4833 rph — Behind the Scenes

Part One:The Living Newspapers

From June 1st - 27th we have an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art here in Chicago.

This past Friday, Saturday and Sunday we have trained 33 performers to be part of this exhibition. The exhibition takes place daily Tuesday - Sunday. There are two shifts that take place daily. Each shift last for 2 and a half hours. Each shift has two performers. The performers are listening to a text to speech program via ipods that are connected to a wireless network. We workshoped the performers to speak the texts that are coming from their ipods aloud. The are having dialogues with each other through the ipod touches. Judd built a program that mines twitter texts that people have wrote. The performers then speak these texts aloud. In a database the twitter texts in real-time are structured as such that the performers enact scenes within the museum. The scenes are texts minded from twitters wrote in a mile radius of the museum, what people are ‘concerned’ about, the trends of the day - during rehearsal we learned of the deaths of Gary Coleman and Dennis Hopper. Other scenes are also actual archival Living Newspapers - from where we take the name. The Living Newspapers were actual plays that were produced during the last great depression putting writers and actors to work and were generally plays of the current times. Our exhibition is a re-enactment and re-imagining of A Living Newspaper of today. We each now in some respects have our own News Feed through our interactions with social media networks. The other part of the exhibition is the performers embodying the Winged Figures of the Republic. The twin figures that sit at the top of the Hoover Dam - we invited our artist friend Claire Ashley to make us wings that we could travel with, could be light and not take up too much room. Claire wonderfully designed her version of the wings as 15 feet high inflatables, inflated by a fan inserted into a backpack. We taught each performer a small choreography that also includes the inflating and deflating of the wings as part of the choreography. We enjoyed teaching / training the performers for the exhibit this past weekend. One of the favorite activities is seeing people laying down on the wings to deflate them and to let the air out. Part performance, part absurd, part ceremonial, part performing procedure. Please see rehearsal photos.

Part Two: Winged Figures of the Republic

At Hyde Park this week we wanted to begin to work with two other performers and young artists that we have approached to collaborate with us on The Precession. André and Evan Lenox are two twin brothers. They make work in performance and new media. We had been working with them during the fall last year on this project and we approached them again last month to work with us on the exhibition. With our initial research trip to the Hoover Dam on the Nevada/ Arizona border we were taken by the monument of the Winged Figures of the Republic. The Two Winged figures sit on top of a celestial map of the night sky on September 30th 1935 at 8.58 p.m. - the time that FDR dedicated the dam. On that night 209 stars were visible to the naked eye and the two winged figures sit on top of this specific sky.

In the studio we asked André and Evan to come up with 3 still movements in relationship to the mic stand and microphone. At the still moments they will be saying text aloud that we will insert. We also asked them to respond to few lines of text written by the poet Emily Dickinson. Earlier in the week we had been sent an essay by our artist friend in the UK, Kira O’ Reilly. A Dim Capacity for Wings: Angels, Flies and the Material Imagination can be seen here .

The lines of text that we asked André and Evan to respond to are here:

My cocoon tightens - Colors tease,
I’m feeling for the Air -
A dim capacity for Wings
Demeans the Dress I wear.

We are also including two images in this blog post of the material that they produced in the studio. We will be working with André and Evan in the studio every Monday and Wednesday.

We have also been in dialogue with Daniele Wilmouth to ask her interest in recording green screen footage of the work we have been developing post exit out of the studio in the first week of July. We intend of layering the material we have been producing physically in space on top of the textual work that Judd has been programming. mining and generating.

Away in Providence:
From Wednesday June 2nd to Sunday June 6th we will be attending the Electronic Literature Organization Conference at Brown University in Providence Rhode Island. The title of the conference is Archive and Innovate. We will be presenting a Work in Progress of The Precession. Judd will also be speaking on a panel as well as performing a new work he has been developing in response to the writer and his mentor whilst he was studying for his masters at Brown, Robert Coover. Link for the event here: http://www.brown.edu/Conference/Electronic_Literature_Organization/conference.php

We have divided the studio into segments corresponding to the windows of the HPAC facade and are creating a movement sequence that could either be performed live on the catwalk or displayed as video sequences in the screens. We are working from sources that emphasize labor, occupation, physicality. Books scattered on the floor include images by Eadweard Muybridge, Michael Borremans, Iring Penn and posters from the WPA federally-funded art program of the 1930’s. Tonight we are meeting with young artists André and Evan Lenox who will be resume their roles as the twin Winged Figures of the Republic in some of our planned future events.

We are about to begin translating the current digital material for initial viewing on the facade. This is a formidable task as it involves creating a web page on the scale of a building. We decided early on that the facade would not be video but a work of internet art simultaneously accessible online. This involves treating the site as a vast navigable panoramic space something like a Google map where, for example, new terrain dynamically appears as you pull the landscape towards yourself. This will take consideration and time. And the HPAC system has a very unique setup and we must work within the constraints of how it displays imagery across machines and projectors.

We are also planning for two imminent events: a re-mounting of The Living Newspapers at the MCA launching June 1 and a performance at Brown University as part of the Electronic Literature Organization annual conference and digital arts event (June 3-6). In addition to a performance of The Precession, we are also creating a new work in honor of Robert Coover. Coover is a prominent writer of fiction and was Judd’s mentor as an MFA student at Brown. The entire event is in part recognition of Coover’s legacy and his innovative approach to bringing electronic media into the practice and discourse of contemporary literature. The Coover-specific intervention involves a live and screen-based retelling of Coover’s renowned re-invention of the Pinnochio story in his novel Pinnochio in Venice. The performance combines written responses to Coover’s work with material mined and composed algorithmically from Coover’s manuscript. Judd’s father, Thomas J. Morrissey, will also participate in the performance. Tom is, among other things, a scholar of children’s literature who is an expert on Pinnochio having written extensively both critical essays and children’s plays from the Pinnochio cultural corpus. The piece, tentatively called RC_AI approaches themes of father-son/ master-apprentice relationships, and the myth of the inanimate coming to life (puppet, monster, golem, artificial intelligence). This may seem like a tangent but there is a connection with our overall Precession project — Pinocchio was one of the productions funded by the WPA theater program (that also funded many Living Newspapers) and when the Federal Theater Program was discontinued in 1939, Pinnochio’s “corpse” was paraded through the streets in a small box.

On Tuesday we are meeting Fred Sasaki from the Poetry Foundation to consider our involvement in the Printer’s Ball summer festivities with its theme of print <3s digital. On Wednesday, Mark will also be part of Power Tools 5 at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he will be on a panel called Artists Take Charge.

E-literature conference:
http://ai.eliterature.org/

Electronic Literature Organization:
http://www.eliterature.org/

Info on The Living Newspapers:
http://www.mcachicago.org/exhibitions/exh_detail.php?id=240

Here are some notes from the studio:

BREAKING DOWN THE SEQUENCE

In the studio this week we have been breaking down the idea of the Muybridge sequence further. We have given ourselves 10 instructions for constructing a 10 minute sequence that is part choreographic and part performative. We are working with a constraint of 10 screens/10 minutes of time and we have marked this spatially on the floor and also the wall. Currently there are 8 gridded squares marked out by blue tape. In the squares are sheets of paper with an instruction to respond to with movement. Some of these instructions came from a previous residency where we asked people in our community to send us directives / instructions via their twitter accounts. We have so far developed 6 minutes of material from this exercise. Minute one is an announcement of a piece of text from the working diary of John Steinbeck, who wrote many depression-era books including the Grapes of Wrath. Minutes 2 - 5 are then specific generated movements and texts. Here are some examples:

1. Pathways of rubble, rocks: maneuver
2. And the poet thought that the power of language to shape the world was fireproof
3. The Astrologer smoked a cigarette and wore a grey T
4. Coalman, grocery boy, carpenter, shoemaker

A Chicago Fireman’s T shirt is worn, his body is placed against a wall and he makes a prediction. A feather falls from the sky and a man smells smoke on this hands. Someone picks up a child’s telescope and walking along a semicircular motion he punctures the wall at the half way mark, then putting the telescope to his nose, he rotates to face the opposite wall.

We want this week to complete the second half, or a further 6 minutes of material from the directives, so that we will have another 12 minutes of material to look over. We repeat, practice and rehearse the material over and over again as a way of understanding the sources and materials we are examining. Hopefully this allows us then to understand what it is we are making and building and also to get a clearer sense of the elements coming together and also to figure out timing, interruption, and editing.

IMAGES FROM THE STUDIO

This is our second blog from our artists in residence, Mark and Judd, as they discuss what they are doing in the studio to prepare for the upcoming exhibition.

What is a sequence?
In the studio this past week we have begun to look at constructing a sequence of movement that we imagine will be bodies individually placed and spaced across the 10 individual screens on the external facade of HPAC. I imagine this space as a landscape; panorama but also as a continuum: a loop. Each time you get to the end of the line of the screen you have to return and build upon where you first started. We are exploring how do you begin a sequence and how it develops its own language, response and sources to respond to.

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Update us on where you are
Well right now, as of yesterday I’ve actually begun to attach it to the space. So I’ve just been out cutting the foam and pretty much setting up the scenery that the characters will hang out in. And this is the part where I tend to take longer than I need to, but luckily I’ve got really simple plans for this. But I just really enjoy cutting foam. So I’ve been spending all this time just sculpting everything out. But I don’t have too many complex plans for how the foam going to stack on top of each other or wrap around things. It’s pretty straight forward since it’s all in a straight line. But I am bringing in a few new things where like the high ones kinda float off the ground; everything doesn’t have to touch the bottom. Putting in shelving. It’s sort of expanding what the foam is, sort of what the landscape can be. Rather than just being all hills I’ve got sculpture mixed in. Different built man-made structures. I guess I’m replacing technical complexity with variety of what the setting could be.

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Can we get an update on the piece and where you’re at?
I spent the last week tracing everything out, doing a bunch of painting, drawing, coming up with different characters, working on ideas that I wanted to fit into the show. And the projecting them onto the wall, blowing them up, and tracing them all with pencil, or tracing them with pencil onto the paper. And now as of today I’ve started doing some of the outline work. And I think I’ve decided that pretty much it’s going to be all outline work. I think there may be a few spots where I’ll bring in paint, watercolor, but it should pretty much be all line work. And different types of paper. I’ve got construction paper, I’ve got cardboard, I’ve got these brutal foam boards that I’m going through right now. And then some yarn, and then foam.

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Artist Stan Chisholm gives us insight into the story behind the mascots appearing in ThingsThatNeverReallyHappened . In this second edition we meet “Cape”

While the good of the world is turned on it back and all hope is lost, from the clouds falls a gleeful caped figure oblivious of the duties around him. With his limbs loose, eyes shut and smirk locked in, no woe or foe stands a chance.

Call it giving up, retiring, showing off, testing his new gear, being a sucker, a fallen hero, branching out and discovering new abilities, being humble, stepping down to join the civilians, rebellion, manic-depression, having a good time, or simply loosing a battle to gravity; If he hasn’t heard it he has assumed it’s been said. Plus, never in history has a cause been faithful to only one effect so he’s collecting extra credit on his way down.

Artist Stan Chisholm gives us insight into the story behind the mascots appearing in ThingsThatNeverReallyHappened

ChokingOnTheMagicWord

Witnessing potential sparks endearment. Anticipating that potential manifest or fail sparks a flurry of emotions. When you see someone on the brink and in mid performance it is likely that they can’t see you, for they are alone with the matter at hand. It’s entertaining…harsh, inspiring, comedic, disappointing, fetishized, relieving, sad… …and entertaining.

When you can feel your potential everything regarding it is optional. To keep what you have is not selfish but riveting,and perhaps perplexing. A certain loss of innocence takes place when you share your “magic.” It’s almost worth it to fake it and keep up the show, right?

For more information on Stan Chisholm visit his web page at www.18andcounting.com

We sit down with artist Stan Chisholm as he prepares his newest exhibition ThingsThatNeverReallyHappened, which opens at the Hyde Park Art Center on January 31 in Gallery 5.

What is the thought behind the exhibition? What does it entail? What can people expect to see?
One of the biggest things with this show that’s pretty well known in my work I don’t think is well known as far as my exhibitions go is sticking to strict line work. I’ll do relief sculptures or murals, but they usually start off as graphic line drawings. But this one I want to be strictly that. I want this show to be just a really solid step by step read, because it’s in a hallway and you expect it to be in a certain order, and you expect to be in a cold, almost comic strip (way). You expect to read it as that. I mean it’s not going to be one solid story, so a non-linear narrative, but it’s just on a linear format.

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In the spirit of the season, here’s a special preview of a certain something we’ve been working on. Happy Holidays!

So you’ve seen the Stockyard Institute’s name around town, but perhaps you have found yourself wondering; who are they and what do they do?

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With enough people to field a baseball team, this Summer’s Interns are in abundance. Every season the Hyde Park Art Center hires a group of eager students looking to gain experience in the field. This Summer in particular we are grateful to have the help of 9 new (and some familar) faces.

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Hope you all had a great thanksgiving and got plenty of turkey (or tofurky) in your tummies. A little post thanksgiving reminder here of the holiday here, courtesy of our Preschool Discover Art class. For more fun with the whole family, stop by our next Second Sunday on December 14th, from 1pm-4pm. We’ve also got a Holiday Student Sale, and the openings of a couple of our shows! Stop by to join in the fun!

Remember Mike TeeVee from the Willy Wonka movie? And of course I’m talking about the original movie with Gene Wilder. Not the creeptastic Tim Burton creation with the dancing squirrels.

Not to over analyze what is a completely entertaining movie, but Mike TeeVee’s character does present some interesting ideas. For instance: Wonkavision. Mike gets broken into tiny particles, transmitted through the air and ends up inside a television set.

It makes you think. As human beings we are conditioned to be curious, particularly about how things work and why. But how does seeing the machine from the inside change our understanding and experience? Essentially, what’s it like to watch television from the inside?

Juan Angel Chàvez explores this same concept in his exhibition The Speaker Project. The exhibition originally appeared here at the Art Center in 2006. It recently traveled to Boston where it has met rave reviews.

Follow the link to see pics of the Speaker Project opening in Boston.

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On the weekend of June 21st I organized the third Cothesline exhibition in conjunction with many other simultaneous events around the bulding. HPAC was briefly turned into some kind of hybrid festival of dance, music, art, and hot dogs (not in that order). There were a lot of things that made the day special for those of us involved, but for me it was the enthusiasm and energy of the people who participated that made it worth last months’s feverish stress dreams (and nightmares). Here are some highlights:

Clothesline: Movement show opening reception at 3pm, as usual I’m still running around setting things up and waiting for late arrivals.

Barbecue starts and volunteers are right on time to help, Chris Miller shows up with a piano-inspired water powered instrument.

First performance of the day by Homework on the Olympus Manger stage, they crawled in and out and explored the hidden places in the mountain sculptures. Jim Duignan of the Stockyard Institute begins broadcasting the performances on 88.7fm.

Michelle Harris’ interactive drawing table and projection wall is a big hit, brings the presence of the Los Cagos Artistic Bridge of Goodwill to the art center. (Hey, check out our blog and radio show: http://loscagos.wordpress.com/ )

Shelley and Jessi Walsh shows up un-fashionably late to install their work with the help of a happy friendly dog named Maisy, greens-up the place with wheat grass sculptures.

Kevin Davis performs electroacoustic improvisations accompanied by three others, totally rocked us all out.

Videodanse curators talk with the curator from the Centre Pompidou in France in the Clothesline exhibition, which I missed but heard it was fabulous.

Everyone gets drunk (or just me) from French wine courtesy of the French Embassy. A line forms outside Thunderhorse Party Planet Ride for a VR experience that would make Universal Studios soil themselves.

Somewhere in the building there’s a Curators talk with some french visitors from the Centre Pompidou, two opening receptions for two guys named David. One of the Davids begins a demonstration of drawing with a blowtorch outside on the plaza.

Last performance of the night “Pure magical Love is the Capricorn” performs on the south olympus manger stage, glitter rains sfrom the sky.

Already drunk Chris breaks out the whiskey to celebrate the end of Clothesline #3, passing around the bottle and everyone goes home or wherever. Cleanup is still happenning 2 weeks later.

Open to all current (2008) HPAC students, we’re hosting our first annual Student Art Sale on Sunday, July 13, from 1-4pm (during Second Sundays). Sign up by contacting Michelle at mbeckett at hydeparkart.org or calling (773) 324-5520 × 1007. And come out to support our students and bring home some great pieces of artwork!

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It’s my last day so it’s time to say goodbye!

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If you visit the Hyde Park Art Center within the next month, you’re bound to see a new face around. That face belongs to me! My name is Hillary, I’m a senior at the University of Chicago Laboratory High School and I will be volunteering at HPAC from May 12th to June 6th. Fortunately for us seniors, Lab offers us the option to go on what is called “May Project” and do something meaningful in our last weeks as high schoolers instead of learning in the conventional classroom environment. I have been making art since I was a child and I fully intend for it to play a significant role in my adult life in some way. Because of my love for art, it was only logical for me to see what I could do to help around the Art Center while also learning about how it functions. I will be interacting with staff in all the various departments at HPAC and doing everything from simple, everyday tasks that must get done, to assisting in a children’s class, to more significant projects. By the end of my time here I hope to have gained a well-rounded understanding of just how much it takes to run a successful and thriving community center like HPAC.

Looking for something awesome to do this weekend? Well, we’ve got just the thing for you. Starting this friday at 8pm, we’ll kick off another 24 hours of creativity, fun, and general coolness. You can view the schedule for Creative Move: Moving Mountains here.

Will you be there?

Local writer and all-around Chicago enthusiast Anthonia Akitunde interviewed series A’s Bill Allegrezza to find out more about Chicago’s poetry scene, what makes something “experimental”, and the impetus behind the reading series, which we host here at the Hyde Park Art Center. Read the interview at I Am Chicago.

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It’s coming….

Stay Tuned for more details.

…and we’re not even talking Barack vs. Hillary (not this time, anyway)! Rather, Tribune critic Alan Artner reviewed Chuck Walker’s Through a Glass Darkly on February 15, and a number of readers had very strong reactions to Artner’s opinion.

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Teaching Artist Sarah Kaiser has an interview over on the ArtStyle blog. Check it out here.

Anyone want to help paint a gallery? Bring your own roller.

Executive Director Chuck Thurow is off enjoying the Southern Hemisphere, and since he’s been gone, the Art Center has plummeted into chaos! All manners of vice and debauchery taking place, and in Chuck’s very own office!

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The very first Art Center baby has arrived! Our very own 4833 Program Director, Ray Yang, and his wife Emily became parents on Monday, October 29 - and it’s a boy! Looks like another Second Sundays/Fun For All participant has been born…might his first words be “Hyde Park Art Center”?

Congrats, Ray and Emily!

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Starting Thursday, grab your copy of this week’s Newcity and check out the Hyde Park Art Center’s Consuming War circular - it’s a pull-out you can keep, and it lists all the upcoming events for our next major show. There are also pictures of the works, info about the artists, clip-and-saves, and more. Don’t miss it!

Our very own Studio Manager, Michelle Beckett turned 30 on friday! If you see her on the street or at the Art Center, please wish her a happy birthday! Yay, Michelle!

That;s what it looks like folks! White paper in the windows, a fairly unattractive new wall put up in the entryway to the cafe space, and signs! Istria is coming soon! Keep your eyes peeled and we’ll keep you posted on an official opening date.

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The Hyde Park Art Center makes an appearance not once but twice in Newcity’s Best of Chicago 2007 as Readers’ Choice picks!

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Did you come by for Fun for All? If not, why not? You missed a blast!

Of course, if you missed Fun for All, you can still bring the family (and anyone else interested in a good time) by for Second Sundays, our new monthly family afternoon. the first one is scheduled for October 14th, from 1pm-4pm.

Here’s a recap of Sunday afternoon in pictures. Enjoy!

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Want to help make the Hyde Park Art Center the “Best of Chicago”? Fill us in for “Best non-profit” or how about Speaker Project or Pedagogical Factory for “Best Exhibition”. But hurry, voting ends midnight September 15th!

Participate in NewCity’s Best of Chicago poll here.

Chris has been known to take the occasional joyride in the scissor lift. Please stay out of his way. He’s not so good at steering the thing yet.

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You may know him as the friendly face behind the front desk during the evenings.

Or maybe as the guy toiling away on an exhibition installation.

Or maybe you’ve just bumped into him one night on one of his drunken rampages (probably not though since he never seems to rage or get drunk)

Whatever the case, we sadly bid farewell to Philip Nadasdy, the Front Desk Coordinator and frequent Exhibition Volunteer. We always knew we wouldn’t get to keep Philip forever, and we’re very happy for him as he moves on to bigger and better things. Good luck Philip!

Stop by and say goodbye on his last day at the Art Center this Sunday.

Earlier this year New Zealander Bruce Phillips took up residence in the Administrative Offices of the Art Center and began brainstorming a project with Executive director Chuck Thurow and the rest of the Art Center staff. Bruce is back in New Zealand now, but the project is well on its way, and Bruce is making international headlines talking about the Hyde Park Art Center. Check out this article from the Taranaki Daily News!

Every inch of the two levels of 5020 S. Cornell has been used as exhibition space during the Art Center’s first year of operation in its new space, so why not extend ourselves a little further and use the roof while we’re at it!

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On Tuesday, July 24th the HPAC team rallied themselves and spent the day in a luxury suite at US Cellular Field. We felt that there couldn’t be a better way to kick-off the commencement of our Fall 2008 benefit, Not Just Another Pretty Face, than to eat hot dogs, drink a beer, and mingle with local artists and patrons. If I may say so, we were not wrong. The Chicago White Sox won against the Detroit Tigers, and now our year long endeavor is in full swing.

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He’s definitely in the Art Center, but where could this swanky den of love that our very own Chris Hammes is reclining in be located? If you know, you could win an Art Center T-Shirt!

HPAC’s Creative Events Committee (the group that brings you Creative Move, Cocktails & Clay, Fun For All, and more) is branching out…to Michigan! Only a short car ride away, and full of Chicagoans and art lovers, the towns of Three Oaks, Union Pier, Lakeside, and Sawyer are perfect places to engage the artistic community. We spent the day there in early July to get a feel for the area and make some plans…

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In its continuing march towards becoming an internationally recognized venue for cutting edge contemporary art, the Hyde Park Art Center conquers yet another small and prospering nation. This time, our Executive Director, Chuck Thurow touched down in Albania for several days and spread some Art Center goodwill in the form of t-shirts. Get yours today by becoming a member of the Art Center!

HPAC T-Shirt Detail

Christina Jensen is our new Development Associate and today is her first day! Here she is, jumping straight into the fire and getting familiar with our database, eTapestry.

If you see her in the halls, say hello. Welcome aboard, Christina. We hope you like it here!

Farewell, Speaker Project! Watching Juan’s sculpture be disassembled and carried out through the big garage doors this week has been bittersweet. …I think we’re all sorry to see it go. (Juan, if the offer still stands to let me reassemble it in my bedroom, I’m in!). Although there have been many highlights from the show, starting with an over-enthusiastic fan throwing up ON the sculpture opening night, to an amazing performance by the Kenwood Academy Jazz Ensemble, to mysterious performance sounds making their way all the way up to the Upstairs Office throughout the workday, Juan’s TalkingPoint a few weeks ago was a particular favorite.

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Camp Session Two rolls along. Trips to the National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago History Museum, and rehearsals for some fabulous performances tomorrow afternoon have kept everyone busy! Got some spare time tomorrow afternoon at 2pm? Swing by the Art Center and prepare to be wowed by our campers!

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Last week the Art Center celebrated the birthday of one Allison Peters, and bid a sad farewell to Bruce Phillips, our visiting New Zealander. In true HPAC fashion, the occasion was celebrated with some awesome cake!

Additionally, check out these shots from our last TalkingPoint with Juan Angel Chavez and Patheogeographies with Dan Wang. Tons of stuff happening here at the Art Center. And don’t forget that this is the last weekend to see Speaker Project at the Art Center. Come see it before it’s gone!

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Despite the many guesses that flooded in, no one completely correctly identified our new piece in the stairwell of the main lobby, Stacza Lipinski’s Hang Up. It’s a gorgeous cut paper piece of work that has already cpatured the imagination of many an art center visitor. Swing by to take a look.

Leave your guess in the comments section below. If you’ve been to the art center recently though, you should already know what this is! Stay tuned for the answer at the end of the day.

The Adventurous Type has come to the end of the road, and thus it’s time to deinstall and recycle! The Happy Hydrogen Bomb is no more, and what took a week to put into place is taking….roughly a week to come down. Stinking paint on the floor….

Check out Chris assisting the artists in clearing out the lobby.

Picking through the debris…

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Any guesses?

WGN Morning News stopped by the Art Center to showcase some of our education programs and Speaker Project, Juan Angel Chavez’s exhibition current. In their Around Town segment, students from Canter Middle School demonstrated the work printmaking work they did with Teaching Artist Mary Tepper now on view in Gallery 5 called Exquisite Rivers. WGN also spoke with Juan in Gallery 1 while a band performed inside the speaker. Check out this link on the WGN Morning site. Select ‘Around Town at Hyde Park Art Center’ and see Canter students and Media star Blake Bradford!

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We’re all tuckered out from a fabulous 24 hour celebration. Maybe you heard about it? Creative Move Too? Hope you made it down here. Thank you to everyone who attended, all our performers, and the many businesses, groups, volunteers, and organizations who gave off their time, donations, and energy to make it a success. More CM Too pics to come, but here are a couple shots from other recent fun at the Art Center.

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…and there are still lots of people here! The dance-a-thon is going strong, as is the Chess-a-thon, but the Knit-a-thon has wrapped up with a champion. The staff is starting to fade a bit, but we’re doing our best to hang in there! Still up? Stop on by the Art Center, or come on in tomorrow morning. Gospel Brunch at 9am! Yoga at 8am!

Today, April 28th, 2007, the First Floor Managers Office has been officially renamed the Philip Nadasdy Center for Downstairs Administrative Duties. This one’s for you, Flip.

Our resident rainbow makes another appearance. Can you guess where it is now? T-shirt to the first correct guess.

…seriously. It’s all good though. Juan Angel Chavez has begun installing Speaker Project in Gallery 1 and took advantage of our handy dandy garage doors! Although it might have been cooler if he had actually just crashed into the space. Don’t tell Allison I said that though…

Everyone likes rainbows, right? Here’s something cool that happens in the mornings, around 8am here at the Hyde Park Art Center. Enjoy.

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CPS Spring Break Camps are on at the Hyde Park Art Center this week! With two camp sessions (separated by age) and some great camp teachers, the kids are gearing up for some very cool performances at the end of the week. Check out these images from our works in progress, and if you want to see the final product, come for our performances at the end of the week on Friday.

working, painting, etc.

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Chris has been ducking in and out of various nooks and crannies around the building as we install a whole bunch of shows over the next couple of weeks. But where is he in the picture below? Let us know your best guess and an Art Center T-Shirt is yours.

Between a stud and some drywall.

No blog postings for a week?!

What’s the deal?

Well, the whole Art Center went on vacation last week and we forgot to post any blog entries while we were gone….

Ok, not really. We’ve just been a little lax of late, but we’ll be getting back on track starting tomorrow. Your newest installment of “Where’s Chris?”, some previews of upcoming events, and a couple of long overdue recaps are all on their way, as well as our first ever guest posters soon to arrive as hosts of the 4833 blog. Stay tuned for more info.

It’s been an action packed week at the Hyde Park Art Center. Between a TalkingPoint discussion with Lorraine Peltz, an event with the University of Chicago, and our best ever TEART, things have been going non-stop. And we’ve still got Cocktails and Clay tonight! Keep an eye out for our TEART recap, and here’s a couple shots of the fun you could be having here at HPAC (that is if you’re taking Jessi Walsh’s Knitting Class on Saturdays)

As Blake Bradford might say, “Very Metal”

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No one was able to correctly guess our first ever “Where’s Chris?” contest (He was just outside of Gallery 1 and next to the south stairwell), so here’s a new entry. At 2:28pm on Tuesday afternoon, Chris was once again spotted. Can you tell us where he is? And what is he holding in front of his head? The first correct answer wins a t-shirt!

Garofolo Architects and the Hyde Park Art Center were awarded second place by the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation in their Architectural Excellence in Community Design category. The award was created to “encourage development that respects and strengthens the city’s architectural heritage, especially in neighborhoods confronting economic and social challenge.” The Garofalo-designed Hyde Park Art Center was recognized for making a significant contribution to the social, visual, and cultural life of its neighborhood. Specifically, the building was commended for being “A perfect fit between form and function, the Center is a structure that satisfies user needs while becoming a genuine work of art in itself.”

All that and we got a shiny award!

Exhibition Preparator Chris Hammes is all over the Art Center everyday. Where might he be next? Can you guess where he is right now? Here’s a picture of Chris at 10:30 am this morning, working on the building. Tune in tomorrow for the answer.

Who was the artist behind this piece? It’s located somewhere in the Art Center, and as a new addition, might not be here for long. Make your guesses on the comments space below. First person to get the artist name right and also tell us where in the Art Center the piece is right now gets a prize! Maybe a t-shirt? cookies? how about a lollipop? Or maybe a date with this man? Er….then again let’s just make it a t-shirt.

Ever wonder about the day to day happenings here at the Art Center? What it might look like when you’re in the midst of one of our classes and getting the high quality instruction our teaching artists provide? Well, wonder no more! Here are a few shots of a painting class with our very own Darrell Roberts (whose show Luscious is up now in Gallery 4) Our Spring Newsletter will be out in a couple of weeks, and then your chance to be a part of one of the most exciting and creative institution in the city of Chicago will be here again!

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On a field trip to the Chicago History Museum a couple of months ago, the staff explored the new space’s galleries and exhibits. Of particular note were the Ed Paschke retrospective and the Chicago Dioramas. And of course we got to put in some light-hearted fun in the Children’s Gallery where they had several great interactive stations, including a ‘make your own postcard’, Chicago smells, and out favorite, ‘be a Chicago hot dog’.

Colleen’s a Vegan and Michelle is Canadian. I’m not sure why, but both those facts seem relevant to these pictures. Enjoy.

Colleen

Michelle

The Art Center had a surprise visitor to the Sun Ra show on Thursday, January 4th, 2007 when current Arkestra Band Leader Marshall Allen stopped in!

Marshall Allen in Pathways to Unknown Worlds

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Check out January’s Issue of Art in America for a Report from Chicago. Heavily featured in the article is the Hyde Park Art Center’s inaugural exhibition, Takeover! The article addresses the unique opportunity available to the many cultural organizations in the city of Chicago to grow, collaborate and expand as organizations such as the Hyde Park Art Center unveil new resources, facilities, and capacities for art making, exhibition, and community building.

A PDF of the article will be up shortly, or pick up the January issue of Art in America. The Hyde Park Art Center is going places!

SO we’ve got new floors in the hallways and the classrooms, but part of that whole equation is the fact that we had to move EVERYTHING out of the studios (ok, maybe only 90%) so that the floors could be completed. This included taking down the divider walls in our classrooms. We haven’t seen this view since the Grand Opening, so I thought it’d be fun to show just how big the classroom space really is. We also decided to do some maintenance while we were at it with the divider walls. Fun Stuff! Oh, and remember, classes start Monday! Register if you haven’t already!

Looking South…

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Happy New Year! We ring in 2007 by raising the curtain on the Art Center’s brand new floors!

During the two weeks that HPAC was clsed over the holidays, our painted concrete floors were leveled and repainted. Still sporting snazzy green in the lobby and hallways, and a cool grey (with no-skid coating) in our school and studios, they are amazing looking! The pictures don’t quite do them justice. Swing by the Art Center to see for yourself!

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The Hyde Park Art Center will be closed for two weeks while we have our floors sanded, leveled and repainted! Brand spanking new floors which will be the envy of Art Center’s all over the country!

Until then, please enjoy your holiday! We are closed starting Monday, December 18th until Monday, January 1st, and reopening Tuesday, January 2nd. There may be occassional updates on the blog. Anyone want to hear about my vacation?

The Art Center prepares to brave its first winter and first real snowfall in the new building. And what a snowfall! Three to seven inches coming down on Chicago, with more possible this weekend. Anyone have any good tips on how to keep an Art Center toasty? Hope everyone bundles up and stays warm over the weekend!

We had Two Birthdays here in the last two weeks at the Art Center. In fact, the birthdays were for our fabulous education staff! Cake and ice cream for all. Yum…Wish them Happy Birthdays if you happen to run into them. It’s never too late. At least not until their next birthday!

Happy Birthday Michelle!

Happy Birthday Blake!

The Hyde Park Art Center’s Fall Auction, Just Good Art, is almost here! September 30th, at 7pm, the auction begins, but you can preview all the pieces either online or stop by the Art Center to check out the exhibition now! Here are a couple preview pics of the space to whet your appetite.

Gallery View

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Here’s the latest, most colorful addition to our building’s exterior. Passersbys on E. Hyde Park Blvd. won’t be able to miss us, and we think more than just a few people will succumb to their curiosity and will stop in to see exactly what the ART Center is all about!

Last Friday, the HPAC staff kicked up their heels and enjoyed a night out on the town with their (ahem… wonderful, smart, creative, attractive, hard-working) interns. We had a great time visiting the West Loop galleries during the biggest gallery opening night of the year. We all chatted it up with artists, gallery goers and each other, and then we headed to El Barco, a swinging Mexican seafood restaurant. The food was delicious and the conversation and drinks were flowing. What a fun way to say thanks to all of the interns and what a great benefit for interning this summer at HPAC!

Anyone else want to share their highlights from the evening?

Vicky, Laura & Philip

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HPAC’s Home of the Free exhibition leaves Gallery 1, and the space is currently under deinstallation. But don’t fret, there are four other exhibitions up right now, including Scott Wolniak’s Drawing with Outer Space, Jennifer Greenberg’s Recalling Americana, Shane Huffman’s Wanna be part of the human race, and a show of Teaching Artist Linda Cohn’s students! So come on down and see these shows before time runs out. Keep an eye on our exhibition calendar for current and upcoming shows!

Here are a couple of shot of the gallery repainting going on right now.

Clearing out and priming.

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Fifteen students and two teachers from the Latin School of Chicago came down to the Art Center to volunteer their help on a service day this past friday. They did some landscaping work and also assisted in the installation and cleanup of a mosaic mural over at Kenwood Academy. Thanks so much for your help guys! It was very much appreciated!

Here are more pictures of the fabulous Camp 5 performance last week. The 7-11 year olds produced a creative performance complete with sounds and music and huge puppet-costumes and a parade! Enjoy these images of the afternoon.

The puppet parade

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The Camp 5 performances were a big hit last week! All the plays were set in outerspace and related to the upcoming Sun Ra exhibition.

A musical warm-up for the big show

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On Friday our final full camp session ended. After five fantastic camp sessions, and one mini-camp, we’re almost completely tuckered out. However we’ve got one more mini-camp going this week before we pack the camp supplies up and get ourselves ready for the Fall. Check out these photos from the last session and keep your eye out for pictures from our camp 5 performances!

Camp at the Art Institute of Chicago!

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Monday, August 21, we hosted our fourth TalkingPoint, featuring two of the artists participating in our Home of the Free exhibition, Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla. Jennifer and Guillermo drew our biggest crowd yet of artists, activists, and other general all-around interesting folks, as they talked about projects they’ve completed surrounding the island of Vieques in the Carribbean, and the controversy which hovers around it. Keep your eye out for a video broadcast of the conversation on CAN TV!

Please join us next month on September 11th, at 6pm as we discuss politics, government, and their intersection with the artworld!

The Crowd gathered!

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Artist Mario Ybarra Jr. came to the Art Center as part of our Home of the Free exhibition programming. On Thursday, August 10th, Mario discussed artwork made by prisoners in the California jail system, and the reason he had an interest in the work, relating stories of childhood friends who’ve spent more of their lives in the jail system than outside of it. He also related the community work he does through his gallery and youth organizations.

The next day Mario spent some time working with our Session 4 Teen Camp. Here are some images from his time with the kids.

Mario hanging out with the Teens!

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What do you think freedom is? What symbolizes freedom to you? Join the conversation and bring an object which represents your idea or notion of freedom to be a part of the Art Center’s exhibition Home of the Free.

Also, join us for another installment of TalkingPoint, on Monday, August 21st, at 6pm, as artists Jennfier Allora and Guillermo Calzadia discuss their participation in Home of the Free.

Teaching Artist Suzanne Sebold-Suso, along with volunteers and staff from HPAC, led an activity at the chicago Children’s Museum Arts Dat down at Navy Pier on August 2nd. Visitors created their own prints using styrofoam plates and blocks. Check out the fun!

Volunteers helped kids create imaginative prints!

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Here are some of the latest additions to Home of the Free, an exhibition at the Hyde Park Art Center. Community members and visitors to the Art Center have left these objects to contribute to the exhibition. As you can see, definitions and expressions of freedom range from the personal to the political, and everything in between.

Thoughtful additions to the show contributed by the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Program of Northwestern Memorial Hospital

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Like I said, Fridays are the best day of the week around here. Here are some photos of the incredible 7-11 year olds, performing marionette shows that they wrote and directed themselves. The also made the puppets and the background, of course… Great job!

Group 1 performs

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Fridays are the best day of the week during the summer at HPAC… camp performance day! Last Friday, we enjoyed the performances of the campers from session three, which included the 4-6 year olds and the 7-11 year olds. Take a look at these photos of the 4-6 year olds’ last day of camp and their rendition of Eric Carle’s The Very Busy Spider.

Say cheese!

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Our Faculty Show, Material Science, closed this past weekend, and the transition from deinstallation to installation has begun, but we thought we’d share these shots of Teaching Artist Omar Vera’s piece, Bling Bling, a ceramic elephant that needed four people to lift and move. Happy Trails elephant…

Peeking out…

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Scott Wolniak’s cut-paper work on the HPAC glass facade, “Drawing with Outer Space,” beckons viewers to appreciate the facade view in a new way, as light beams trickle in through the dark construction to form intricate shadow patterns, and the small cut-outs create interesting new frames by which to witness the outside neighborhood. Created from a digital photograph of the facade view itself, the work brings the exterior view into the interior in a truly unique way. “Drawing with Outer Space” is visible from both inside and outside the HPAC building… For a most fulfilling experience, please come see both the inner and outer space views!

The catwalk dappled with light from Drawing with Outer Space

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The idea of freedom takes on new forms as HPAC visitors continue to drop off objects which represent their personal notions of what it means to be free. From household trinkets, food, newspaper articles, photographs, political writings, even contraceptive devices, it is clear that “freedom” is not a simple, or limited concept. Please take a look at and read more about the newest objects to populate our exhibition Home of the Free.

For some, freedom is more than red, white and blue…

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What happens at Creativity Camps on rainy days when the kids can’t get outside? We bring the fun inside! Check out these pictures of our 7-11 year olds stretching to warm up and then rocking out and dancing!

Busting a Move!

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Our exhibition Home of the Free continues to grow as community members and artists contribute objects which represent their personal concept of freedom. We will begin posting images of new objects each week that have appeared in the gallery space to carry on the conversations that have been started by this exhibition, and to inspire people to stop in at the Art Center and leave a little piece of their idea of freedom.

Freedom Fries!

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We recently posted an entry about the scheduled closing of 4833 rph. We planned to close for a few days next week in order to refinish the ground level floors at the Hyde Park Art Center, but this project has been postponed until later in the year. 4833 rph will be open during regular hours next week.

Please note that all exhibitions, classes, and events at HPAC will occur as planned.

Our final Creativity Camp performance for Session 2 is this afternoon (Friday at 2pm) so stop on by to check out what our fabulous campers have been up to! Here are a couple of images from Session 1’s fantastic plays!

Our littlest campers tell the story of Big Al!

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To celebrate this afternoon’s camp festivities (Friday, 2pm), here are a couple of images from last session’s final teen camp performance. They created a multimedia piece that involved video projection of the group launching paper boats they made into the lake paired with the creation of a silhouette mural. Very cool stuff!

Teen Camp Performance

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We asked a couple of our teens from our Teen Camp to recap their experiences and what they thought of the Art Center. Gloria and Emma are cousins who attended our first session, and part of session two. In fact, Emma is from Italy, visiting Gloria for the summer, and her recap is translated below by Gloria. Read on to see what they had to say…

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Our Teen Campers are wrapping up their HPAC camp experience today, with a performance at 2pm on the second floor of our building. They’ve spent a great two weeks learning about improv, the environment, the arts, and even an impromptu kickboxing demo by our own Blake Bradford. Here’s hoping that they had a great time with Jessi and Mary, and that we see them back here again and again in the future!

Pile-o-Teens!

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Our campers wrap Session 1 of our Summer Creativity Camps today! They perform at 2:30 pm in 4833, our Resource Center, so if you’re in the area, stop by and check it out! Thanks to all our camp teachers and assistants for making our first full camp session in the new building a great one. We hope they all had as much fun as we had having them here! Here are some images of the good times they had over the last two weeks.

Working with Hardy in the Glaze Room.

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Today is Allison’s birthday! Happy Birthday Director of Exhibitions!

When is a teacher not a teacher? When (s)he is a teaching artist! Material Science, curated by Director of Education Blake Bradford, is a new exhibition highlighting the work of our talented teaching artists. The show examines how these artists employ techniques, materials and media in their art making processes to heighten the tactile, narrative and emotional experience of the finished artworks.

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In a first for the Art Center, we now have Teen Camps! Our inaugural group of eight awesome teens have taken the Art Center by storm. Under the dutiful guidance of teaching artists Mary Tepper and Jessi Walsh, they’ve been working on tons of cool and fun projects. Check out a few photos of the group working on their relief panels, based on graphic images they found from art books in the 4833 library!

A great group of teens for our first ever Teen Arts Camp.

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It’s been a little over three weeks since our grand opening, and we’re in the fourth week of classes here at the Art Center. Construction continues around us, but things are really shaping up, and everyday something else exciting is completed. They’re working on the main entryway glass doors now, and pretty soon our darkroom will be 100% operational. We’ve had several succesful and exciting programs in the space, including our first TalkingPoint program with our facade artists, an admissions workshops for high school students on getting into art school, and tours and programs for groups such as the Chicago Architecture Foundation and Art Resources in Teaching, to name a few. Pictures to come…

We’re 100% out of the old 5307 S Hyde PArk Blvd building, and really getting ourselves settled into the new space. Phones are up and running, internet a go, and furniture built (or at least most of it)

In our third week of classes, we’ve heard remarkably positive responses from all of our students, and we’re getting a ton of visitors. Thank you to everyone that’s stopped by, and if you haven’t yet, please do come on in for a look!

This is it! We (the staff) sit surrounded by boxes filled with our files, books, and anything else we came across as we packed up the office one final time. It feels kind of funny to look around and realize that we’re really going into the new space now and leaving behind the old Del Prado, with all it’s faults, quirks, and leaks. Tomorrow morning the moving company comes and we start unpacking in the new space. We’ll begin updating on how things go as we settle into 5020 S Cornell, and talk about the highs and lows we experience.

Please come by if you’re in the Hyde Park area. We’re open and classes are running.

With construction workers in the building right up until the morning of the Gala, and their return the following week as we prepare for Creative Move, our grand opening celebration, it’s been a little crazy and hectic here at the Art Center, but so amazing! It’s a sight I’m not sure any of us will ever see again as artists worked and installed side by side with construction crews. A little bit surreal, but fascinating, nonetheless.

Patrick McGee’s Installation in the future home of the Thurow Digital Lab

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We’ll post perspectives, thoughts, and insights from HPAC staff in this section to give you a glimpse of what it’s like to work for an organization like the Hyde Park Art Center, and how things go for us during our first year in a new building! Follow along!