The announcement: “Catherine Edelman Gallery is staying in our brick-and-mortar space at 1637 West Chicago. Together, with our artists, we are working to develop a new and sustainable gallery model. One of the newest features is the redesign of our home page and a new, innovative Viewing Room that allows the public to walk through the show as if they were in the gallery. This new experience, coupled with in-depth artist interviews, and in-person and online programming, offers a fresh approach to the traditional Tuesday through Saturday hours. ‘Artists need a space to see their work. And the public needs a space where they can see, learn and ask questions. I look forward to engaging with the public in a new, more personalized way,’ said Edelman.”
Indy announces a plan
Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields has released a thirty-day action plan to help it become an “empathetic, multicultural and anti-racist institution,” about a month after its CEO quit in the wake of controversy over a job posting that sought to maintain the institution’s “traditional, core, white art audience.”
From Inside Indiana Business: “According to the museum, the plan includes a $20-million endowment that will be dedicated to the works of marginalized artists. The plan also includes a more diverse board of trustees, organization-wide DEIA training, as well as a series of new programming, community partnerships and free membership offerings to bring Newfields to a wider, more diverse, audience.”
The Weinberg-Newton Gallery has awarded Chicago-based A Long Walk Home and its artists Scheherazade Tillet, Robert Narciso and Leah Gipson its first Art & Advocacy Residency, which will entail gallery space and a stipend toward realizing “‘The Visibility Project: Black Girlhood Altar,’ an installation comprised of four community altars to be placed throughout Chicago this May and June as temporary monuments to missing and murdered Black girls.”
From the press release: “‘The Visibility Project: Black Girlhood Altar’ will engage Black girls and young women in Chicago as citizen-artists who will research, assemble and activate the altars, using the project to advocate for change within their communities. Each public altar will serve as a sacred space and gathering site for grief, healing, safety and comfort through multi-disciplinary art practices. The ALWH Collective is interested in finding ways for communities to come together to grieve, celebrate life, and make sustainable changes in their own communities. Over the course of the residency, ALWH and Weinberg/Newton Gallery will present programming that offers the public insight into the creation of ‘The Visibility Project: Black Girlhood Altar.'”
DESIGN
Ramova is moving forward
The renovation of the Ramova Theater in Bridgeport is moving forward, but plans for the Uptown Theater have again fallen through, according to this report in the Sun-Times.
In an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, incoming president and CEO of the Chicago History Museum Donald Lassere outlined his goals to diversify the museum’s offerings and its audience, based on his experience with the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, saying the Chicago institution’s audience is ” ‘more than eighty-percent white’ in a majority-minority city.”
Fauci talks arts!
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci will be a guest at a webinar today at 2pm Chicago time entitled, “The Art of Reopening—A Virtual Conversation on Reengaging Arts Audiences in Physical Spaces.” Register here. Plus the Arts in Action newsletter offers lots of nuts and bolts for arts organizations on government-related funding opportunities, especially the Shuttered Venue Operating Grants.
Today in the Culture: March 30, 2021 | Bookstore sues Amazon | Arts Alliance petitions the city FOOD & DRINK Who is that masked Manny? Manny's Cafeteria and Delicatessen will give away free food today, ending at 1,000 sandwiches or the first customer who comes in without being properly masked. Rocking the IPA Two Brothers brewing is leaning into its historical music affinities for the launch of its new beer, Amplifier IPA, describing it as "big,…
Today in the Culture: March 19, 2021 | Arts fight against zoning ordinance grows | Restaurant Week starts DESIGN Culture killer Add Terrain Exhibitions and its Biennial to the list of things threatened by Ald. Sophia King's rezoning ordinance that would limit the use of houses as cultural institutions; they're encouraging supporters to write letters. (Preservation Chicago is collecting signatures on a petition.) DINING AND DRINKING Indulge yourself and save a job and maybe a business Chicago…
