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Art Thu May 13 2010
Make Believe and Make Art in Wicker Park Bucktown
Installation artists must be having the time of their lives lately. With all the empty store front "pop up" galleries going up all over the city they definitely don't have a lack of spaces to work. If you wanted to show your work downtown all you had to do was submit to the Chicago Loop Alliance's Pop Up Art Loop project, Hyde park had the Op-Shops and now a recent request for proposal has been launched by WPB SSA #33 for their upcoming Make Believe Project in Wicker Park Bucktown.
WPB is inviting artists to imagine what commerce will be like in Wicker Park Bucktown in the distant future. The strongest part of this project, I think, is the fact that there is a theme. A lot of these pop up sorts of spaces in and around Chicago have been lacking this key element. Themes help audience engage, and although in a perfect world an artist does whatever they want, in the real world we all, at least some of the time, have to work within some limits. Of course, like all of the pop up gallery concepts, this requires the artists to utilize their special breed of problem solving skills. From empty lots, to actual storefronts with windows and electricity, the range of problems, and solutions, are endless. Personally, I have found that limitations like these can bring the most out of an artist, and I am excited to see what comes of this.
Some things you should know about this project is that at least 10 artists, or artist groups, will be juried into this project by the likes of Edmar Marszewski, founder of Co-Prosperity Sphere; Anthropologie visual manager Lauren Orciulo and Monique Meloche Gallery director Whitney Tassie. All of the artists, or artist groups, will receive a $1,000 stipend to help bring these projects into fruition, There will be a public voting aspect of Make Believe that will denote a winner of the final $5500 prize.
Seems like this is the beginning of a great summer for the arts in Chicago.
