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Art Wed Jun 03 2015
A New Home for ACRE: Interview with Emily Green
The project space, ACRE, is moving to a new, refined, larger-than-life, location at 1345 West 19th St., in Pilsen. The non-profit supports emerging artists and creates a space for ideas, collaboration, and experimentation. While the history of the new-- and simultaneously old--building dates back to a 1930s funeral home, ACRE will utilize the unique interior to create a foundation for future exhibitions, film screenings, lectures, and also will house books from the ACRE archive.
ACRE has received a generous donation but still needs $20,000 to create a suitable space in Chicago. Through Kickstarter, ACRE hopes to raise the remaining money to support their new exhibition and programming space for future residents.
Emily Green, one of the directors of ACRE, talked to Gapers Block via email about upcoming plans and current ideas concerning the campaign or the new location in Pilsen.
The new location for ACRE in Pilsen looks incredible! I would like to begin by asking, what initiated the move?
I started looking for a new space for ACRE about a year ago. Our 400 sq ft gallery space was becoming increasingly inadequate for the more and more ambitious projects our artists and curators want to produce.
In our old space, we held meetings and work sessions in my dining room. This too began to feel too small. We would often have to find other locations to hold large meetings or events.
The difficulty of trying to create a community space within an individual's home was starting to take a toll. It was affecting how often we could have open hours for the gallery, it was limiting our ability to schedule programming to support the exhibitions and preventing easy access to the space to work and meet for our volunteers and staff.
Admittedly, it also came out of my own desire to regain some personal space and separation of my home from my work.
ACRE already has a presence in Pilsen since finding a home in your apartment in 2010. How do you think the Pilsen neighborhood will continue to aid the ACRE project space, or how has it already done so?
We are very conscious of creating a symbiotic relationship with our neighborhood. Many artists have flocked to Pilsen over the years because of its affordability, access to transportation and proximity to downtown. We have benefited from being in a neighborhood that hosts a diversity of artists and cultural projects because that is the majority of our audience and people that we work with. Appreciation for all types of art is abundant in Pilsen. Many of the artists who have come through our program are Pilsen residents. We've been engaging with our neighbors through events such as block parties, free stores, and programming around sharing meals since we started in 2010, but we hope with this new space to increase that engagement with our community even more.
What are some of the obstacles you've confronted by being a volunteer-staffed project space?
Being a volunteer project has its drawbacks at times. It can be tough to hold volunteers accountable and the strain of working without compensation can lead to burn out. It's hard to keep asking people to donate their time and resources, especially those you are also seeking to support. But the sense of generosity and volunteerism that is at the core of ACRE also creates a unique community of people who are extremely invested in the growth and development of the project. Integrating a cooperative style of management can slow things down as we confer with all members of the organization, but at the same time allows for many perspectives, ideas and solutions that the administrators might not otherwise come to. It also bolsters that sense of investment and dedication by the community.
A big part of why we wanted to find a larger space is to be able to provide our volunteers and artists with more access to our resources in the form of a space to work and meet in, as well as the use of our equipment that usually remains in storage throughout the part of the year that we are not at the residency in Wisconsin. We are thinking through even more non-monetary forms of compensation, but are ultimately working toward a staff structure that is a mix of volunteers and paid staff.
The new location involves A Squared Architectural Design. How will the layout and the overall design development of the space contribute to the arts community and the creative goals of ACRE?
We have been working with A Squared on a design that would highlight the existing features of the 1930s funeral home that has been restored and well maintained by the previous owners, while bringing in more contemporary elements. The gallery and multi-use space have been designed with a modular approach in mind. There will be two permanent walls constructed, but there will also be three mobile walls, which will allow for many possibilities for the way the artists and curators we work with can configure the space. Similarly, the multi-use space design includes a large table that can be broken into smaller tables and easily moved and stored. Beyond just exhibitions, this allows us to be able to easily transform the entire space to suit whatever type of program, meeting or social event we may be hosting. Having this kind of flexibility with our space speaks to our mission of working with a diverse array of artists, mediums and communities.
Since the size is dramatically larger than the previous gallery, what are some improvements that you hope will occur once the move is in full swing?
Having a larger exhibition space will change our program in a number of ways. We will shift from having 2-3 person shows to 3-5 person shows, which will affect the kinds of shows our curators will organize. Small group shows can allow for more of a dialogue between art practices to happen and will hopefully make for more dynamic exhibitions and conversations in the gallery. The larger space will also provide the opportunity for more programming such as lectures, workshops, performances, etc., to happen in the space both as independent projects and in conjunction with the exhibitions themselves. We hope this will allow for a more considered exhibition experience both for the artists and our audience. A larger space will also help to streamline the logistics of running a gallery. We'll have better storage for our tools and equipment, which will allow us to have a better system for loaning our materials to artists and other galleries. Because we are working to exhibit around 80 artists every year, having larger group shows will mean fewer shows overall that can be open for a longer time.
Joining the new location will be a library, a multi-use space, and an office. Can you expand on these additions and how they will interact with the wider Chicago community?
Once the space is up and running, we have plans to open up the multi-use space to members in our community to be able to reserve it for projects or events. It will also house monthly open meetings that anyone is invited to attend, to be informed about ACRE's activities and to ask questions or propose projects or ideas. We will have the space open to the public more in general.
We have amassed a library of books, audio, slides and art ephemera over the years that we are eager to share. While it will not be a lending library, it will be open for anyone to visit and spend time in. We are also excited to think about the library in a more experimental way. Rather than a static collection of books, it can change or be rearranged, be incorporated into exhibitions, and curated for specific programs or projects.
When is your opening?
We are planning to have our first exhibition opening at the new space on September 27, 2015.
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ACRE's Kickstarter campaign will run until June 25. Rewards include custom ringtones, ACRE buttons, tickets to Kitchen Supper Club, screen prints and more.
