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Another video clip from the Sun Ra Symposium, this time featuring Hamza Walker, Director of Education and Associate Curator at the Rennaissance Society in Chicago speaking about contemporary art relating to the work of jazz legend Sun Ra.
To see more video from the weekend, as well as future video clips, check out our you tube page!
Enjoy!
At the Hyde Park Art Center’s Sun Ra Symposium - Traveling the Spaceways, artist Kerry James Marshall discusses Sun Ra’s artwork and music.
What does that large white sheet with the orange dot in the center of it at the Art Center actually mean? Is it art? Is it an exhibition? And most importantly, can I walk through it?
It is part of an exhibition, it is art, and yes, you can walk through it! A film of the performance of drum sets playing during the Sun Ra exhibition series opening projects onto the sheet. To find out more visit the exhibition page, but here’s an image from the exhibition when the film is played. Catch it every sunday at the Art Center at 4pm through December 17th.
HPAC hosted its first ever Fun for All this past Sunday, and what a blast! Over 500 people were in attendance at the event, which featured ceramics, origami, a Sun Ra scavenger hunt, creating musical instruments (rainsticks), making your own album cover (of which we had some awesome ones), soft sculpture (a crowd favorite) and digital photo making. On top of that the Ways and Means Trio performed, University Ballet put on a show, and storytellers from Tellebration participated. It was a packed day, and a great crowd. Below are some of the sights from our Fun for All, which we hope will be the first of many! Were you there? Did you have a favorite activity? Leave a comment!
Last weekend, the Hyde Park Art Center hosted Traveling the Spaceways, a Sun Ra symposium. Well-attended by several hundred Sun Ra fans and afficiandos, there were musical performances, readings, discussions and panels, and a gathering of like minds which truly commemorated and honored Sun Ra and his work. Video highlights from the weekend will be posted shortly, but until then, here are some images from the symposium. If you attended, please share your experiences and thoughts from the weekend!
Performer Cheryl Lynn Bruce reads from Sun Ra’s Broadsheets
Looking for something to do with the whole family this sunday? On your own and wouldn’t mind checking out some cool art? Whatever the case, come down to the Hyde Park Art Center for our first ever Fun For All this Sunday, from 12pm-4pm. It is what it’s name states, Fun for everyone. Make your own album cover, take a digital portrait, participate in a scavenger hunt, enjoy some gelato from Istria, or play in the ceramics studio. We’ve got something for all ages!
On Monday, the Art Center hosted another installment of TalkingPoint, our casual artist discussion series. Featured were the members of Industry of the Ordinary, Adam Brooks and Matthew Wilson. Discussing some of their collaborative works, the group engaged in a dialogue of the definition of collaboration, what it means to Adam and Matt, who exactly is a collaborator, and how some of their best collaborative work gets accomplished while having a pint at the pub and watching a football match.
Never heard of Industry of the Ordinary? Check out their website. They’ve done several great projects at the Art Center, including Epliation, Attaining the Summit, and Batter II. One of the great things about their art is that due to the very public and performative nature of much of their work, they really engage the audience and make contemporary art accessible. Always keep your eye out, they could be plotting a project right in front of you soon!
On Friday, November 10th, the Hyde Park Art Center officially dedicated our school and studios as the Oakman Clinton School and Studio. Martha Clinton is an HPAC board member who has been pivotal in supporting the Art Center and its activities. Whether it was baking cookies for an Art Center program, helping to move chairs hours before our Opening Gala, or greeting visitors as they arrived to Just Good Art, Martha has always been there to help out. Additionally, her father, Arthur Oakman, was a WPA artist who painted murals and landscapes, as well as being an educator. He embodied many of the ideals that HPAC’s school and studios represent, the teaching artist who shares his gifts with those who want to learn.
The Hyde Park Art Center hosted a rocking evening over at the Hideout, paying tribute to Sun Ra. After openers My Barbarian warmed up the crowd, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Avreeyal Ra on drums, and Jim Baker on ARP synth played an amazing set to a packed house.
Thurston Moore at the Hideout!
If you haven’t gotten your Sun Ra fix after that, stop in over at the Hyde Park Art Center as we host a Sun Ra Symposium all weekend.
Were you hoping to catch Speaking of Passage: Two Artists in the Conversation of Migration with Theaster Gates and Kelly Tsai, but couldn’t make it down to HPAC? Well you’re in luck, we’ve got video of the performance right here. Enjoy this video clip from the program, and make sure you get yourself down here for our next event!
For those that hadn’t heard about it, the program was a unique “performance-dialogue” that weaves together the two art forms of sculpture and spoken word, and featured sculptor Theaster Gates and Poet Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai. In their performance, Theaster and Kelly blended the richness of their two cultural traditions into a larger ritual of re-membering and transforming word through contemporary performance.
Artists, writers, performers and more come together to discuss Sun Ra, the Afro-futurist bandleader and cultural icon. View performances, readings, participate in discussions, and make yourself a part of the dialogue about this fascinating figure. Scholars from all across the country will bring their perspectives on Sun Ra and the movement he inspired, sharing their insights along with artists like Nick Cave, Glann Ligon, and Kerry James Marshall. The symposium is free and open to the public.
Check out the symposium page for more details!
A really cool retrospective which hasn’t gotten nearly enough attention is the Ed Paschke show over at the Chicago History Museum. The description on the CHM website states:
Ed Paschke Exhibition
Through Monday, February 19
The Ed Paschke exhibition celebrates one of Chicago’s most famous and inspired artists. Paschke’s art used pop-culture images and vibrant colors that caught the eye and imagination of audiences for decades. The exhibition features forty-four of Paschke’s paintings spanning his career as well as a recreation of his studio.
There are some really amazing pieces and it’s a really nice overview of the artist’s entire career, as well as an interesting recreation of his studio, plus a video interview filmed just before he passed away. Paschke was an amazing artist who was a key figure in the Hyde Park Art Center’s history. It would be great to support more of these kinds of shows for Chicago artists in different kinds of venues, like the Chicago History Museum. Go see it! It’s well worth the trip, and while you’re there, check out the dioramas, the new Chicago History gallery, and the Dior show. It’s a great looking new building!
This blog thing is a bit of a new thing for the Art Center, but we’re trying to spread the word about all the cool and awesome stuff happening down in Hyde Park (and specifically at the spiffy new building at 5020 S Cornell) As such, we’ve decided to start hopping onto other cool blog sites around the city (and the world!). You’ll find us listed at both of the following:
