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2016

 

 

EAC OPEN HOUSE

Sat, 12/17/2016 - 11:00am - 2:00pm

Bring the family and join Evanston Art Center as we host an open house on Saturday, December 17 between 11am-2pm!

· Tour the building and visit active demonstrations led by teaching artists in painting, ceramics, jewelry, and more

· Visit our Maker Lab for the Design Your Own Keychain workshop, where you’ll jump right into 3D printing and laser cutting to make take-away keychains and learn about digital fabrication. Workshop will take place from 1-4pm with a suggested $10 donation. Sign up at the front desk.

· Drop-in for free family fun cookie-decorating on our first floor

· Shop our Winter Arts & Crafts Expo and view second floor exhibitions Tied & Remnants: Yoounshin Park; Works on Paper, From China to America: Chunbo Zhang; and Studio Exhibition: Aesthetic Options.

 

 

A LECTURE ON PAPER CONSERVATION

Wed: 12/14/16, 6-7pm

EAC is partnering with Restoration Division to offer a unique set of lectures and events that are free and open to the public! Restoration Division specializes in conservation work on all media, including paintings, artworks on paper, photographs, documents, Asian screens and scrolls, objects, frames, murals, icons and textiles. Come by to learn different parts of the restoration process, as well as consult with conservation professionals on ways to restore your own artwork!

 

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

6-7PM

A Lecture on Paper Conservation: Prints, watercolors, wallpaper, Asian screens and scrolls, photographs, documents and more.

 

A LECTURE ON PAINTING & FRAME CONSERVATION

 
Date: Thu, 11/17/2016 - 6:00pm - 7:00pm

EAC is partnering with Restoration Division to offer a unique set of lectures and events that are free and open to the public! Restoration Division specializes in conservation work on all media, including paintings, artworks on paper, photographs, documents, Asian screens and scrolls, objects, frames, murals, icons and textiles. Come by to learn different parts of the restoration process, as well as consult with conservation professionals on ways to restore your own artwork!

 

Thursday, November 17, 2016

6-7PM

A Lecture on Painting & Frame Conservation: From Old Masters to Contemporary, explore the tricks of the conservation trade with experts from Restoration Division.

 

 

NATURALLY DRAWN

 
Date: 
Sun, 10/02/2016 - 1:00pm - 3:00pm

 

Sunday, October 2, 2016 

1:00pm - 3:00pm

As part of her show at the Evanston Art Center, local artist (and Artist-in-Residence at the Field Museum) Peggy Macnamara will guide participants through close looking and sketching of natural specimens.

 

This event is free and open to the general public!

 

Naturally Drawn is a part of The Big Draw Evanston, a month-long, citywide festival that activates public spaces and brings people together through informal art-making.

More information about The Big Draw Evanston here.

ART AFTER FIVE - CRAB TREE FARM

 
Date: 
Sat, 08/06/2016 - 10:00am - 12:00pm

RSVP by August 3, 2016

Limit: 40 people

EAC Members $30

 

Art After Five will make a return to visit Crab Tree Farm to view a wonderful collection of American and English decorative arts and furniture. Crab Tree Farm, an estate once owned by William McCormick Blair, is a working farm with a number of period and newly restored buildings. The owner’s collections of American and English Arts and Crafts era furnishings and decorative objects include an impressive collection of Gustav Stickley furniture.

In the mid 1980’s, an extensive restoration was undertaken of one of the farm buildings, known as Crab Tree Cottage. The interior was completely reconstructed, utilizing wood for the flooring and trim that was cut from trees on the farm. The wood was kiln dried and cut at a sawmill all on site, and finished as prescribed in Stickley’s turn of the century magazine, The Craftsman.

Join the Evanston Art Center and Art After Five coordinator Linda Kramer for a trip back to one of the most important periods of American art, a visit you won’t soon forget. There will be a docent-led tour. Please provide your own transportation. No refreshments are allowed at the farm.

 

Please RSVP by calling 847.475.5300. Open to EAC members and their guests only; the cost is $30 per person. Reservations are limited, and payment is required at the time of your reservation. Make checks payable to Evanston Art Center, and mail to: 1717 Central Street, Evanston, IL 6020

PHOTO VOICE

 
Date: 
Wed, 06/29/2016 - 5:00pm - 7:00pm

PHOTO VOICE

Dialogue and Presentation

Wednesday June 29, 5-7pm

Evanston Art Center

 

THE EVANSTON ART CENTER WANTS YOUR FEEDBACK!

Submit a snapshot of the community you represent or photos of community members participating in visual arts programs to the Evanston Art Center. These photos will serve as the lead topic during this group discussion about community arts efforts. Photo Voice aims to combine positive social change and visual arts to enhance and empower communities through documentary photography. 

This conversation about the role of arts programming in Evanston will feature multidisciplinary artist Pedro Velez, a member of the EAC’s Society! Artwork-In-Residence.  A survey distributed during the event will help the Evanston Art Center to improve our public programs and future outreach efforts. 

This event is open to all ages and levels of photography experience. 

Food and drink will be provided. 

Submissions can be emailed to [email protected] by June 29, 1pm.

ART AFTER FIVE

 
Date: 
Fri, 06/17/2016 - 6:00pm - 8:00pm

ART AFTER FIVE
Millennium Park, Chicago Residence
Friday, June 17, 2016
6:00-8:00 pm
RSVP by June 16, 2016
Limit: 40 people
EAC Members $25

Join Art After Five Coordinator and celebrated artist Linda Kramer for a tour of an extensive collection of Asian art, which includes a fully restored Edo period Samurai outfit. The collection also includes numerous Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Maori, Oceanic and Native American antiquities.

The Evanston Art Center’s Art After Five program offers Art Center members and their guests the rare opportunity to visit artists’ studios and to view private art collections in the homes of the Chicago area’s most distinguished collectors. Please call the Art Center to reserve a space. Reservations are required and space is limited. 

 

Please RSVP by calling 847.475.5300.

Open to EAC members and their guests only; the cost is $25 per person. Reservations are limited, and payment is required at the time of your  reservation. Make checks payable to Evanston Art Center, and mail to:
1717 Central Street, Evanston, IL 60201.

CONTEMPORARY ART AND ACTIVISM DISCUSSION

 
Date: 
Tue, 05/24/2016 (All day)

Tuesday May 24th 6:30-7:30pm with time for Q&A

Free and open to the public

Join us as Northwestern University Art History professor Rebecca Zorach brings her class, “Art and Activism,” to the EAC to discuss contemporary art and activism. We'll be hearing from 4 artists and activists about how they produce creative political actions and make protest visible in the Chicago area. Building on a term spent investigating the past 50 years of intersections of art practice with political activism, especially in the Chicago area, the conversation will address how art and politics cross-pollinate in some of the most pressing issues facing Chicago and the US more broadly. The EAC kindly thanks Rebecca Zorach and the Art History Department at Northwestern for reaching out and bringing one of its classes to our space. We all feel that it is meaningful for people to enter local community spaces and engage in dialogue with the public on important topics like this.

Artists and activist speakers include:
Page May, Assata's Daughters
ZEB, Chicago graffiti writer, educator, and performance artist
Nicolas Lampert, artist, writer, and activist 
Sarah-Ji, photographer and social movement documentarian

 

CURATOR LECTURE - MARILYN PROPP

 
Date: 
Thu, 05/26/2016 - 7:00pm - 8:00pm

Curated by Marilyn Propp

April 24 – May 29, 2016

 

Each of the artists chosen by curator Marilyn Propp utilizes the transformative power of collage, an accumulation of material and appropriated and altered imagery, to create juxtapositions and layers of meaning and experience. Phyllis Bramson, Aimee Beaubien, Sandra Perlow, Miriam Schaer, and Douglas Stapleton create works that are densely layered and built, with suggestive narratives or embellished abstraction, and each references the body in his/her work, invoking myth, memory and the pleasure of the material. They present the viewer with their personal vision: intimations of pleasure and the fullness of life, of the darker sides of our human experience, or of social and political implications of gender.

 

Lecture with curator Marilyn Propp

The History of Collage as Social, Political, and Personal Expression

Thursday, May 26, 7 – 8pm.

 

Cover Artwork (from left to right): Phyllis Bramson, Aimee Beaubien, Miriam Schaer, 
Douglas Stapleton, and Sandra Perlow

SPRING ARTS & CRAFTS EXPO

 
Date: 
Thu, 04/07/2016 (All day) - Sun, 04/10/2016 (All day)

SPRING ARTS & CRAFTS EXPO

April 7 - 10, 2016

 

Opening event:
Thursday, April 7, 6-9pm
Join us for an evening of wine and shopping!

 

Expo open Friday – Sunday, 9am – 4pm

Stop in and shop a selection of arts and crafts by 20 artists working in ceramics, fiber, jewelry, painting, and photography. With Mother's Day, weddings, graduations, and spring get-togethers fast approaching, come and find one-of-a-kind gifts for all of your upcoming occasions! 

SPRING BENEFIT GALA PARTY & LIVE ART AUCTION 2016

 

 
Date: 
Sat, 05/14/2016 - 6:00pm - 11:00pm

Date: 

Sat, 05/14/2016 - 6:00pm

Experience…The Lives We Touch and the Art We Create

Join us for a night of silent and live auctions, dinner, dancing, and wine!

Mark your calendar for our upcoming benefit – Saturday night, May 14 at 1717 Central Street! The Spring Benefit Art Party will consist of a live auction showcasing art donated by Chicago-area artists and an Experience Auction featuring special, one-of-a kind experiences. The Silent Auction will offer hotel stays, restaurant certificates, sporting game tickets, and more. Over 200 attendees will be able to bid on featured items or services while enjoying a sophisticated sit-down dinner.

 

Individual Tickets $200

Call the Evanston Art Center at (847) 475-5300 to preorder tickets to the Art Party.

 

Table Sponsorship available starting at $2500

To purchase Table Sponsorships, please contact the Art Center's Manger of External Affairs, Gabrielle Burrage, at (847) 475-5300 or [email protected].

 

The proceeds from the benefit will help the Evanston Art Center to make arts more accessible to our community by providing scholarships for students in need of financial support, and funding our exhibitions and outreach programs.

 

Benefit Table Sponsorships

Platinum Sponsor

For a donation of $10,000, you will enjoy:

· Table of 10 to the 2016 Spring Benefit at 1717 Central Street

· Invitation for 10 to attend 2016 Spring Benefit VIP Pre-Party

· Full-page ad in the Spring Benefit Program Book and mention from podium at Benefit

· One Art Party/Creative Meeting Retreat for 20 people

· Full-page ad (8.5” X 11”) in one quarterly catalog mailed to 20,000 residents in the Evanston, broader North Shore and Chicago areas

· Web ad on EAC website with 60,000 views per year

· Recognition on the street side windows at 1717 Central Street for the month  of May 2016

· Mention in the press releases, promotional and marketing materials

Gold Sponsor

For a donation of $5,000, you will enjoy: 

· Table of 10 to the 2016 Spring Benefit at 1717 Central Street

· Invitation for 10 to attend 2016 Spring Benefit VIP Pre-Party

· Full-page ad in the Spring Benefit Program Book and mention from podium at Benefit

· Full-page ad (8.5” X 11”) in one quarterly catalogue mailed to 20,000 residents in the Evanston, broader North Shore and Chicago areas

· Web ad on EAC website with 60,000 views per year

· Recognition on the street side windows at 1717 Central Street for the month of May 2016

· Mention in the press releases, promotional and marketing materials

Silver Sponsor

For a donation of $2,500, you will enjoy:

· Table of 10 to the 2016 Spring Benefit at 1717 Central Street

· Full-page ad in the Spring Benefit Program Book and mention from podium at Benefit

· Half-page ad (8.5” X 5.5”) in one quarterly catalogue mailed to 20,000 residents in the Evanston, broader North Shore and Chicago areas

· Web ad on EAC website with 60,000 views per year

· Recognition on the street side windows at 1717 Central Street for the month of May 2016

· Mention in the press releases, promotional and marketing materials.

ART TALK: MECHTILD WIDRICH

 
Date: 
Thu, 03/10/2016 - 6:30pm - 7:30pm

Join us Thursday March 10th, 6:30-7:30pm for a dialogue with Professor, Art Historian, and Author Mechtild Widrich as she discusses her 2014 book Performative Monuments: The Rematerialisation of Public Art. Manchester University Press, series: "Rethinking Art's Histories, 2014

Performative Monuments: The Rematerialization of Public Art

http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719091636/

 

Widrich's BIO:

I work on the intersection of contemporary art and architecture, on performance art and its mediation, on art in public space and the question of the public sphere, on contemporary monuments, and on aesthetic theory. My current project deals with global art geographies in Washington, D.C., Bucharest, and Singapore—in particular the role of contemporary art in relationship to national or regional interests under global conditions. I am interested in the power and means of representation, in the broader institutional and political context of artistic production, in issues of "authentic" and "bodily" experience under mediated conditions, and in urban dynamics. Another interest is theory; I am currently (with Andrei Pop) translating the 1853 book Aesthetics of Ugliness by the German philosopher Karl Rosenkranz (forthcoming 2015).

For more information about Mechtild see her faculty page at SAIC.

http://www.saic.edu/profiles/faculty/mechtildwidrich/

ART AFTER FIVE - HIGHLAND PARK RESIDENCE

 
Date: 
Fri, 01/22/2016 - 6:00pm - 8:00pm

RSVP by Thursday, January 21, 2016

EAC Members $25

 

Join Art After Five Coordinator and celebrated artist Linda Kramer for a tour of an eclectic collection of contemporary art from 1960’s abstraction through Fluxus and today. The collection includes Marcel Duchamp, Victor Vaserely, Leon Polk Smith, Henryk Stażewski, Richard Hamilton, Alison Knowles, Dick Higgins, Roger Brown, George Maciunas, Nam June Paik, Ray Johnson, Judy Ledgerwood, and Theaster Gates. The collection is showcased in a home designed by architect Robert Seyfarth, who spent the formative years of his professional career working for the noted Prairie School architect George Washington Maher.

 

The Evanston Art Center’s Art After Five program offers Art Center members and their guests the rare opportunity to visit artists’ studios and to view private art collections in the homes of the Chicago area’s most distinguished collectors. Please call the Art Center to reserve a space. Reservations are required and space is limited. 

 
Please RSVP by calling 847.475.5300.
 

Open to EAC members and their guests only; the cost is $25 per person. Reservations are limited, and payment is required at the time of your  reservation. Make checks payable to Evanston Art Center, and mail to:
1717 Central Street, Evanston, IL 60201.

COMMUNITY DISCUSSION ON KING, RACE, AND THE ARTS

 
Date: 
Sat, 01/16/2016 - 1:30pm - 2:30pm

Saturday January 16
1:30-2:30pm

 
Fleetwood Jourdain Theater, Insight Arts, Evanston Art Center, Making Evanston Equal Together (MEET), and Black Lives Matter Chicago welcome the Evanston community to discuss King's work then and now, issues of race in the arts, and other topical cultural issues. Join us at Fleetwood Jourdain Community Center after the annual Martin Luther King Day celebration.
 
 
 
-------------------------------

2015

 

ART AFTER FIVE - HIGHLAND PARK

 
Date: 
Fri, 11/06/2015 - 7:00pm - 9:00pm

RSVP by Wednesday, November 4 

Limit: 40 people

EAC Members $25

 

Join Art After Five Coordinator and celebrated artist Linda Kramer at the home in Highland Park for a tour of an extensive collection of Pre-Columbian art, with a specific focus on Mayan and Western Mexican art. The collection also includes African, Oceanic, Native American, and Southwest Asian art; a small collection of antiquities and Chinese pieces; and a number of old maps, some from the 16th and 17th centuries. The collection is showcased in a home designed by architect John S. Van Bergen, who worked as a constructional architect for Frank Lloyd Wright for many years.

 

The Evanston Art Center’s Art After Five program offers Art Center members and their guests the rare opportunity to visit artists’ studios and to view private art collections in the homes of the Chicago area’s most distinguished collectors. Please call the Art Center to reserve a space. Reservations are required and space is limited. Parking is available at the residence on the south side of the street.

 

Please RSVP by calling 

847.475.5300.

 

Open to EAC members and their guests only; the cost is $25 per person. Reservations are limited, and payment is required at the time of your  reservation. Make checks payable to Evanston Art Center, and mail to:
1717 Central Street, Evanston, IL 60201.

ARTICULATE

 
Date: 
Thu, 08/06/2015 - 7:00pm - 9:00pm

$20 per person

21+ / Bring valid ID

 

The Evanston Art Center will be hosting its premier evening event for art discussion, growth, and fun. The first Thursday of each month will feature an art-oriented event - artist talks, films and small exhibitions - geared towards young professionals. We invite artists, scientists, students, adventurers, creatives of all kinds to join us!

 

Drinks provided by Sketchbook Brewing Company 

ART AFTER 5 LAKE GENEVA RESIDENCE

 
Date: 
Sat, 08/15/2015 - 2:00pm - 4:00pm

LAKE GENEVA RESIDENCE
Saturday, August 15, 2015
2:00 - 4:00 pm
RSVP by Thursday, August 12
Limit: 40 people
EAC Members $25

 

Join Art After Five Coordinator and celebrated artist Linda Kramer for a tour of a home and collection, that is set on five and a half wooded acres in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Milwaukee architect Tom Ela designed this home to blend with its woodland surroundings.  The collection includes paintings, drawings and prints by artists such as Andy Warhol, Alex Katz, Philip Pearlstein and Robert Arnason with a focus on Chicago Imagist works on paper by Jim Nutt, Gladys Nilsson, Roger Brown, Karl Wirsum, Ray Yoshida and Barbara Rossi.  A large group of works by American self-taught artists includes works by Felipe Archuleta, Thornton Dial, Rev. Josephus Farmer, Howard Finster, Lee Godie, Charles Steffen, Simon Sparrow, Edgar Tolson, Joseph Yoakum, Eugene von Bruenchenhein and others.

 

Note the house is a bit of a walk from the street, please let us know if you need assistance when you RSVP.

 

The Evanston Art Center’s Art After Five program offers Art Center members and their guests the rare opportunity to visit artists’ studios and to view private art collections in the homes of the Chicago area’s most distinguished collectors. Please call the Art Center to reserve a space. Reservations are required and space is limited.

 

EVANSTON ART CENTER GRAND OPENING

 
Date: 
Sun, 07/19/2015 - 1:00pm - 3:30pm

Join us at our Grand Opening of our new building on July 19. Here are some fun festivities that will be celebrating with us!

 

DEMONSTRATIONS AND TOURS

Art Class Demos: Including Ceramics, Painting, Printmaking, Drawing,
Jewelry, Mosaics, New Media, 3D Printing and Figure Sculpture
Ikebana Demo - Japanese Flower Arrangements
Drone Flight Demonstrations
Pets from Evanston Animal Shelter

FOOD

Great Harvest Bread Company
Three Tarts

ART
Hybrid’s Paradise Exhibit
Student Art Sale

 

DIALOGIC COMMUNITIES: ART DISCUSSION SERIES

 
Evanston Public Library
1703 Orrington Ave. 
 
Thursday May 28, 6-8pm
 
Dialogic Communities is an experimental multi-month contemporary art discussion series that is free and open to the public. Discussion sessions meet on the 4th Thursday of each month for two-hours and run for a length of three months in the fall and spring of each year. They are facilitated by Evanston Art Center Director of Education W. Keith Brown and Insight Arts Executive Director Craig Harshaw who select particular readings for the group and facilitate the dialogues. 
 

We encourage thoughtful public dialogue around contemporary art history, theory, and criticism and social justice. Dialogic Communities aspires to reinvigorate a spirit of community, open up explorations in contemporary visual art, and serve as an informal public art education model. Dialogic Communities is inspired by Paulo Freire, Free Schools, Joseph Beuys’ professorship, Jacques Ranciere and other more discursive art historical and education public cultures.

 

Past Discussions 2012-2014:

10/10-12/12 Joshua Decter, Art is a Problem

2/27-4/24 David Joselit, After Art

9/25-12/4 Arthur C. Danto, Beyond the Brillo Box: The Visual Arts in Post-historical Perspective. (1991 book).

2/28 Andy Beckett, A User's Guide to Art Speak, from Guardian UK. (July editorial)

3/28 Anton Vidokle, Art Without Markets, Art Without Education: Political Economy of Art, from e-flux online (March issue).

4/25 Randy Kennedy, Outside the Citadel: Social Practice Art is Intended to Nurture, from New York Times (March editorial).

4/25 Jerry Saltz, Tilda Switon in a Box and How Living Art has Become MoMA's Crystal Meth, from New York Magazine (March editorial)

8/30 Hal Foster, Post-Critical, from October. (April issue).

9/27 Alexander Alberro, Life Models, from Frieze (June issue).

10/25 Claire Bishop, Digital Divide, from Art Forum (October issue).

11/29 Ellen Feiss, What is Useful? The Paradox of Rights in Tania Bruguera's Useful Art, from Art & Education online (November issue).

 

Extended Reading on Dialogic Communities:

W. Keith Brown's essay in Sixty Inches From Center

http://sixtyinchesfromcenter.org/archive/?p=20769

 

CAPTURED BY YOUR EYES (RETURN ENGAGEMENT)

 
Date: 
Thu, 05/14/2015 - 7:00pm - 9:00pm
 
One night only!
Return engagement of Captured By Your Eyes an original performance by Craig Harshaw

Thursday May 14, 7pm-9pm with a Q&A to follow

$5 at the door

Captured By Your Eyes is an original performance, by Craig Harshaw that critically engages with the work and life of the acclaimed American actress Faye Dunaway. We watch Dunaway transform from the 26 year old who burst into international stardom in 1967 to the veteran actress struggling to find meaningful roles as a middle aged woman thirty years later. Concurrently Harshaw reveals his own transformation from a child of 2 to a man of 32 during that same time period.

 

The performance exists as a work of critical appreciation, creative interpretation, autobiographical confession, cultural criticism and philosophical musing. Dunaway is championed by Harshaw as an artist never afraid to make difficult choices.

SPRING BENEFIT GALA PARTY & LIVE ART AUCTION 2015

 
Date: 
Sat, 05/16/2015 - 6:00pm
 

Mark your calendar for our upcoming benefit – Saturday Night, May 16 at 1717 Central Street, the Evanston Art Center`s new location!  This will be your opportunity to see the new space before it opens to the public in June. It promises to be the best Spring Benefit ever!

 

The Spring Benefit will consist of a live auction showcasing art donated by Chicago-area artists, and an “Experience Auction featuring speical, one-of-a kind experiences.” The Silent Auction will offer hotel stays, restaurants certificates, sporting game tickets, and more. The auctioneer for this year’s Benefit will be Michael Davis, Vice Chairman of Hart Davis Hart Wine Co. More than 200 attendees will be able to bid on featured items or services while enjoying a sophisticated sit-down dinner.

 

Individual Tickets $200

CLICK HERE to purchase Individual Tickets.

 

Table Sponsorship available starting at $2500

To purchase Table Sponsorships, please contact the Art Center's Director of Development and Communications, Paula Danoff, at (847) 475-5300 or [email protected].

 

The proceeds from benefit will help the Evanston Art Center to make arts more accessible to our community by providing scholarships for students in need of financial support and funding our exhibitions, and outreach programs.

 

Benefit Table Sponsorships

Platinum Sponsor

For a donation of $10,000, you will enjoy:

  • Table of 10 to the 2015 Spring Benefit at the 1717 Central Street location
  • Invitation for 10 to attend 2015 Spring Benefit VIP Pre-Party
  • Full-page ad in the Spring Benefit Program Book and mention from podium at Benefit
  • One Art Party/Creative Meeting Retreat for 20 people
  • Full-page ad (8.5” X 11”) in one quarterly catalog mailed to 20,000 residents in the Evanston, broader North Shore and Chicago areas
  • Web ad on EAC website with 60,000 views per year
  • Recognition on the street side windows at the 1717 Central Street location for the month of May 2015
  • Mention in the press releases, promotional and marketing materials

Gold Sponsor

For a donation of $5,000, you will enjoy: 

  • Table of 10 to the 2015 Spring Benefit at the 1717 Central Street location
  • Invitation for 10 to attend 2015 Spring Benefit VIP Pre-Party
  • Full-page ad in the Spring Benefit Program Book and mention from podium at Benefit
  • Full-page ad (8.5” X 11”) in one quarterly catalogue mailed to 20,000 residents in the Evanston, broader North Shore and Chicago areas
  • Web ad on EAC website with 60,000 views per year
  • Recognition on the street side windows at the 1717 Central Street location for the month of May 2015
  • Mention in the press releases, promotional and marketing materials

Silver Sponsor

For a donation of $2,500, you will enjoy:

  • Table of 10 to the 2015 Spring Benefit at the 1717 Central Street location
  • Full-page ad in the Spring Benefit Program Book and mention from podium at Benefit
  • Half-page ad (8.5” X 5.5”) in one quarterly catalogue mailed to 20,000 residents in the Evanston, broader North Shore and Chicago areas
  • Web ad on EAC website with 60,000 views per year
  • Recognition on the street side windows at the 1717 Central Street location for the month of May 2015
  • Mention in the press releases, promotional and marketing materials.

RECLAIM MLK DAY WITH WE CHARGE GENOCIDE AND THE EAC

Date: 

Sun, 01/18/2015 - 1:00pm - 3:00pm

The Evanston Art Center and Insight Arts are pleased to collaborate once again in conjunction with the Evanston PublicLibrary'sMartin Luther King Jr. Day program. This year we are so honored to have with us Monica Trinidad and Todd St. Hill from the Chicago organization We Charge Genocide (the grassroots organization that recently made headlines when they addressed the United Nations in November 2014).

Evanston Art Center Director of Education Keith Brown and Insight Arts Executive Director Craig Harshaw invite audiences to engage this new generation working in the spirit of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements as they speak about the ongoing struggles for racial justice in the United States and their experiences in Geneva. We will personally hear from and frame a broader discussion in relationship to the emergent #BlackLivesMatter campaign.

To learn about more MLK events around the area please see:

Black LIves Matter Chicago

 

---------------------------

ARCHIVED EVENTS

The Evanston Art Center is pleased to present a special musical program featuring our artist-in-residence, Josefien Stoppelenburg.

New Voices: A Songfest will feature performances by Stephen Alltop-piano, Jean Hatmaker-cello, Danika Paskvan -violin and Dan Qiao-viola, will showcase the music of Stacy Garrop, Lita Grier, Harold Bauer and composers like Handel, Tchaikovsky and Rossini.
 Willem Stoppelenburg, who is coming over from the Netherlands, will premiere his new piece ' Kavafis Songs,' for Cello and Soprano.
 
You will also hear two e.e. cummings sonnets for Soprano and String Trio by Harold Bauer.

This program is included in the Chicago Artists Month 2014 highlighted programs.

$15 General Admission, $5 Students, under 18 Free

All performances will be held at the Evanston Art Center, 2603 Sheridan Road in Evanston

 

~ ~ ~

Josefien Stoppelenburg is the Evanston Art Center’s current artist in residence. She is a celebrated soprano who graduated from the Amsterdam Conservatory of Music and is regularly featured as a soloist for oratorio performances in the Netherlands, Germany and the U.S. In 2013, Josefien won the Chicago Oratorio Award and was awarded 2nd place in the National American Prize Opera Competition.

Josefien’s paintings are often informed by musical compositions, instruments and musicians. She has been working on some of her large-scale pieces during her residency here at the Art Center. Her work will be on view the evening of the 30th.

 

 

 

CAPTURED BY YOUR EYES 
an original performance by Craig Harshaw

Sept 4 – 7

 

Show Times:

9/4 Thursday 7-9pm

9/5 Friday 7-9pm (Meet up in the EAC parking lot at 7pm)

9/6 Saturday 1-4pm

9/7 Sunday 1-4pm

 

$5 at the door

Evanston Art Center
2603 Sheridan Rd.

 

Captured By Your Eyes is an original performance, by Craig Harshaw, that critically engages with the work and life of the acclaimed American actress Faye Dunaway. We watch Dunaway transform from the 26 year old who burst into international stardom in 1967 to the veteran actress struggling to find meaningful roles as a middle aged woman thirty years later. Concurrently Harshaw reveals his own transformation from a child of two to a man of 32 during that same time period.

The performance exists as a work of critical appreciation, creative interpretation, autobiographical confession, cultural criticism and philosophical musing. Dunaway is championed by Harshaw as an artist never afraid to make difficult choices. He ponders the way Dunaway’s prominence in the 1970’s as one of the most respected and successful film, television and stage actresses shaped his own understanding of difficulty. He asks us to consider how the concept of difficulty relates to political struggle and social transformation. Harshaw also engages with a wide range of international scholarship surrounding the interpretation of film acting. We trace Dunaway’s performances through a rapidly changing world of media from the days of projected celluloid, through the cultural changes brought on by the immense success of home video and cable television and finally to the current age of the digital revolution.

Dunaway’s own career difficulties during the 1980’s and 1990’s are examined within a cultural context that asks the audience to reconsider their epistemological understanding of popular culture; What do we think we know about Faye Dunaway? Why do we think we know these things? What do we know about the characters Faye Dunaway has played? What do we know about the films and plays Faye Dunaway has performed in? What do we know about the ways her performances were constructed? What do we know about the ways her work has been interpreted? Harshaw suggests a close study of Ms. Dunaway’s work and its reception can teach us a great deal.

 

Art After Five

Sat, 06/29/2013 - 10:00am - 12:00pm
Crab Tree Farm

Lake Bluff, IL
Saturday, June 29, 2013
10 am – noon
RSVP by Wednesday, June 26
Limit: 40 people
EAC Members $30

Art After Five will make a return visit to Crab Tree Farm to view a wonderful collection of American and English decorative arts and furniture. Crab Tree Farm, an estate once owned by William McCormick Blair, is a working farm with a number of period and newly restored buildings. The owner’s collections of American and English Arts and Crafts era furnishings and decorative objects include an impressive collection of Gustav Stickley furniture.

In the mid 1980s, an extensive restoration was undertaken of one of the farm buildings, known as Crab Tree Cottage. The interior was completely reconstructed, utilizing wood for the flooring and trim that was cut from trees on the farm. The wood was kiln dried and cut at a sawmill all on site, and finished as prescribed in Stickley’s turn of the century magazine, The Craftsman.

Join the Evanston Art Center for a trip back to one of the most important periods of American art, a visit that you won’t soon forget. There will be a docent-led tour. Please provide your own transportation. No refreshments are allowed at the Farm.

 

 

Street Arts as Public Pedagogy: Learning From the Margins 

Date:

Friday 05/03/2013 - Sunday 05/05/2013

A  public education program that took place at the EAC on May 3, 4, and 5, 2013. The goal of these events was to highlight the artistic and cultural efforts of those working in the realms of graffiti, hip-hop, education, and the visual arts so that we could grow visibility and awareness of these practices for audiences who may or may not have direct contact with them. We brought current issues to light in order to shift how our communities view graffiti, youth, hip-hop, education, and art. The program opened with film-screening, then went into a day of celebration, and closed with graffiti writer art presentations and an art education-based panel discussion on graffiti.

For more information and links to video and photos about the event, please click this text:

 

 

Disonar

Date: 
Sat, 03/23/2013 - 7:00pm - 9:00pm

Saturday's performance by artist and musician Scott Carter and his band mates Jesse Butcher and Alex Gartelmann was a smashing success! Over thirty audience members watched the artists/musicians play and ultimatley, destroy, the installation. The piece will be on view through this Thursday. Images from the performance will be in our Image Gallery later this week.

By constructing functional replicas of instruments out of common materials he’s attempting to conflate two disparate skill sets and forms of expression through performance. While a drum set made from drywall actually functions and produces sound, its indented use is partially stripped due to the vast difference in resonance, tone and its inability to withstand force. However, during the process of playing this instrument, rhythms are found, that in his mind, reflect the droning of multiple hammers sounding across a newly constructed suburban neighborhood.

In the end, these instruments will fail and begin to deteriorate, referencing a natural cycle of decay in domestic architecture and visually mirroring a demolition site.

 

 

Art After 5 

2012, Evanston Art Center’s “Art After 5 program invites EAC members to join celebrated Chicago artist, Linda Kramer, on exclusive tours of some of the most extraordinary private art collections in the Chicago area. In an intimate ‘salon’ atmosphere, guests have the opportunity to meet and speak with the collectors and learn about how the collections came together, what choices were made in the selection of individual artworks and interesting facts about the artists. Quite often, the architecturally significant homes are as fascinating as the artworks inside. Here are just some of the collections we’ve seen over the past year:

 

-One of the largest collections of works by The Hairy Who

-Western and eastern African Art works ranging from designs in wood, bronze, terracotta, the oldest dating from 2,500 years ago. Also on view was an extraordinary collection of over 300 ceramic tiles signed by the artists

-A collection of singular pieces by Chicago Imagists and member of The Hairy Who, including Jim Nutt, Karl Wirsum, Gladys Nilsson, Ed Paschke and many others

-20th-century American painting featuring works by Lee Krasner, Philip Guston and Norman Lewis in addition to abstract expressionist sculptures Richard Stankiewicz, Ruth Asawa and Dorothy Dehner (David Smith’s wife.)

-  The home of collectors and artists featuring works by Eleanor Spiess-Ferris, Michael Ferris, Joyce Neimanis, Nick Cave and David Nelson

-Crab Tree Farm, an estate once owned by William McCormick Blair, presents the former owner’s collections of American and English Arts and Crafts-era furnishings and decorative objects, including an impressive collection of Gustav Stickley furniture

 

Chicago Art Criticism Panel 

4/15/2012, The Evanston Art Center hosted a lively dialogue on the historical significance and future of art criticism in Chicago and beyond. The panel featured an intergenerational group of local art writers and artists and New Art Examiner co-founder Derek Guthrie.  The discussion touched upon the current discourses of modern and postmodern approaches to art criticism, art writing, new arts journalism, institutional authority and influence (art schools, museums and fairs,) as well as contemporary art strategies that are shaping culture today. The goal of the event was to establish certain histories and commonalities that can move our city forward.

Panelists included: W. Keith Brown, William Conger, Andrew Falkowski, Derek Guthrie, Annie Markovich, Bert Stabler, Diane Thodos, and Lauren Weinberg with Norah Diedrich moderating the first session.

 

Spring for Art: Spring Benefit

5/19/2012, Food, wine, fun, and ART. Benefit tickets are $100 per person and $65 if you are 35 years old and under. All proceeds benefit the Evanston Art Center's exhibition, scholarship and outreach programs. Over 70 established Chicago-area artists have generously donated artworks to the Evanston Art Center Spring Benefit. All works will be on view through May 19, the evening of our Gala Party and Benefit Auction. Paintings, sculptural objects, photographs, and prints are installed throughout the galleries.

 

 

Screening the Local, Historical, and Surreal 

5/24/2012, Through informal discussion, the Evanston Art Center was fortunate enough to connect with Thomas Comerford and Melika Bass for a filmscreening of Indian Boundary Line, 2010 and Shoals, 2011. The Evanston Art Center’s Education Program is honored to present two films that we feel connect to our local cultural heritage and explores the idea of imagined history in the Midwestern landscape. Through informal discussion, the Evanston Art Center was fortunate enough to connect with Thomas Comerford and Melika Bass for a filmscreening of Indian Boundary Line, 2010 and Shoals, 2011. The Evanston Art Center’s Education Program is honored to present two films that we feel connect to our local cultural heritage and explores the idea of imagined history in the Midwestern landscape. 

Melika Bass’ Shoals, 2011

http://www.tenderarchive.com/shoals.htm

Thomas Comerford’s Indian Boundary Line, 2010
http://www.thomascomerford.net/film.html

 

Dialogic Communities: Repairing the Social Bond

Fall, 2012 / Spring 2013, In conjunction with Insight Arts’ Craig Harshaw, Dialogic Communities is an ongoing participatory art and culture discussion series held the last Thursday of the month at 6 pm. The first installment in fall of 2012 consisted of 4 sessions and were all held at the Evanston Art Center. This series, which begins anew with readings and discussions this spring (February 28, 2013 at the Evanston Public Library), seeks to inspire thoughtful dialogue and reinvigorate the spirit of community, while serving as a productive social model. 

Past readings included: Hal Fosters’s, Post-Cricical from October, April 2012; Alexander Alberro’s, Life Models from Frieze, June 2012; Claire Bishop’s, Digital Divide from Art Forum, October, 2012; and Ellen Feiss’s, What is Useful? The Paradox of Rights in Tania Bruguera’s Useful Art from Art & Education.

For more information click this highlighted text:

 

Winter Arts & Crafts Expo

November-December 2012, The Evanston Art Center's 10th Annual Winter Arts & Crafts EXPO features original, handmade works of jewelry, ceramics, fiber, metal, glass, painting, photography, mixed-media and more. All proceeds from the EXPO sale will benefit EAC's ongoing exhibition, scholarship, and outreach programs. Based on enthusiastic community support, our 10th year will run for 32 days and represent approximately 100 artists. Other events include Girls' Night Out on Thursday, November 29 from 6 - 9 pm; Jewelry Fest on Saturday, December 1 from 10 am - 4 pm; Shop Your Cause Night, Wednesday, December 5 from 6 - 9 pm; Mens' Shopping Day, Saturday, December 15 from 10 am - 4 pm; Art Projects for Kids, November 17 & 24 and December 1 and 15 from 10 am - 4 pm. The last shopping day will be December 19.

 

Down With the King: Honoring the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

1/22/2013, The Evanston Art Center in conjunction with Fleetwood-Jourdain Theater, and Insight Arts is pleased to host a presentation and discussion to celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Keith Brown and Craig Harshaw will lead this important program that seeks to situate the legacy of King through our current visual culture and political moment. Together we will watch The Mountaintop Speech, an interview excerpt from James Baldwin, and view a work by two contemporary artists. One of the most remarkable features of the 1960s and those struggling for liberation at the time is how they talked, what they talked about, and the images they used. By showing these forms, we hope to put questions to our audience and discuss the challenges we face.

 

 

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