We’re baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!
Artists take over the entire building to showcase the illusive, the strange and the mysterious side of art. The whole family is invited to enjoy a full day of performance, workshops, exhibitions and more. And best of all, it’s FREE!

EVENTS

All Day Events

Flesh and Bone II

Curated by the husband-and-wife team of Jeriah Hildwine and Stephanie Burke, this collection of gruesome artworks from Chicago-based artists includes the Mothman, Bigfoot, zombies, and more.

They Want My Bacon Slice by Slice

A collection of videos inspired by the writings of Edgar Allen Poe, Doris Lessing and Roald Dahl. Initially presented as part of Subtitles program at threewalls, this collection screening features over 30 minutes of original short films curated by Livebox. Artists include: Celeste Fichter, Mark Franz, Tony Gammidge, Ellen Lake, Rebekkah Palov, Malcolm Sutherland

Title Question Mark – A Certainly Uncertain Journey.

LiveBox in conjunction with the Chicago Opera Vangaurd presents: Title Question Mark – A Certainly Uncertain Journey. Be prepared for blazing brass, hot-couple dance-fu, cataclysmic destruction, the highest of high drama and more. Performers will strike anywhere, at any time. Tread lightly, keep your eyes open, make no sudden movements and remain suspicious of everyone…everywhere…all the time.

Veni Vidi Vici

A childhood playground game gets a historical twist. Artist Richie Catrambone draws up a hopscotch court that will test your knowledge of ancient Rome.

Scheduled Events

Zombification Station
1pm-6pm

Let the Art Center’s Youth Art Board zombify you. Get your bruises, lacerations, blood clots and mussed hair done. You’ll be the belle of the monster ball.

Spiders and Webs with Cheryl Williams
1-3pm

Who doesn’t love our eight legged friends? Make spiders and webs to your heart’s content.

Living in Color with Mina Lee
2-4pm

What would the world be without color? Color is a direct expression of emotion and thought. Explore your creative senses in this interactive workshop. Inspired by fashion, cinema, and the everyday, models showcasing canvas styles and objects traverse the runway allowing you to add as little as much color as you would like.

Mischief Mask Making
2-4pm

Still don’t know what to be for Halloween? Make your own costume in this drop in mask making workshops. Artist and teaching artist Makeba Kedem-Dubose shows us how to sneak and scheme to create unique masks you can wear!

Haunted Parking Lot
3pm-8pm

Step into the … parking lot. This year, the Art Center’s parking lot will be transformed into a haunted house that will shake you to your core. Each artist curated scene, sponsored by Smartbox, features ghouls and gross outs of every shape and size. The further into the lot you go, the more horrifying things become.

Hiplett
3:30-4pm

The Bryant Youth Professionals from “The Chicago Multi-cultural Dance Center” presents a performance combining elements of both hip-hop and ballet. Part street, part conventional dance, this innovative performance will have audiences tapping their feet, clapping their hands, and questioning their idea of classical dance. Directed by Homer Bryant.

Blood Drawing
3-5pm

Teaching artist Jessi Walsh gets a little crazier than usual. She’s using edible stage blood to make her latest creations. Visitors are invited to scrape, lick and scrawl the liquid goo off mounted paper in order to create works of art.

GAME
3-5pm

It’s kill or be killed in this black satire on modern day Chinese politics. Based on the online game, Counter Strike, GAME is a multiplayer shooter game, with plenty of bloody graphics . Set in China, GAME uses characters from the Chinese political arena, including the Dalai Lama, Ai Weiwei and Chairman Mao, to add a very real note to this virtual reality.

Live Musical Performance by LePercolateur
3-5pm

Hipster gypsy Jazz Band, lePercolateur, joins us for a live musical performance. Guitar, violin, upright bass and vocals combine in an eerie, old world style.

Six Scenes and an Epilogue
4-6 pm

It’s like a choose your own adventure book gone mad! Tucked inside custom-made fortune cookies lays a scene yet to be performed. At the roll of the dice artists Trevor Martin and Vicki Fowler perform vaudeville-esque skits for your enjoyment. You never know what their next performance will be.

Live Box
4-6pm

Take in a variety show of the weird sort including a performance “Séance,” Zombie Yoga, standup and improv comedy, and agitated circusry.

Exhibition Reception for Blaque Lyte
5-8pm

Imagine your college dorm room, but really, really well done. Blaque Lyte, an exhibition curated by Paul Nudd and Chris Kerr celebrates artworks designed to respond to ultraviolet light.

The GypSee Shadow Puppet Theatre Presents… Camille St. Saens’ Danse Macabre
6-7pm

Long live death and equality! Midnight strikes and the grim reaper raises the dead with the moaning of her violin. The Danse has begun in a play of light and shadow, living and dead. Join the procession before the rooster crows and dawn pulls the ghouls back into the their graves!

Story Burn
7-8pm
Artists Heather Hartley and Casey Murtaugh perform a continuation of their project Tell Me a Story… Nostalgia in the Digital Age. In this iteration, the artists invite the audience to meditate on nostalgic moments from their past, culminating in a ritualized burning of ills.

Monster Birth
7-9pm

It’s been a year since the 2010 Monster Wedding. Now the monsters are celebrating the next major significant moment in their lives… the birth of their monster baby. Artists Erica Gressman, Katie Torn and Lindsay Denniburg gather their monstrous family for a ritual celebrating the birth of the newest generation of monsters. Join us for the labor pains.

MUSIC
7-10pm

A musical performance like no other. Artists from all over the city get together to present a unique musical performance. Featuring performances from Xina Xurner, Beverly Fresh and Mr. 666.

SCARY MOVIE PARTY 8
8-10pm

Gruesome, campy and macabre short films redefine the horror genre in the 8th year of SCARY MOVIE PARTY! This year, SMP is international and musical, offering fantastic visions from Stateside, Canadian, European and South American filmmakers and musicians.

Mischief Night is generously sponsored by