GET OUT OF THE COLD AND VISIT THE CHICAGO CULTURAL CENTER CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH AND THE YEAR OF CHICAGO THEATRE
Highlights include African American Designers in Chicago, Cecil McDonald, Jr.: In the Black, Bronzeville Echoes, goat island archive and Chicago! The Play, The Movies, The Musical...The Murders
Admission to the Chicago Cultural Center and Exhibitions is FREE
African American Designers in Chicago: Art, Commerce and the Politics of Race
Through March 3, 2019
Exhibit Hall, 4th Floor North
Featuring
work from a wide range of practices including cartooning, sign
painting, architectural signage, illustration, graphic design, exhibit
design and product design, this exhibition is the first to demonstrate
how African American designers remade the image of the black consumer
and the work of the black artist in this major hub of American
advertising/consumer culture. African American Designers in Chicago: Art, Commerce and the Politics of Race
is funded in part by the Terra Foundation for American Art and The
Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, as part of Art Design Chicago, an
exploration of Chicago’s art and design legacy.
Thursday, January 3, 12:15–1 p.m.: Gallery Talk with Historian Chris Dingwall
Saturday, January 5, 1:30–3pm: Panel Discussion, "The Archive, the Gallery and the Practices of Public History"
Thursday, January 17, 12:15–1 p.m.: Gallery Talk with Curator Daniel Schulman
Thursday, February 21, 12:15–1 p.m.: Gallery Talk with Curator Daniel Schulman
Year of Chicago Theatre - OFFICIAL Kick Off Event
Monday, February 11Throughout the Chicago Cultural Center, 6–8 p.m.
Coinciding
with Chicago Theatre Week, the free admission, building-wide
celebration invites everyone – from the curious to seasoned
theatre-goers – for an inspiring and surprising look at the “fearless
soul” of our city – Chicago’s theatre community. Participating artists
and theatre companies include: The Second City, Walkabout
Theater Company, Free Street Theater, Chicago Youth TheatreFest and
many others presenting interactive performances, live music, youth
project showcases and more. The Year of Chicago Theatre is a citywide, year-long focus on theatre and is the first of its kind in the U.S.
Chicago! The Play, The Movies, The Musical...The Murders
Opening January 12 – ongoing
Randolph Square, 1st Floor North
The
theater stage can be a powerful reminder of human frailties, foibles
and folly. For over ninety years, the 1926 play “Chicago” has provided
these reminders in periodic reinventions as three major motion pictures
and a musical that is a long-running mainstay of the New York Broadway
stage. In conjunction with Chicago’s Year of Chicago Theater, Roxie! explores
the story’s origins as a cynical portrayal of Jazz Age Chicago written
by former Chicago Tribune reporter Maurine Watkins. While fictional
leads Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly have risen to almost folkloric icons of
that era in this city, the story, through all its adaptations, provides
a poignant warning of the dangers resulting from inequity, injustice,
sexism and media abuses. In conjunction with the city's Year of Chicago
Theatre.
Cecil McDonald, Jr.: In the Company of Black
January 19–April 14, 2019
Chicago Rooms, 2nd Floor North
Over
the course of seven years, artist and educator Cecil McDonald, Jr.
photographed people he describes as “extraordinarily ordinary.” As the
artist explains, “When it comes to Black people, America is
fascinated with extreme poles: either showing victims of violence, pain,
and poverty (Black misery) or famous athletes and entertainers, and
icons of popular culture (Black exceptionalism). This false dichotomy
denies Black people the individuality and full spectrum of humanity that
is so readily offered to the white population in this country."
The photographs of In the Company of Black live in the space
between, including tender moments with McDonald's daughters, informal
portraits of his friends and collaborators and references to music, art,
history and popular culture.
Thursday, February 7, 12:15–1 p.m.: Gallery Talk with Curator Greg Lunceford
Sunday, April 14, 2–5 p.m.: Closing with House Music DJ
Furtive
February 2–April 7, 2019
Michigan Avenue Galleries, 1st Floor East
Curated by Filter Photo, Furtive
is a photography-based exhibition that explores the complexity of
memory, both personal and collective. Through an examination of place,
archive and the intersection of perception and knowing, artists Daniel
Hojnacki, Karolis Usonis, and Krista Wortendyke ask us to reconsider
what we think we know based on our past experiences, communal knowledge
and memory. By using photography as a conceptual tool rather than an
objective medium for documentation these artists are able to examine and
question our collective use of photography in the making of both
memories and histories. For more information, visit filterphoto.org.
Saturday, February 2, 1–3 p.m.: Opening
Furtive is a DCASE ArtsSpace collaboration, providing exhibition space and support to Chicago arts organizations through an application process.
In Good Company
February 2–April 7, 2019
Michigan Avenue Galleries, 1st Floor East
In Good Company is
a group exhibition presented by Arts of Life. This exhibition seeks to
highlight the mutually beneficial relationships and connections that
develop within the Arts of Life studios. In Good Company features
seven Arts of Life studio artists and four community volunteers, and
includes work that has been developed both independently and
collaboratively. The ongoing collaborations between studio artists and
community volunteers are fundamental to the success of both individual
practices and the overall health of the organization. This exhibition
showcases the way in which these partnerships develop and thrive around a
person-centric model. Arts of Life advances the creative arts community
by providing artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities a
collective space to expand their practice and strengthen their
leadership. For more information, visit artsoflife.org/events/in-good-company/.
Saturday, February 2, 1–3 p.m.: Opening
Thursday February 21, 5:30–6:30 p.m.: Gallery Talk
In Good Company is a DCASE ArtsSpace collaboration, providing exhibition space and support to Chicago arts organizations through an application process.
Forgotten Forms
February 2–April 7, 2019
Michigan Avenue Galleries, 1st Floor East
Forgotten Forms is a collaborative exhibition between members of the Chicago Cultural Alliance, the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture and the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art.
Investigating seemingly everyday objects to reveal a much greater story
about neighborhood identity, placemaking and city life, the exhibition
highlights the work of two emerging artists, both of whom explore
structural elements of urban landscapes. Edra Soto revisits Puerto Rico’s vernacular architecture through her GRAFT
installations and architectural interventions, and Yhelena Hall touches
on the history of Chicago and explores a marginal state of detritus
becoming artifacts through her series Polished Remnants. For more information, visit chicagoculturalalliance.org.
Saturday, February 2, 1–3 p.m.: Opening
Forgotten Forms is a DCASE ArtsSpace collaboration, providing exhibition space and support to Chicago arts organizations through an application process.
goat island archive–we have discovered the performance by making it
Performance Space and Activations
February 1–June 23, 2019
Sidney R. Yates Gallery, 4th Floor North
Exhibition
March 30–June 23, 2019
Exhibition Hall, 4th Floor North
Throughout
the 23 years of its existence (1986–2009), the Chicago-based Goat
Island contributed to the conception of nine major performance works,
accompanied by publications, film and video projects, workshops, summer
schools, lectures and symposia, inventing a complex institution bigger
than the individual works. Freed from prescribed narrative and dialog,
the work of Goat Island is built slowly in a creative process informed
by repetition, chance and individual perception. Their democratic,
shared activations continue to influence generations of artists, theatre
makers, cultural theorists and social philosophers.
In
conjunction with the city's Year of Chicago Theatre, nine national and
international performance groups and artists have been commissioned to
develop and present new work, each inspired by one of Goat Island's
original performances. The works-in-progress will be presented at
partner cultural venues throughout Chicago as part of the IN>TIME
Festival, and “final” works will take place at the Chicago Cultural
Center's Sidney R. Yates Gallery, which will be transformed into a scale
re-imagining of the church gymnasium where the collective rehearsed. A
tenth performance, created as a composite of “Missing Scenes” from the
prior nine works, will be presented in June during a week of concluding
events. The accompanying exhibition in the Chicago Cultural Center's
Exhibition Hall will present archival materials that reflect Goat
Island's generative and pedagogic processes and still invite
consideration and reinterpretation.
Friday, March 29, 6–9 p.m.: Opening Preview
Bronzeville Echoes: Faces and Places of Chicago’s African American Music
Ongoing
Garland Gallery, 1st Floor South
Explore
Chicago’s music legacy through ragtime, jazz and blues in an exhibition
that highlights the contributions of important places and people that
shaped the music scene. Seldom-seen original artifacts will be on
display including sheet-music, rare 1920s records with quirky period
graphics–and even the original 1932 telephone booth from the old
Sunset/Grand Terrace Café from which the actual music can be heard. The
scope is broad and surprising–Ragtime morphs into jazz, Blues transforms
into modern gospel, and it all echoes throughout the contemporary
genres of House and Hip Hop.
Learning Lab, February–March, 2019
Open Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m.–3 p.m.
1st Floor South (Across from the Garland Gallery)
The Learning Lab is a place to engage and experiment with all aspects of DCASE
cultural programming. Meet and engage with artists! Watch archival
footage of guests at past DCASE events on a vintage TV set. Hear the
sounds of upcoming DCASE music festivals. Feel the artifacts and sumptuous materials used to create this golden age building and more!
Meet an Artist Activities
Engage with artists connected to various exhibitions, programs and initiatives presented by DCASE.
Select Fridays, Noon–2 p.m.
- Friday, February 1: Design Museum of Chicago
- Friday, February 15: Arts of Life
- Friday, March 15: Chicago Cultural Alliance
Select Saturdays, 1–3 p.m.
- Saturdays, Now through March 2: Project Osmosis
- Saturday, March 16: Filter Photo
- Saturday, March 23: Arts of Life
All
exhibitions and performances at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E.
Washington Street, are presented by the Department of Cultural Affairs
and Special Events (DCASE). Building hours are Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–7
p.m., Saturday–Sunday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; closed holidays. Admission is
FREE. For information, visit chicagoculturalcenter.org, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram @ChiCulturCenter.
Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events
The
Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) is dedicated
to enriching Chicago’s artistic vitality and cultural vibrancy. This
includes fostering the development of Chicago’s non-profit arts sector,
independent working artists and for-profit arts businesses; providing a
framework to guide the City’s future cultural and economic growth, via
the 2012 Chicago Cultural Plan; marketing the City’s cultural assets to a
worldwide audience; and presenting high-quality, free and affordable
cultural programs for residents and visitors. For more information,
visit cityofchicago.org/dcase.
