Studio Chicago: Creativity, Production and Infrastructure

Studio Chicago

Studio Chicago is a yearlong collaborative project that focuses on the artist's studio. Through exhibitions, talks, publications, tours, and research, participating organizations will celebrate the working artist and reveal their sites of creative production from historical and contemporary perspectives. With concepts ranging from the "studio as muse," "virtual studios," "street as studio," and "gallery as studio," Studio Chicago invites participation from artists and the art-curious, which began with Chicago Artists Month in October 2009. Studio Chicago Core Partners are the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Columbia College Chicago, DePaul University, Gallery 400 at UIC, Hyde Park Art Center, Museum of Contemporary Art, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and threewalls. PROGRAM FOCUS AND GOALS: All programs presented and featured as part of Studio Chicago seek to further collective inquiry, leading to a deeper, more nuanced understand ing among the artist community, and to broader awareness and understanding among the arts-curious by asking critical questions, presenting new scholarship, or proposing new ways of thinking about the artist's studio. Programs may also serve as forums for exchanging solutions or reflecting on the practical realities of working in the studio. All programs are selected through a review process and must address any or all of these questions: How and why does the studio matter to art and artists today? What is the artist's studio today? What infrastructures are needed to sustain thriving art practice, and what role does the artist studio play within this infrastructure? Studio Chicago also seeks to build community, serving as a catalyst for new or newly strengthened relationships among those involved--audiences and organizers alike. To this end, participating artists and arts organizations pool resources, find synergies, collaboratively organize, and jointly foster participation and audience ownership in Studio Chicago programs. For more information, visit http://studiochicago.org