Chicago 2017 JUSTICE Open Engagement Table of Contents A note about this program: 4 Director’s Welcome This document, just like the conference itself, is a 6 OE 2017 Team labor of love split between a tiny part-time staff and a 7 Curatorial Statement few interns. Please be kind and gentle with us if you see an error, omission, typo, or any other human mistake 8 Featured Presenters while reading this document. 10 Locations 11 Chicago Info Schedule Social Media 12 Overviews Follow us on Instagram, 18 Featured Presentations Twitter and Facebook @openengagement 19 Conversation Series 20 Pre-Conference Share your posts from this year with #OE2017 23 Open House 26 Saturday Parallel Sessions Find further details at www.openengagement.info 28 Saturday at Co-Prosperity Sphere 31 Sunday Parallel Sessions OEHQ 33 Parties & Projects The Open Engagement Headquarters (information and registration) is located 36 Open Platform at UIC, Art and Exhibition Hall, 1st floor, 37 Trainings 400 S Peoria Friday 9:00am – 12:00pm 38 Contributor Bios Saturday 9:00am – 5:00pm Sunday 9:00am – 4:00pm 2 3 Co-Prosperity Sphere/Lumpen Radio, Columbia College Director’s Welcome Presenter Demographics Chicago/Glass Curtain Gallery/Wabash Arts Corridor, Gallery We are proud that the conference continues to be a site Open Engagement in Chicago is the second in our three- support for this work. In an effort towards transparency of our 400/Threewalls/Propeller Fund, Hyde Park Art Center, Jane committed to diversity and the representation of a wide part thematic trilogy that is taking the conference from process, and as we move toward the ten year anniversary of Addams Hull-House Museum, Museum of Contemporary perspective of the multitude of human experience. Oakland (2016 — POWER), to Chicago (2017 — JUSTICE), and the conference we want to share our progress, process, and Art Chicago, National Museum of Mexican Art, Party Noire, Rebuild Foundation, Reunion, Reva and David Logan Center ending in New York (2018 — SUSTAINABILITY). This year’s continued commitments. In 2016 the conference featured over 264 presenters, with for the Arts, Roots and Culture, School of the Art Institute conference, guided by the curatorial vision of Romi Crawford 124 of those presenters representing Oakland and the larger of Chicago, Smart Museum of Art, The Stockyard Institute, and Lisa Yun Lee, will feature presenters including Theaster Selection Process Bay Area. In 2016, Open Engagement began requesting Gates, Maria Gaspar, Maria Varela, Ai-jen Poo, Marisa Jahn TRQPiTECA, and Weinberg/Newton Gallery. The majority of Open Engagement programming continues to that presenters self-identify and share information with and Laurie Jo Reynolds. be coordinated through an open call for submissions. Within the conference. Of the last year presenters who chose to Two of Chicago’s major institutions Museum of Contemporary self-identify during the registration process, 55% identified Now in its 9th year, OE will bring together hundreds of artists, the selection process, like all of the work of the conference, Art Chicago and the Art Institute of Chicago co-host a full day as either Afro-Caribbean, African American, East Asian, activists, educators, students, institutions, and thinkers collectivity is emphasized. Each year we form volunteer of pre-conference activities on Thursday, April 20th including Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Latino, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, to explore this year’s theme of JUSTICE, as well as take selection committees to review the proposals. panel discussions, break-out sessions and a performance. Arab, Native American, Alaskan Native, or First Nations; and stock of the field of socially engaged art and practice. This Last December we met with over 25 artists, organizers, and 45% identify as White or Euro-American. Of the OE 2016 year’s program will feature local, national and international Cost Structure for Presenters community members to program the conference through presenters who chose to self-identify, 55% identify as female, presenters with more than 100 workshops, presentations, For 2017 we embody this year’s theme of JUSTICE by our open call for submissions that generated over 300 22% identify as male, and 23% identify as non-binary gender, panels, conversations, tours, parties and projects. OE 2017 incorporating an economic justice framework into our fee submissions. We are thrilled and excited about the quality of or made multiple selections. will feature a selection of focused trainings to provide schedule. OE ensures that all its 250+ presenters attend for programming, the projects from around the world, and the attendees with skills and tools to help better address creative free, and that no one is turned away from attending OE if they critical conversations and performances that we have lined This year, 51% of our presenters are from Chicago and the work at the complex intersection of art and social justice, are not able to afford even the lowest suggested fee on our up for Chicago. surrounding area; 57% identified as Afro-Caribbean, African as well as opportunities for intimate discussion during our American, East Asian, Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Latino, sliding scale. In order for this model to be successful, we have Conversation Series. In the evenings, queer-inclusive nightlife It is critical to us that these committees first and foremost Hispanic, Middle Eastern, Arab, Native American, Alaskan calculated the cost per person to attend the conference is organizers will host celebrations, guided by the belief that emphasize the local, as well as include national perspectives. Native, First Nations or with multiple selections, and 37% $150 (this is the base cost, and to achieve a more sustainable transformative acts of change are deeply indebted to these A driving vision of the selection process is for the conference identify as White or Euro-American; 60% identify as female, budget would put the actual cost at closer to $275 per marginal spaces of collective joy. to reflect the local context in relationship to national and 25% identify as male, and 12% identify as elsewhere on the person). The sliding scale is from $40– $1000. global issues, and we work to include as broad of a variety of spectrum or made multiple selections; 40% chose to identify OE began as, and remains, a grassroots artist-led and artist- As founder and director, and with OE’s ten year anniversary presenters as is possible within a convening that fills three full as LGBTQIA. organized conference. OE is about creating a site of care coinciding with our last scheduled conference in 2018 days of programming. Programming that is not coordinated for the field and supporting artists, activists, administrators, around the corner, I am thinking about the future, and where collectively through the Selection Committees or the open Consortium educators, and cultural workers who are engaged in our values, punk ethos, centrality of weirdness, collective call, such as the Conversation Series, is achieved by reaching transforming the world through creativity and radical 2016 marked the first year of our partnerships with the OE care, love, dreams, and magic may take us. You all are our out to individuals and groups that we have identified with help imagination. Over the past nine years Open Engagement has National Consortium that includes the Oakland Museum of collaborators, our co-conspirators. We exist because of you. from local partners as key voices to invite into the dialogue at become a critical site of convening around socially engaged California, the California College of the Arts, University of As we forge ahead we welcome your input and suggestions, Open Engagement. art, and has worked hard to expand the networks of Chicago School of Art & Art History, Queens Museum, and A please be sure to use the post-conference survey as a space Blade of Grass. Moving this conference coast to coast allows for this dialogue. We are excited about the next two years us with each iteration to focus on the local issues, context, of Open Engagement with you, as well the potential that the organizations, and conversations happening in each host city. future holds. This year OE is working with partners spanning the Onward. NEW RELEASE: breadth of Chicago’s neighborhoods to represent the work OEIP_005 | SAY IT WHILE YOU STILL MEAN IT: being done at the intersection of art and activism across Jen Delos Reyes with the Open Engagement team — CONVERSATIONS ON ART & PRACTICE the city. Current partners include 3Arts, 6018 North, ACRE, Crystal Baxley, Alex Winters, Latham Zearfoss by Bad @ Sports | Available 2017 Art Institute of Chicago, Bad at Sports, The Block Museum, CATALOG: OEIP_004 | I’M GOING TO LIVE THE LIFE I SING ABOUT IN MY SONG: HOW ARTISTS MAKE AND LIVE LIVES OF MEANING Open Engagement In Print is a publishing imprint by Jen Delos Reyes | Released 2016 dedicated to the creation and distribution of printed OEIP_003 | PLACE AND REVOLUTION matter focused on socially engaged art. OE In Print In Conversation: Lisa Lee and Rick Lowe | Released 2015 features edited volumes, artist conversation series, OEIP_002 | OPEN ENGAGEMENT: LOOKING BACK, LOOKING AHEAD and small publications that highlight the work of Open by Jen Delos Reyes | Released 2015 Engagement presenters and beyond. OEIP_001 | THE QUESTIONS WE ASK TOGETHER Learn more and order titles at Edited by Gemma-Rose Turnbull. Featuring contributions from 100 www.openengagement.info/in-print members of the Open Engagement community. | Released 2015 4 5 2017 Open Engagement Team 2017 Curatorial Statement— JUSTICE Jen Delos Reyes Latham Zearfoss 2017 Curators Founder and Director Administrative Assistant and Lisa Yun Lee Open Engagement 2017 — JUSTICE takes place as the We are equally committed to OE’s mission of creating a site trauma of the Presidential election continues to reverberate Jen Delos Reyes is a creative laborer, Local Support Romi Crawford of critical care and critical inquiry for the vast, complex and around the globe.