Creative Digital Outreach From Local Art Spaces During COVID-19
By GINNY VAN ALYEA
Our art community has been working overtime to devise the best ways to continue to share art while places and spaces are closed, often with little to no resources or on-site technology at their disposal. But that doesn't mean that all is lost. Dealers, museum and arts professionals have all continued to talk, film and interact from home, while communicating with their key networks and striving to do all they can to support artists and small arts businesses. People are podcasting, hosting virtual exhibitions, leading educational Zoom meetings. Others are taking time to reflect and share stories from their art careers. Some spaces are sharing existing video footage on hand from past or prematurely shut down exhibitions, while others are in overdrive posting images of art work that can be shared socially.
Here for you are just some of our favorite programs and creative COVID-19 work-arounds from our dealer and artist friends. All of them deserve your attention and support!
Have a look, and be sure to connect with them.
Stay home, and stay healthy!
#artwillgetyouthroughthis
While the Museum of Contemporary Photography's recurring series Photos at Noon has been put on hold until the museum reopens, they have introduced a new online photography course: Photos at Zoom!
Every week, Photos at Zoom will explore different topics relating to photography, including sessions on the Fundamentals of Photography, Photographing the Domestic, Landscape and Place, and more! Find out the details here.
MoCP is also hosting Instagram Stories @mocpchi via #AskMoCP where you can ask questions about the collection, photography or whatever!
Tom McCormick has gone nostalgic, and with free time he's being free with his memories of earlier days in his career as an art dealer. He's shared a handful of stories so far via email, but our favorite so far is an almost-sale with the woman who became famous on screen for being a bunny boiler (isn't that a clue?) Read the full story here.
The Center has launched CAC@Home, a new mini magazine bringing design-centered stories and activities to your inbox every Thursday. CAC@Home is a way to keep you close through this important period of spatial distancing.
Each issue includes video, reading material, fun for the family and more. At the end of each issue you will find The Latest: links to up-to-date information including when and how we expect to resume CAC offerings like programs and tours. In the first issue Lynn Osmond, CAC President and CEO shares her sanity-preserving, socially distanced West Loop walking tour.
The gallery emailed last week to say that though their galleries are closed to the public and team members are working from home something that always helps them feel better is music. So they put together a digital journey through the musical inspiration that led to several works by gallery artists. Read the full email here with many clever examples of side by side art and music...
Chicago Printmakers Collaborative
CPC has launched a new Covid-distraction and Visual art series: Flatfile Fridays. Each week, CPC's very own Flat Phil will take you snooping through the drawers and other hidden places to discover gorgeous work by gallery artists that you can buy (Phil would really like for you to support artists right now, many of whom are struggling to pay the rent). CPC is featuring one or two printmakers each week, and they point out that since Flat Phil has an amazing ability to explore very narrow spaces where prints may be hiding, he just discovered a recently-acquired stash of Karen Butler's work (one of CPC's first members, in 1989/90) – the first artist to be featured in Flatfile Fridays.
Les Enluminures podcasts transform the past into the present with untold stories, research, science, and histories of Medieval and Renaissance artworks through illuminating lectures, gallery talks, in-house research, and interviews with collectors and scholars.
The podcast is hosted by Sandra Hindman and produced and edited by Kristen Racaniello, with logo design and graphics by Fabio Epifani.
C vs D is sharing Instagram posts "Ode to the On Hold or Closed Early," which feature our artists' recent exhibitions around the world that are currently paused or altered by the health crisis.
Also, on the evening of Monday, April 6, a special event curated by Corbett vs. Dempsey and hosted by Experimental Sound Studio will take place as part of ESS's ongoing Quarantine Concerts series. Info on this series here. Attend the Quarantine Concerts and help support musicians through this difficult time.
The "Art in the Time of Corona" interview series features interviews Evanston Made members about the projects that have come to life during the Covid-19 outbreak.
This series begins with artist Alice George who launched the Four Hands Collab, an initiative launched in 2019, and adapting now during the COVID-19 crisis—encouraging collaboration, including everything from parallel-play to co-creation. Special focus on art-makers living in Evanston, IL, but open to anyone.
Alice invites creatives via prompts, to share work on her website gallery.
Victor went for a walk and thought of artists in the gallery whose work reminded him of spring and better days ahead. As he shared, "In a few weeks, winter will be a distant memory as we look hopefully towards summer. I took the photo above Monday morning while walking my dog and it made me think of the work of the three artists we present you with today. Their work captures the beauty that can be seen in the world around us at this time of year." Cheers to that!
The gallery is also offering free shipping on art purchases through April 20.
CC emailed a long message to share the history of the company and the challenges CEO Heather Becker has faced over many years. In an effort to help our community and those on the frontlines of the crisis, Becker shared that the team was able to donate the following supplies, normally used by conservators, to the Illinois Association of Hospitals: 65 N-95 masks, 27 Tyvek suits, and 2,650 sterile gloves