Drop in and see what urban planner, artist and entrepreneur, Emmanuel Pratt, and other collaborators have been making.

During his time spent at the Art Center, Pratt has been examining how to intertwine urban agriculture, digital collage, text, video and photography as a way to translate his ongoing green venture, the Mycelia Project.

The Mycelia Project is an innovative and educational collaboration with Chicago Public Schools, Urban Gateways, and the Woodlawn Community Development Corporation among others. It seeks to unite the various Chicago communities via hands-on, experimental projects that promote learning focused on food, soil, water and energy sustainability. The Art Center’s studio walls have been transformed into giant chalkboards as a way for the artist to visually represent his creative process including garden chemistry, constructive uses for found materials, and his proposition for revitalizing post-industrial cities through community activism.

Emmanuel Pratt has spent several years working closely and traveling around the country with McArthur Genius awardee Will Allen of Growing Power. Pratt now serves as the Executive Director for the Sweet Water Foundation, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit arm of Sweet Water Organics, Inc. in Milwaukee, WI. The organization is dedicated to building intergenerational and interdisciplinary educational programming for sustainability with a focus on the potential of urban agriculture and aquaculture in post-industrial cities. His professional and academic work has involved investigations in such topics as urbanization, race/identity, gentrification, and most recently transformative processes of community development through intersections of food security and sustainable design innovation.

Having earned a BArch from Cornell University, and a MSAUD (Masters in Science of Architecture and Urban Design) from Columbia University, Pratt is currently a PhD candidate in Urban Planning. Though he began in architecture, Pratt’s recent work is anchored in the realm of art, graphic design, and interactive media. His work has exhibited at the Studio Museum of Harlem in Harlemworld: Metropolis as Metaphor (2004) and as part of a group exhibition Liquid Durban (Mare Nostrum) at the International Architectural Biennale Rotterdam (2005).

The Hyde Park Art Center Residency Program assists contemporary artists in the process of creativity, research, and innovation by providing studio space, networking support, and time to think and explore. The Art Center recognizes that art production is a process that requires study, experimentation, and is often enhanced by connections to other creative individuals and organizations. This program is unique by providing resident artists access to a rich variety of Chicago resources: the Art Center’s long-standing, collaborative relationships with major cultural, educational, and government institutions, as well as other arts organizations, and neighborhoods across Chicago’s south side. Artists are selected on the proven quality of their work in addition to the value that the time in Chicago, and at the Art Center, will bring to the artists’ practice. International and national residencies range between one and four months, while local artists may be in residence for up to a year, depending on the artist’s needs.

Thursday, September 1, 6-8 pm
Studio 7: Emmanuel Pratt in residency from March 26 – October 31, 2011
Free!