CGN Art World Recap: 12/14

E(art)H Chicago offering $300K for art that addresses climate change

A citywide community-based art initiative called E(art)H Chicago (Earth Art Chicago) seeks to raise awareness, create dialogue and inspire action on climate change, natural resource use and environmental justice. The program is giving $300,000 in grants to artists and community organizations to produce artworks that stimulate community engagement on climate change and environmental justice from the Southeast Industrial Corridor to the North Branch of the Chicago River.

Via Chicago Tribune

An Undulating Sculpture Recreates Hokusai's Great Wave in 50,000 LEGO Pieces

Japan-based artist Jumpei Mitsui is one of just 21 LEGO Certified Professionals in the world—this means his full-time job is to create artworks with the plastic building blocks—and is the youngest of the renowned group. He’s fulfilled this title most recently with a sculptural recreation of Katsushika Hokusai’s “The Great Wave off Kanagawa.” During the course of 400 hours, Mitsui snapped together 50,000 cobalt and white LEGO into an undulating wave that mimics the original woodblock print.

Via Colossal

(Thumbnail image by Jumpei Mitsui)

Fund artists to create a new market of ideas

At 6018North, an experimental contemporary art space I founded and run within a repurposed 1910 mansion, we connect diverse artists and audiences through uniquely engaging cultural experiences. 6018North promotes connections and risk-taking not only to advance the state of art, but to percolate civic imagination and expand possibilities. If we connect people and take risks, others are encouraged to do so.

Tricia Van Eck via Crain's Chicago