Belli

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418288/n8mjnvpbnm9cdtgquq3c.gif"></figure>&nbsp;By GINNY VAN ALYEAThe Golden Triangle has sourced global treasures as well as inspiration for customers of its unique, River North Chicago space for 30 years. Founded in 1989 by Douglas Van Tress and Chauwarin Tuntisak, The Golden Triangle has built a reputation for itself as a nexus of antiques, design and art. Today it is one of Chicago’s largest home furnishing stores, housed in an 18,000 square foot former Chicago River warehouse featuring vignettes from various historical periods, such as the Raj, other Colonial periods, ancient China, and 19th Century Europe, as well as an indoor courtyard. As shoppers and designers move from space to space, their experience changes with the context.<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418289/h5vr3l0rojve9nzc8mdj.gif"><figcaption>The arches in two of the buildings are inspired by Georgio de Chirico’s painting, Piazza d’Italia, as well as Southeast Asian shophouses. The third building, says Van Tress, is pure modern.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Owners Van Tress and Tuntisak travel the globe to hand-pick items for the Chicago store, and they regularly visit Chiang Mai, where they have a warehouse for shipping things to Chicago, at least twice a year since the store’s founding. A misty mountainous city in northern Thailand, with colorful hill tribes housing hundreds of elaborate Buddhist temples, Chiang Mai is considered a destination for handicrafts and antiques. The city houses beautiful hotels, lively nightlife and epicurean delights, and as of this past fall, Golden Triangle Hang Dong.&nbsp;According to Van Tress, “Golden Triangle Hang Dong is something new. We want to sell in Asia and even globally.”<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418290/dy7yt2dydzoyugvhgw3x.gif"></figure>&nbsp;The new store is a collection of three buildings, adjacent to the existing warehouse, which will become a marketplace and restaurant. The goal, says Van Tress, is to be a new kind of retail space, “A design village where the visitor can explore and see things juxtaposed...in a kind of spiritual experience.” He sees Golden Triangle Hang Dong as a means of bringing “the best of the past, history and human culture into modern design. We’re not a normal antique store.”The Golden Triangle will celebrate its 30th anniversary on May 16, 2019 with an exclusive (and already waitlisted) event featuring many local artists and cultural supporters.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418291/rwjpzva1ccafa9vydvvo.gif"><figcaption>Van Tress says the basic idea for the store’s design – modern but also a bit softer, with historical references – was his own, fulfilled by architect Techinphat Khachonphurithanakul.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;</body></html>

A Chicago Space's Global Reach: The Golden Triangle Expands to Thailand

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418278/cblo9nrg7wqxu1rk6qkh.gif"><figcaption>Kingston-born multimedia artist Ebony G. Patterson is creating a series of five intricate and colorful banners titled …between the below… &nbsp;</figcaption></figure><h3>Chicago Riverwalk&nbsp;</h3>Seasonal walkway opens May 13Stroll along the east branch of the Chicago River and admire new and permanent public art installations along the banks while enjoying creative food and entertainment. New this year: banners by artist Ebony G. Patterson.&nbsp;From Lake Shore Dr./Lake Michigan west to Franklin.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagoriverwalk.us">chicagoriverwalk.us</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418279/axw1eule0d6a9jqgojcm.gif"><figcaption>Art on the Mart will project seven nights a week this summer and coordinate programming with the City’s year of Chicago Theater in 2019 &nbsp;</figcaption></figure><h3>Art on theMART</h3>Nightly May 13–Sept 30With its minimum 30-year duration, its location downtown along the Chicago River and its substantive and relevant content, Art on theMART is a milestone on Chicago’s trajectory of public art. Local and international works are on display and freely accessible with no branding nor sponsorships.&nbsp;Best viewed on The Chicago Riverwalk between Wells and Lake St.&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="http://artonthemart.com">artonthemart.com</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418280/wpajo0uswwiujdrhv2qg.gif"><figcaption>This large, iconic vintage Georg Jensen sterling eel dish is from &nbsp;Greg Pepin Silver from Denmark, exhibiting this year at the Chicago Antiques + Art + Design Show &nbsp;</figcaption></figure><h3>Chicago Antiques + Art + Design</h3>May 16–19The third edition of this dynamic show features 100 exhibitors and a sequel to last year’s splashy, refreshed opening night party benefitting the Woman’s Board of Northwestern Memorial Hospital.&nbsp;Show tickets: $20+. Opening night tickets $200+&nbsp;222 W. Merchandise Mart Plaza<a href="http://chicagoantiquesartdesign.com">chicagoantiquesartdesign.com</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418281/xaaewkfb8z9sk3ipyipi.jpg"><figcaption>Randolph Street Market takes place nearly every month, but the outdoor summer events become more popular every year. Things kick off Memorial Day weekend in the West Loop. &nbsp;</figcaption></figure><h3>Randolph Street Market Memorial Day Garden Party</h3>May 26 and 27Kick off the season’s outdoor markets with a live band, fancy foods, market bars, on site-appraisals and more. Check website for early buying hours. 1340 W. Washington,&nbsp;Tickets: $5–10<a href="https://www.randolphstreetmarket.com">randolphstreetmarket.com</a> &nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418282/hyxkwdfg4w4ymbyu6jvp.gif"><figcaption>Featured in Sculpture Milwaukee’s 2018 exhibition was Richard Deacon's Big Time, 2016, painted and lacquered stainless steel, image Courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery, New York</figcaption></figure><h3>Sculpture Milwaukee &nbsp;</h3>June–OctoberA free outdoor urban sculpture experience in downtown Milwaukee returns for a 3rd year with works by 20+ internationally and locally renowned artists. Past exhibitors have included Magdalena Abakanowicz, Sanford Biggers, Robert Indiana, Hank Willis Thomas, Erwin Wurm and others.&nbsp;Works on view and for sale.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sculpturemilwaukee.com">sculpturemilwaukee.com</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418284/qyo66jyv7kaaw2s4rxfp.gif"><figcaption>Joe Mills is just one artist participating in the 72nd 57th street art fair in Hyde Park</figcaption></figure><h3>57th Street Art Fair</h3>June 1 and 272nd annual two-day outdoor celebration of the arts in Hyde Park. 57th St. at Kimbark<a href="https://www.57thstreetartfair.org">57thstreetartfair.org</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418285/eobcv1i1mzvvx6l64auq.gif"><figcaption>CAC’s Work in Progress party is always creative as well as supportive of artists. 2018’s theme was construction attire...</figcaption></figure><h3>CAC’S Work in Progress</h3>June 6Chicago Artists Coalition’s annual benefit is CAC’s biggest night of the year and raises over $100,000 to support residencies, education programs, and resources for Chicago artists.This year’s party honors artist Hebru Brantley + Gensler.2130 W. FultonTickets: $60–$350<a href="https://chicagoartistscoalition.org/get-involved/annual-benefit">chicagoartistscoalition.org</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418286/lj2xjf6ipd5qfgbbpjf3.gif"><figcaption>“The Nate” sculpture park hosts a summer solstice event based around Edvin Strautmanis’s Phoenix, built from steel beams</figcaption></figure><h3>Summer Solstice Sunset Celebration</h3>June 22Arrive at the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park in south suburban University Park, IL around 6:30pm “Ravinia” style (BYO picnic and beverages) enjoy ambient tunes with our guest DJ next to the bonfire near the lake, take a walk around the park and watch the sun go down through the geometric angles of Phoenix, by Edvins Strautmanis, which is sited to frame the sunset on the Solstice.&nbsp;FREE and family friendly.<a href="http://www.govst.edu/About/Nathan_Manilow_Sculpture_Park/Programs_and_Events/">www.govst.edu/sculpture/</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418287/nahvptfkpisivo1zdgte.gif"></figure><h3>MCA's Tuesdays on the Terrace</h3>June 5–September 25Every Tuesday this summer, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago hosts free outdoor activities, including the popular Tuesdays on the Terrace live jazz series and the SOARFarmers Market.Tuesdays on the Terrace features Chicago’s quintessential jazz musicians performing outside on the MCA’s terrace. Visitors can experience the musicians up close, enjoy dining al fresco, or relax with a cocktail on the sculpture garden lawn. The performances take place from 5:30-8 pm every Tuesday with support from Luminarts and media sponsor WDCB 90.9 FM, and are hosted by WDCB’s Al Carter-Bey and Richton Guy Thomas from WHPK 88.5 FM.&nbsp;</body></html>

Summer 2019 Art Social Calendar 

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418246/vdyihucctpfvhd24ayn1.gif"></figure>&nbsp;Click to listen to the CGN Publisher's June 2019 <a href="https://wgnradio.com/2019/06/26/how-a-1989-fire-in-river-north-changed-the-art-community-for-years/">WGN Radio Interview</a> about the fire&nbsp;&nbsp;By GINNY VAN ALYEACGN Founder Natalie van Straaten contributed to this article.Photos © <a href="http://www.firescenes.net/?tag=river-north-art-gallery-fire-in-chicago">Jim Skrabel</a> &nbsp;To talk about the River North gallery fire, which happened 30 years ago today, on April 15, 1989, is to travel back in time to a period in Chicago that sounds oddly familiar: the decade heralded the arrival of a visionary art fair amidst a recession, followed by a resounding financial and real estate boom, set against a backdrop of rapid political and social change.1989 in Chicago capped a robust expansion of the local as well as international art market: John Wilson’s Art Expo debuted at Navy Pier in 1980; dozens of galleries moved to or opened in River North throughout the decade. The country enjoyed significant economic growth in the mid ‘80s, only to be gutted by the 1987 stock market crash. For a group of Chicago galleries, April 1989 literally burned it all down.A <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1989-04-16-8904040385-story.html">Chicago Tribune</a> article about the blaze from April 1989 reads, “Artwork estimated to be worth millions of dollars was turned into ash Saturday as fire destroyed a historic brick loft building, site of the largest redevelopment project to date in Chicago’s trendy River North district.”<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418247/bj1amwbaoaapuimyhid7.gif"></figure>Much of what has changed in River North in the last three decades can be traced back to that five alarm inferno. At the time River North was truly the heart of the art gallery scene. The fire obliterated an entire square block – bounded by Huron, Sedgwick, Orleans and Superior Streets – that contained nine galleries in a former manufacturing building. It smoldered for weeks, while the shock persisted and anger grew. While most of the galleries in the fire were resilient and reopened, the neighborhood changed. It was a couple of years before the vibrant spirit returned. The district continued to house the largest number of galleries in Chicago until the early 2000s, but gradually the block that burned became a site for townhouses and design firms, and new neighborhoods drew many galleries elsewhere in the city. &nbsp;&nbsp;Today the district is still home to more than a dozen galleries, with Zolla/Lieberman Gallery remaining as the only one from the group of nine that burned in the fire. Most of the galleries and people directly affected by the fire are no longer around or in the gallery business: Ann Nathan/Objects Gallery, Klein Gallery, Peter Miller Gallery, Sazama/Brauer, East West Contemporary, Rowe Company Fine Arts, van Straaten Gallery, and the original Habatat Gallery.A year after the fire, a follow up article in the Tribune relayed, “The city Fire Department never reached a determination on the cause of the fire,” spokesman Tom Shephard said... The evidence was so badly damaged, we couldn’t come up with a cause.”The destruction of art was ultimately the biggest casualty: a year’s worth of work by Zolla/Lieberman artist Chema Cobo was lost, and the entire estate of a deceased artist at Rowe was incinerated. For dozens of artists work up in smoke meant devastating personal losses, from irreplaceable art to financial lifelines. A tragedy that affected so many throughout the community is worthy of rememberance 30 years later.</body></html>

30 Years Later: The 1989 River North Fire

<html><head></head><body>By RILEY YAXLEYSometimes, I loathe working in the arts.I rarely admit this sentiment, because doing so makes me feel ungrateful for the incredible opportunities and experiences that I’ve had in the arts, especially whenever I hear people &nbsp;romanticize a career in the arts and the gift of distance from the mundanity of a corporate career. How could I dare to not adore working in the arts?Anne Carson writes in her book ​Eros: The Bittersweet t​hat “no one in love really believes that love will end... They are astonished when they fall in love, they are equally astonished when they fall out of love.”&nbsp;Last time this year I had just started working part-time at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago as a Visitor Services Associate. I worked every Tuesday and Thursday until 10:30pm. Maurizio Cattelan’s ​Felix ​– a 26 foot tall skeletal sculpture of a cat – was on view in the MCA’s Kovler Atrium, which I had to cross through in order to leave each day. One night on my way out I stopped for a moment in the atrium, alone except for the distant, musical commotion of Michigan Avenue traffic. The sculpture was lit only by the dim glow of auxiliary lighting and, while standing there admiring the absurd polyvinyl resin and fiberglass feline, I felt a tingling warmth in my chest, despite mid-January's bitter cold. I had fallen in love.Less than six months later, however, I recall feeling completely disillusioned. I was burnt out. I had just completed my undergraduate program at DePaul University, and I was &nbsp;working at the newly opened Wrightwood 659, doing an internship at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, pitching an ambitious new interview series for CGN, and also starting an internship at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Each morning I begrudgingly climbed out of bed, making sure to grab everything I would need for a twelve hour day of working. I had fallen out of love.Recently I was again reminded why I adore working in the arts when I attended the opening of ​object / item / material / me,​ an exhibition curated by Graham Feyl. I ​<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2018/7/art-is-graham-feyl">interviewed​ Graham</a> about this exhibition for Chicago Gallery News in July 2018 and was now ecstatic that the eight artists and their work had finally found a physical space in which to be shown. When I first sat down with Graham for the 2018 interview, we met at Fork, an American fare restaurant in Lincoln Square and we talked for nearly two hours, exhausting a number of topics that veered back and forth between the professional and the personal. At the time we both expressed our common frustrations and joys of doing the work that we do, but to write my first interview I was skeptical of whether or not I could communicate the personal perspectives. I resolved recently that it is exactly these experiences that are perhaps the most fruitful things I can write about.So here I am now, writing about what it's like to fall in and out of, and then back in love with art again.Through a partnership between The Overlook and Annas, a gallery space and curatorial residency at 629 W Cermak, object / item / material / me opened on January 26 and will close on February 24th.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418145/bi1woii6ekiwb6gktiz3.gif"><figcaption>Installation view of&nbsp;object/ item/ material/ me&nbsp;at Annas, L to R Julia Arredondo&nbsp;Give Me Space hats, 2018&nbsp;HOME PROTECTION AMULET (aka Stay Away), 2018, Jennifer Sova&nbsp;men with children, Selections from a Living Archive, 2016 and Janelle Miller&nbsp;Building Virtue: A Study&nbsp;(2017-)</figcaption></figure>A paralyzing snow storm barreled into Chicago on the opening night of ​object / item / material / me. I spent nearly an hour and a half in an uber, inching along the Kennedy Expressway from my apartment in Lincoln Square down to the exhibition in Chinatown. I was half expecting an empty gallery space, assuming that the majority of people would have given up because of the weather. So I was surprised when I arrived and saw that the large, warehouse–style space was so crowded I could barely push my way past the entryway. Nearly 100 people attended the opening, rivalling some of the more traditional gallery openings that I’ve been to in the past few years.In the hallway outside the gallery, there was a large bucket filled with ice and IPA beer, which I drank, but I can’t remember if I enjoyed it or not. I was accosted by several co-workers from the MCA almost immediately, and for the rest of the night I bounced around the space like a silver marble flung around inside a pinball machine. I was overjoyed to run into Jenn Sova, the founder of The Overlook, and to have the opportunity to view ​men with children,​ an ongoing series where Jenn collects photos from thrift stores, online, and from friends to explore relationships between men and children.&nbsp;I took photos with Janelle Miller and her ​Building Virtue: A Study (2017-cont.)​, an ongoing project where Janelle collects fans that used to be used during service by churchgoers in African American churches. The fans were mounted on a wall that had been painted a delicate lavender in a shape reminiscent of a church’s stained glass window.&nbsp;I admired Kimberly English’s ​Love is, e​xcited to see the work in person and not merely as the background on the exhibition flyer. ​Love is​ is made from a deconstructed t-shirt with only the outline of the skeletal hem remaining with price tags that reflect where the garment has been and how its value has decreased over time.&nbsp;I congratulated Graham on having brought the exhibition to fruition and having rallied such a supportive, engaged community around the work.Since the opening was scheduled to end at 9pm, the director of Annas had to loudly, and forcefully, announce that the gallery space would be closing but that the group would be moving to Skylark, a quaint, cash-only bar a block away. I didn’t follow everyone to the bar, because I was headed to a friend’s birthday party nearby, but a sizable crowd did leave together to trudge through the snow to continue the night and the conversation. An enthusiastic and loving community had rallied around a new exhibition.<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418146/btaqz5u8sfrczewk8zyy.gif"><figcaption>Kimberly English,&nbsp;Love is, 2018&nbsp;&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>I was practically giddy on my uber ride home, grinning like a child that has been told they can stay up late and watch TV on a weeknight. I could not remember the last time an art event gave me that elation. I remember going to bed thinking, “How lucky am I?”I had fallen in love again.&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Art Is... The Bittersweet

<html><head></head><body>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418019/mgv0odg3goaj5yrvouit.gif"></figure>&nbsp;Life After Art School is an interview series by a former CGN Intern. The first part was written in 2014.&nbsp;This five-year follow-up is broken up into three parts:&nbsp;• Megan Bonke's Five Year Follow up (article below)<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2019/2/life-after-art-school-making-transitions-and-transactions">• Life After Art School: Making Transitions and Transactions – Part I</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2019/2/life-after-art-school-making-transitions-and-transactions-part-ii">• Life After Art School: Making Transitions and Transactions – Part II</a>&nbsp;By MEGAN BONKEFive years ago when I was an intern at Chicago Gallery News, I set out to write an article about <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2014/5/life-after-art-school-disappointments-and-future-plans">what to do after art school</a>. I was just over one year out of undergrad myself and still very much confused on what direction to take for a career path. While living at home, balancing odd jobs and internships, I went out and asked a number of former art students what they did after leaving school, rather than choosing to write an article about all of my own floundering. Some of the people I talked to were recent graduates, some were artists with long careers, and some never graduated from any art school at all. I didn’t get any specific answers for myself then, but I did see that there are many different paths for artists. Perhaps there were no answers because they can’t teach (ie: guarantee) success in the arts. Or at least, that’s what I thought after researching and writing the article.Since that time I’ve have many more jobs, with each one effectively leading (though hardly in a linear way) to the next. I am grateful for the work I have today, and I feel more comfortably on a path than I’ve felt before. I do, however, still have more questions about life after art school, and those questions are about mainly about money. An elusive, even taboo, topic, one that is an underlying driver in the overall market, money and art is also something that many desperately want to know more about. I want to ask, as a professional artist now, where and how do you make or get money? And then how do you manage it?In my current profession as a Studio Manager for artist René Romero Schuler, I’ve been getting lessons on how to thrive as a professional artist – lessons that were never taught — hardly addressed, actually — in school. My biggest lessons about money so far are within my own practice. For instance, a client once commissioned a piece from me — a big, intensive, collaborative piece — and I messed up the money because I never directly and definitively talked about the numbers. Wires got crossed, and I didn’t ask for compensation until it was too late. I had thought there would eventually just be a fluid payment for an amount that was negotiated based on labor and materials that would be seen as fair at the completion of the project. I didn’t name a number in the beginning because, the truth was, I didn’t know that was when I had to do it and I didn’t know exactly how much time or how many hours the commission would take. It ended up being something bigger than I had ever done, and I was very insecure about the client ultimately being happy with the work, and with me.When the job was finished, and I put a number out there that I thought was fair for me, the rebuttal from the client was so far beneath what I thought was my fair asking price that I was floored. The client was firm – condescending, actually, and I was stuck. As a result the situation revealed a brutal truth to me: people will pay as little as possible to get what they want. Personally, I’m now grateful that the situation taught me some lessons, albeit some scary ones. A follow up is that I’ve also found that talking about money too soon can scare clients away. Ultimately I want opportunities to be paid what I deserve as well as make a client happy.I now really believe the romantic notion of a 'starving artist' should be nipped in the bud! Artists don’t just need to eat; they need a place to sleep, clothes, healthcare, materials and a place to work. The opportunity to create art is not compensation enough. Because selling, and getting paid for, art can be an ongoing struggle, we learn to hustle and make any additional money where we can – in odd or regular (ie: money making) jobs – so that we can hold on to and ultimately work towards the dream of making art for a living. All the while we must also find the extra time to create that work that we hope to sell (and live on!). To people who are not artists, our art making may be perceived as a side gig, or hobby, to our money–making jobs. Some think we are dying to give away (or donate) our art just so that we can have the opportunity for recognition, when really we are trying to figure out a way to transition, to thrive on that 'side gig'.<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418020/an89ibbs1b0yrup9so5b.gif"><figcaption>Megan Bonke, Vuvuzela Boy, 42 x 30 in, oil on canvas, 2017, photo credit Tom Van Eynde&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;So with all the real challenges, how do we do it and become professional? Can we start talking about money as artists? What are art schools today teaching students about success after graduation?&nbsp;As was the case when I wrote the first piece for CGN, I talked to other artists to get their perspectives.&nbsp;My first interview this time (linked below as Part I) is with a French artist, David Twose, about taking his own scary leap from a comfortable (lucrative, non-art) job to becoming a full-time, professional artist. My second interview (linked below as Part II) is with a current art student, Wendolyn Sterkel, who has also taken a leap, switching from a traditional, public university to attending art school.&nbsp;For both of these interviews, I’ve tried my best not to shy away from questions about financial challenges. I also hope my own story helps others move closer to an understanding of life as a professional artist.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Related:Read <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2014/5/life-after-art-school-disappointments-and-future-plans">Life After Art School: Disappointments and Future Plans</a> (from 2014)Read <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2019/2/life-after-art-school-making-transitions-and-transactions">PART I</a> of Life After Art School, Transitions and Transactions (2019)Read <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2019/2/life-after-art-school-making-transitions-and-transactions-part-ii">PART II</a> of Life After Art School, Transitions and Transactions (2019)&nbsp;Top image: Megan Bonke, BP, 12 x 30in (diptych detail), oil on linen, 2017, Collection of Jacob Gerber, photo credit Tom Van Eynde</body></html>

Life After Art School: Five Years Later

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418065/iodpunzeg9s6ruxnymmu.gif"></figure>&nbsp;Life After Art School is an interview series by a former CGN Intern. The first part was written in 2014.&nbsp;This five-year follow-up is broken up into three parts:&nbsp;• <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2019/2/life-after-art-school-five-years-later">Life After Art School: Five Years Later</a>• Life After Art School: Making Transitions and Transactions – Part I (below)<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2019/2/life-after-art-school-making-transitions-and-transactions-part-ii">• Life After Art School: Making Transitions and Transactions – Part II</a>&nbsp;By MEGAN BONKEAs was the case when I wrote the first Life After Art School article for CGN in 2014, I talked to other artists to get their perspectives.&nbsp;I tried my best not to shy away from questions about financial challenges, and I hope my own story as well as the thoughts and answers from another artist helps others move closer to an understanding of life as a professional artist.&nbsp;My first follow-up interview was with French artist David Twose, who is currently doing an artist residency in his native France, but he is also planning for a spring 2019 show in suburban Lake Forest, Illinois.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418067/wtptjvtae6swlzpbx5fe.gif"><figcaption>David Twose</figcaption></figure>David Twose, 41, Painter&nbsp;Megan Bonke: When did you decide you wanted to be an artist?David Twose: It’s a tricky question. As a professional, it’s when I quit my previous job. As an artist, I've always wanted to be one – I’ve been drawing since I was a kid. When I worked in a professional corporation, I was taking drawing and painting lessons after work for almost eleven hours per week, in addition to my full time job.MB: What did you do for work before you were a full time artist?DT: I had been working for 16 years at a car company called Peugeot S.A (PSA Group) of which there are several brands: Peugeot, Citroën, DS, Opel, and Vauxhal. I was mainly doing marketing and communication there for the international&nbsp;markets.MB: What was the catalyst for making the switch from art as a hobby to art as a career?DT: Art was always deeper than a hobby, a lot more than that. The big shift occurred when I realized I was very comfortable for 16 years in the same company. I felt that it was so easy to continue working there until retirement. I imagined myself 20 years later, at the age of 60. I projected myself at this age and saw myself looking back and trying to see what I had achieved. That freaked me out. I was not at the right place. The right place for me was making art.MB: Where have you studied, what did you study, and how far does your education extend?DT: I went to business school. I was quite good at school, so I went to what’s called “preparation for business school” in Lyon, France and was able to succeed to the renowned Graduated School of Business in Nancy, France. I finished my Business studies in&nbsp;Montreal, Canada at McGill University, as well. I was in preparation school for two years and business for three years; that’s five years.MB: Where have you studied art, and did you take any art classes at university?DT: From ages 16 to 18, I took art classes in school. After that, I took a lot of night classes and during the weekend as well.MB: Did anything in your studies (business marketing or fine art) prepare you for running your own business as an artist?DT: My communications and marketing experience has helped me a lot. Part of my job at the time was to build communication strategies and help our companies, located in other countries, apply them locally. Having said that, when I do communications for my paintings, I try to apply the basic rules that I used to apply when I was advising others. I try to be consistent in the message that I deliver for the product, which is my painting. Sometimes it’s hard. And the funny thing is that looking back at when I used to oversee and evaluate the communications, I notice that I make the same mistakes. For the same thing I would criticize, I find it difficult to be my own judge.What helped me was to first build my website immediately after I quit my job. I also created business cards and advertisements, such as on Instagram and Facebook. From what I’ve seen, not many artists prioritize that. I also have a portfolio that I take with me on my exhibitions. Not all artists have this communication kit that I have. Artists have told me they don’t want to do it because either they feel that they are only artists and they are not yet in a position to market their art, or they don’t think they have the skill set. Many don’t even consider how to market their art, because it is totally out of their range of thoughts.Just last December I created a company to make the process of selling easier, for which I had to hire an accountant to help me set it up. When I created the company, I opened the range of activities to be available for other artists as well. With this company I can also give advice to other artists regarding their communication strategies.MB: Can you elaborate on these rules for marketing?DT: I should be able to do it; it’s nice to talk with you about it because it reminds me to focus more. The communication strategies I apply are about the process of how I create and why I want to create, and it’s all based on one important word I call abstractivation. When I paint landscapes, I try to see the abstract things that exist in reality—the shapes of a tree, a building, a shadow, etc. I want to expose and amplify these abstracted things that I see in reality. For instance sometimes when I paint, I turn the canvas 180 degrees to forget that it’s a landscape, and instead, I try to see it as an abstract painting. In terms of communication, I’m trying to focus on that word, abstractivation, as my credo—what I believe. I believe there are abstract things in reality, and these are very strong and can bring us to another dimension—something spiritual. My communication is based on this pillar of my work. It’s the way I work, and the way I see art.MB: How long have you been a full time artist?DT: I quit my job in June 2017 and have been pursuing art professionally ever since.MB: Can you describe the first year of working as an artist full time?DT: The first month was a bit weird, because I went on holiday to Canada just after I quit. While I still felt like I was on holiday, at the same time I knew that I left my secure zone. That was very frightening. I was scared. Before, when I was part of a company, it was like I was on a big boat, and when I quit, I was in deep water. Then I had moments where I would remember myself painting outside, and I would have otherwise been in the office; that was a real pleasure.I have never worked so hard since I stopped working. As a professional artist, you have to do everything. Of course you have to paint. You also have to do the communication. You have to make all the decisions. When you work for a company, you have to make some, but others take many responsibilities. My day is usually made of painting and entrepreneurial decisions: a budget to work within, timing management, and meeting with people. At the same, you have to not try to manage everything, and go with the flow. Because that’s when things happen, when you don’t schedule everything and you follow the good vibrations around you. The best things happened to me when I wasn’t searching for them. Helping others is one of these things. When I help others, I feel pure pleasure and good things happen for me also. I did not experience this when I was working in a private company.MB: How has your artwork changed since making art your career?DT: Because I have more time to paint,&nbsp;I can do more research and exploration in order to produce more intimate works. I want to be more in the concept and because I have more time, I can dig in. I also have the motivation to produce because of things like my upcoming show for example show in Lake Forest that is coming in May. I actually I have to produce for this show. Before I painted what I wanted and when I wanted. Now, I have the parameter of an upcoming show date dictating my production. I also have some commissions to complete. I have to manage myself in order to complete the work.MB: What kind of subsidies/benefits have you been getting from the [French] government since becoming an artist and how long do those last?DT: Depending on how you quit your company in France, you can acquire some pensions from the state. And that was my case. I had this chance to receive money from the government, which is not at the level of my previous salary. Nevertheless, it helped me to live in a proper way and give a lot to my business as an artist. I will have this help until mid 2020. I have this time to become autonomous financially.MB: What does applying for these subsidies/benefits involve?DT: It’s not like these benefits don’t come from somewhere - they are essentially the unemployment tax withheld from my paycheck over the last sixteen years. Usually receiving these benefits means you have to look for a job, but because I created a company they should not ask me to look for a job.MB: What kind of financial burdens have you been experiencing since becoming an artist full time?DT: Not much because my level of finances are okay. I’m still live in the same apartment. I try to spend less. The funny thing is that when I was working and I’d leave the office, I wanted to buy things. I wanted to go to the shops with high tech things. So I spent the money that I earned on the things that I bought. And now I don’t need any of these things anymore. And I think it’s because I like what I do. I don’t need anything other than what I’m doing. At the end of the day, I have less money and spend less money without much effort.MB: Have you noticed any major differences in the way you approach art versus your artist peers in the states?DT: Not really. I meet a lot of French artists because I am in an art residency here in France. There are&nbsp;many types of artists, even in the small place that I work. Many of them&nbsp;are French, but they&nbsp;all do different things. I do see a difference between French and American buyers. Most of the buyers that I’ve had so far that come to my residency have been American. Actually, I think it’s a difference between French people and American; American people are more straightforward. If they like it, they take it. French they go and see once and go back and go again and ask for more info. The big difference is this buying factor for Americans is that they liked what they saw. French people are trying to see what artistic approach you are in comparison to big famous artists. They want you to be part of one of the artistic currents—more conceptual. Americans are more pragmatic and straightforward. French are pickier.MB: How long are you in this residency for?DT: I arrived in September of 2018. Their standard residency is six months. I should leave in March. But because I helped them build their&nbsp;accounting management, they allowed me to&nbsp;stay one month more. There are 30 artists in the residency and 15 are like me; they have to leave after six months. But sometimes one of the permanent residents wants to go on holiday or they have an exhibition far away, and their studio is empty. It’s possible to be occupying an open studio when they are not there for a certain time.MB: Does it cost anything to be a part of this residency?DT: You have to pay, but not much. It is in the center of Paris on a main street that goes by the Louvre. There are several very famous, high-end shops, and there are a lot of people. We are open to public on afternoons, which brings a lot of people. I’ve got quite a lot a space and pay €150 a month – a really good price for the space and location. We do have communal obligations to keep up the space. We each help with cleaning, and I have to work the door once a week. Because it’s a collective, we live in an autonomous way with lots of privileges.<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418068/qm9ja60hpyky5abkizpn.gif"><figcaption>David Twose, Lake Bluff Gazebo</figcaption></figure>MB: What are you currently working on?DT: My focus is the show [in Lake Forest] in May, but I also have three exhibitions right now: a solo show in a city&nbsp;called Bois-Colombes in a nice suburb of Paris. I am honored to be part of this show because the&nbsp;exhibition was juried by the city. The other is a group show that opened February&nbsp;6th. I will also have a show in Deauville in an art&nbsp;fair in April. Then I have solo show, From Paris to Chicago, at The Gallery of Lake Forest (202 E Wisconsin Ave,&nbsp;Lake Forest, IL 60045).&nbsp;The opening is May 9th, and I will be exhibiting paintings of Paris and Chicago as well as Lake Forest and Lake Bluff.&nbsp;MB: Have you achieved the goals that you've set for yourself when making this career shift?DT: I think so, yes. Now there is bigger stuff to achieve. I want to be financially autonomous with my art. My first goal was simply to sell work. I did this during my first show. My friend and fellow artist, René Romero Schuler, actually bought my first piece. I sold to my close circle of friends and family first, then friends of family and friends of friends, and in June last year, I sold a painting to an American guy I’d never met before. My work was still at a hotel from a previous show, and he bought one of my paintings when I wasn’t even around. I was big step for me because he wanted to buy it for the work and not only to support me. Perhaps my friends loved my work, but perhaps they would have not bought if it were not mine. Since then I have sold more paintings to people that did not know, and that is really exciting!MB: What are your plans for your future in the arts?DT: I would love to be in a gallery. I want to find a way to live off my paintings, so I’m trying to find the way that I can do this. One of the options is to be represented in a gallery,&nbsp;perhaps in the USA since I feel connected to the energy and people there. Perhaps there are other options that I have to work on. So that will be the next step, and I think I will do it shortly. First I have visit and engage with different kinds of galleries to see if they are right for me. It’s all about meeting people.<a href="www.davidtwose.com">www.davidtwose.com</a></body></html>

Life After Art School: Making Transitions and Transactions – Part I

<html><head></head><body>Life After Art School is an interview series by a former CGN Intern. The first part was written in 2014.&nbsp;This five-year follow-up is broken up into three parts:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2019/2/life-after-art-school-five-years-later">• Life After Art School: Five Years Later</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2019/2/life-after-art-school-making-transitions-and-transactions">• Life After Art School: Making Transitions and Transactions – Part I</a>• Life After Art School: Making Transitions and Transactions – Part II (included below)&nbsp;By MEGAN BONKEAs was the case when I wrote the first Life After Art School article for CGN in 2014, I talked to other artists to get their perspectives.&nbsp;My first follow-up interview was with French artist David Twose (read <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2019/2/life-after-art-school-making-transitions-and-transactions">here</a>).I tried my best not to shy away from questions about financial challenges, and I hope my own story as well as the thoughts and answers from another artist helps others move closer to an understanding of life as a professional artist.&nbsp;My second interview is with a current art student, Wendolyn Sterkel, who has also taken a leap, switching from a traditional, public university to attending art school. Sterkel, originally from Omaha, Nebraska, is the first in her family to go to college. She is currently a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418018/d9lah8kxzysk6c79jjr2.gif"><figcaption>Wendolyn Sterkel</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Wendolyn Sterkel, 22, current student at SAIC&nbsp;Megan Bonke: When did you decide you wanted to be an artist?Wendolyn Sterkel: About three years ago I was at community college. I was just about to transfer over the University of Nebraska Lincoln, and I had switched my major from journalism my first year to business my second year, and finally my advisor came up to me and said, “You need to pick a major before you get into the university.” At the time I had taken maybe two art classes — just very basic curriculum kind of stuff — and I said to him, “You know, I’m going to do art.” He responded, “Wendy you’ve only taken two art classes and those were the basic ones.” I said, “Yeah I think I’m just going to do art.” He said, “Are you sure? This is a really big commitment here.” And I said, “Just put down art. We’ll figure it out.”&nbsp;And from there I’ve stuck with it. Choosing my major was really spontaneous for me.MB: Were you interested in art when you were younger?WS: I was on and off, and my mom always told me that it seemed like a hobby. She encouraged me to get more into writing. My mom said, “Look you can be a journalist and actually make money and have a career.” I tried it, and I think after doing it for so long, I got tired of it. But I’ve always had an interest in art.MB: What are you currently studying?WS: I’m getting my Bachelor in Fine Art at SAIC, focusing primarily in sculpture, such as ceramics. I love to work with clay.MB: How many years have to been in college?WS: Five.MB: How many years do you have left?WS: Hopefully one, maybe one and a half, but at least one.MB: When did you switch to SAIC? How many years did you have under your belt?WS: I had four. So this is my first year, and currently my second semester, at SAIC. I spent two years at community college, followed by two years at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, and I should have two total at SAIC.MB: What has been the greatest lesson learned from school/art school?WS: I don’t know if I’ve learned anything so far...MB: That’s a lesson too.WS: It really is about real world knowledge. You can go to school, ace all of your classes, but in the end if you don’t have the experience, it’s not going to get your anywhere. You may have a degree, but if you don’t have jobs, it’s not going to work.MB: Do you think anything critical is missing from your curriculum?WS: Oh yeah. I wish there was a class on how to be an artist out in the real world, for instance, how do I figure out how to write cover letters and artist descriptions. At least to my knowledge there is no class that teaches you solely how to sell your art or how to be a successful artist out in the real world. That’s the big one. They do teach you how to work, conceptually, but in the end that may not sell your art all the time.MB: But you are going to art school. What do you hope to learn while you’re there?WS: I just really hope I can learn how to actually make it out in the real world. I guess I want to learn how I could do what I want to do and make a living out of it. That would be amazing. I hope school will teach me that. I’ve had to hustle so far, and it seems like my jobs outside of school have taught me that better.MB: What kinds of subsidies/benefits/scholarships have you received for school?WS: I have received multiple grants that I’ve had to apply for through university, SAIC, and community college. I have FAFSA. I also have smaller scholarships through the school or third parties and a bunch of loans: a lot of the subsidized and unsubsidized loans.MB: So what percentage is covered by scholarships and grants and how much is covered by loans?WS: I’d say about 15-20% are scholarships and grants that I don’t have to pay back. Then I’d say FAFSA and the loans pay for 70%.MB: So what has been involved in applying for these subsidies/benefits/scholarships?WS: Every year I have to apply for the FASFA. That’s means gathering my mother’s taxes and my taxes and filling out this these very extensive forms to ultimately show, 'Hey we’re still not making any money. I still need to borrow money from you guys.' That’s been a hassle, because my mom doesn’t know how to do it. I’m the first generation (first person) to go to college in family. My mom had no idea how to deal with this. So going into my freshman year of college, I had to figure that all out. Now it’s become more routine. I still have to make sure I meet regular deadlines, which is very stressful when I have to get all her tax stuff and all my stuff kind of synchronized. It’s a lot.MB: Specifically what kind of financial burdens have you noticed since becoming an art student?WS: Supplies. I understand they can’t always supply us. When it comes down to it and you’re trying to make a project and use good material, so it will look decent, you’re going to have to spend the money. I think the most I’ve ever spent in one class was about $300-$400. And unfortunately those were supplies I never had to use again. I &nbsp;spent $200 on paint, which did not include the canvas or the stretchers or brushes or the paint thinner. Then you run out, and they expect you to have more and more and more money for more materials. I’ve spend $300-$400 on a class easily. It can be a big waste. It sucks because I’ve tried to sell it back to other students, and I end up kind of giving it away.MB: What about living in the city of Chicago?WS: In Nebraska, I was able to have a part time job, go to school, have a social life, and still be able to pay my bills on time. That was easy. As you continue with any school, you have to put in more hours, you get a lot more schoolwork, and you have less time to work a job outside of school. I’m currently in the dorms. I had to take out more loans to afford that so I wouldn’t have to be stressed my first year of Chicago and fail out. Looking at next year, my friends want to move in together. Luckily my roommate, who I’m actually going to move in with next year, her mother is a real estate agent. She is going to buy a condo and rent it out to us. Still rent is going to be $800 to $1000 a month. It’s going to be really hard, and I’m stressed out. I’ve been trying to figure out a job that will correlate with school and still leave me time for projects, which are going to become way more intense. I told my roommates if we could pay $600, I would be the happiest person ever. My roommates are able to work full time jobs, and I’m the only student. Luckily they are able to work with me, and I think that we’ll be able to come to a middle ground.MB: What do you do to currently manage your finances?WS: I do promo modeling during the summer. Essentially, I get booked for a gig, they train me for 15 minutes, and I have to be on my feet eight to ten hours at a time; but I get paid $30-40 an hour which is amazing. I love it. I did it in Nebraska, and that’s how I would make my money in the summer. Currently, I have two jobs. I work for Color Cocktail Factory and I work for community center in Homan Square, which is only once a week. I’m hoping I can either I can pick up more shifts during the summer, or worse comes to worst, I will apply for a bar job somewhere. I usually will work about two to three jobs during the summer to save up so I won't be as stressed when school starts.MB: How many hours do you work during the school year?WS: During the school year, 15–20, and that’s really pushing it. I like to keep it fewer than 15 if that is physically possible. Not having to pay bills or rent right now is really easy. Once I get into an apartment, I’m worried about how I’m going to manage those hours and pay bills and find time to work on projects.MB: Do think it’s more challenging for you than other students?WS: Some students are able to take their schoolwork with them to work. There was a time I was the assistant manager at a bar, and when it was slow I would allow the servers to work on their homework. They would write their papers and do their homework on their computers. I can’t take my stuff anywhere. I can’t come in with a bag of clay and start molding any of my projects on the bar counter or lug around my welding stuff. It really does depend on your medium.&nbsp;MB: Do you think your workload is fair?WS: Back in Nebraska, I was the only art student amongst all my friends. They were communications, marketing, and psych majors and during finals week they maybe studied three or four hours and call it good. I would be in my room all night working on a project. Because I had projects due or critiques, I would stay in the studio until three in the morning for four nights straight. You have to put the time in because you can physically see what you did. You need 30 maybe 40 hours for a really solid project. It seems unfair, but it’s the life I chose.MB: So what are you currently working on?WS: Artistically — like nothing at all. The only studio class I’m taking right now is designed objects. At the moment, I’m trying to get my art history out of the way. I was also missing a science credit because they didn’t accept my science credit from my community college. I am taking a 400 level sculpture class “Just for Justice”, but it’s a conceptual, activist class. At the end of the year we have to have ten pictures of a project that we would do. We’re not actually making anything. We have to plan a community project to address a controversial issue, which I am very interested in doing, but I am more of a physical person. I got into the class thinking it would be more physical, and I was a bit disappointed to see that it wasn’t. But I’ll learn something, and maybe I can bring it into my own work and create a piece from it.MB: So what are some of your biggest fears and concerns after you graduate?WS: Oh God. Here is the panic attack coming.I would love to teach for a while. I don’t want to get stuck. I know teachers right now are getting paid very little and they are mistreated horribly. They are the starting point of everything for kids…our future.I would love to be able to actually sell my art. I would to like to see if I could sell it and make a living off of it, but at the same time the art community seems is very exclusive and you really need to know the right people. That’s my biggest fear, that I won’t actually be able to do that. But I love teaching; I really do. I love working with children so much. In the end if that’s my fall back, I think I’ll be content.MB: What do you plan to do for your first year after school?WS: I’d like to teach a little bit and then go back to grad school. That opens up a lot, and I could teach college classes. Grad school is definitely on my list, but I think that I need a break from six years of school and only having a Bachelors Degree. I need a break before people are asking me if I am doctor or something.MB: Do you have any bigger future plans?WS: No, actually. I’ve never had a future plan on what I even wanted to do. I changed my major three times. I’m not even sure what I’m going to do with this. It makes me horribly stressed, but it also makes me very happy. I know I haven’t hated my life since doing it. In the end, money is money. It comes and it goes, but I’m doing something I like, and I’m paying for all of this out of my own pocket. I’m not putting any strain on my family, which is really a nice feeling. I’m just going to keep going and see what happens.</body></html>