When I agreed to do the exhibition, the curator Leslie Patterson mentioned that the Chicago Artists' Archive is housed in the Visual and Performing Arts Library, where my show is installed. I am a recent transplant to Chicago, and I live about a half hour outside the city, so reading the Archive allows me to learn Chicago art history during the day. I come up with many reasons not to drive down to openings (why on Friday nights? when traffic is the worst?). I wrote this post about the archive in June, which lays out a bit about the Archive and what I have been looking at.
The real reason to read this archive is its unique status as a regional open and free artist archive. While my research is far from complete, a few hours of Google searches has unearthed many archives, but none quite so beautifully simple in its conception or as extensive in its scope. If you make or made art in Chicago or the Chicago area, or were born here and went on to have an artistic career by any definition, your work belongs in the Chicago Artists' Archive. There is no curator making selections for the archive or editing it in any way. If you submit, you are included. One artist made the CAA into a public archive for his work, sending 'archival' CDs with his photographs, inventory lists, regularly updated resumes, and statements.
I have learned an enormous amount already about Chicago's art scene. Of note are the longevity and significance of artist-run spaces and galleries, as well as the tremendous influence of the School of the Art Institute. And I am only in the middle of the H's, a third of the way through.
When I am full of the archive, I walk out to see the city's public art, visit the SAIC or Columbia College student galleries, the Pop-Up Art Loop galleries, the shows at the Art Institute, and then stop at the MCA on the way back to the Northwestern shuttle bus. Every day is full of art these two months, and that is the best reason to read the archive.
No comments:
Post a Comment