And the Walls Came Tumbling Down…

"Art is Business"

Catina Robinson-Hale

History Lost by Displacement

@Catina Robinson-Hale

A portion of the photos in my installation was taken during the years of 2000-2001... In 1996, the federal department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) took control of the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA). At that time HUD introduced a radical change of policy, advocating the demolition of “failed high-rise buildings”. Chicago demolished several high-rise buildings in 1996 and 1997. As thousands of families became displaced the footprint of the West and South Side(s) of the city were changed forever. My installation attempts to capture the sense of abandonment and destruction. At the same time highlighting the juxtaposition of buildings tumbling down against the backdrop of the ever-pristine Saint Ignatius Church Bell Tower. I see this as a simple display of how the livelihoods of African American families were literally being torn apart while the almighty Catholic Church stands strong. Upholding the realities of Chicago and “The Tale of Two Cities”.

The larger prints of the installation showcase images of locks and chains. For years I’ve been drawn to the different compositions captured with randomly found locks and chains. Many metaphors can be used to break down the meaning behind the lock and chain. 

I wanted to connect the idea of how the city kept many African American families on “lockdown” in these vertical towers in Black areas of the city for many decades. Those “locks” that were eventually unlocked when (HUD) decided to demolish these “failed high-rise buildings”.

 In the end, it’s no secret that the government had always owed the land. They kept it under lock and key and when the time came, gave the authority to unlock the land for developers. I can imagine the history of these once well-known high-rise public housing buildings filled with families fading with each story told. Almost like a ghost town of communities that Black Families once occupied.

ME TOO Movement and the Negative Attitude CALL FOR ARTISTS

"Art is Business" reposted for Dianna Long, Chicago Urban Art Retreat

The gallery at Chicago Urban Art Retreat Center will be featuring women artists in February and March 2019 who create visual art about issues of special importance to women. In this time of the ME TOO Movement and the Negative Attitude toward women from our president, we need to give a platform to women to be heard on these issues. We also need to support women artists, and let them know we find their work important!
Please save some time in February and March and make a point of getting over to the gallery to check out some amazing art that speaks to our hearts and souls now! 

The gallery is always open on Saturday afternoons and welcomes you to drop by between 1-4p.m.

For an invitation to the opening reception, please send an email to contact@urbanartretreat.com and/or keep checking Facebook.com/chicagourbanartretreat for more information. 

Feel free to refer women artists to our gallery now.

Thanks and good health to you. 

Enjoy your freedom!

Ms. Dianna C. Long, Director & Founder

Chicago Urban Art Retreat Center & Women's Residence

1957 S. Spaulding Ave. Chicago, Il. 60623

(corner of 21st, just 2 short blocks west of Kedzie pink line stop)

contact@urbanartretreat.com

www.urbanartretreat.com

facebook.com/urbanartretreat

(773) 542-9126  messages only

Adults Art Studio Program

Art Therapy Sessions

Peace Park Project

CUARC Orientation:   Noon on Saturdays year round.  email RSVP only

Gallery Hours: 1-4  Saturdays 

Artists Peace Hub: Grow North Lawndale

North Lawndale Area Artists Network

Attachments area

Creative Grounds & The Future of Social Infrastructure

"Art is Business"  Paola Aguirre Serrano

Our democracy lives and breathes in our social spaces. Creative Grounds is an installation that invites to think spatially and geographically utilizing maps and places as visuals to reflect on the cityscape and quality of our social infrastructure – parks, schools, community centers, libraries. Using cartography and inventory less by their technical attributes, and more as tools for visualization of distribution and concentration, this installation contrasts and compares the location of closed public schools in Chicago from 2013 – the largest school closings in the history of the United States – to raise questions about investment and disinvestment, social equity and justice.

Paola Aguirre Serrano is the founder of BORDERLESS — Chicago-based urban design and research studio-workshop focused on cultivating collaborative design agency through interdisciplinary projects. With an emphasis on exchange and communication across disciplines, Borderless explores creative city design and civic engagement proposals that address the complexity of urban systems and social equity by looking at intersections between architecture, urban design, infrastructure, landscape, planning, and civic participatory processes. Paola is also an active educator, and currently teaches architecture The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and has taught urban design at the Sam Fox School of Design Washington University in St. Louis and social impact design at Archeworks.

BORDERLESS — Chicago-based urban design and research studio-workshop focused on cultivating collaborative design agency through interdisciplinary projects. With an emphasis on exchange and communication across disciplines, Borderless explores creative city design and civic engagement proposals that address the complexity of urban systems and social equity by looking at intersections between architecture, urban design, infrastructure, landscape, planning, and civic participatory processes.

THE SHOTGUN SHACK/HOUSE

"Art is Business"  Felicia Grant Preston
THE SHOTGUN SHACK/HOUSE A Family Affair - From the other side of the tracks

The traditional shotgun house is a narrow rectangular residence, usually no more than 12 feet wide, with rooms arranged one behind the other. Its doors are located at each end of the house. The Shotgun house is also referred to as a Shotgun Shack, Shotgun Hut, or Shotgun Cottage. There is much controversy surrounding the origin of the Shotgun House, some saying that its origins can be traced back to Africa, Haiti, or the West Indies, and popularized in New Orleans.  

There is further suggested that there may be a more spiritual reason for its name. In West Africa, it may have been derived from the word “shogun” which is translated to “God’s House”, or from a Dahomey Fon term “to-gun” which means place of assembly. The most common reference to the Shotgun house is, that if you fire a Shotgun through the front door, the shot would pass through each room, and out the back door without hitting anything.

THE SHOTGUN SHACK/HOUSE
A Family Affair - From the other side of the tracks
Felicia Grant Preston

 The typical Shotgun House is wood framed, with wood siding, and is generally associated with poverty. The Shotgun House, which often was considered as substandard housing, has also been referenced as housing for “a poor class of tenant”.  The basic premise behind the shotgun house in our installation is regarding poverty in this country, and lack. We want to use this as a symbol of Lack (without resources). Lack of educational resources, lack of concern, lack of income, lack of humanity, lack of common decency.

Banking on History in Lightning, Art, and Social Justice

"Art is Business" Installation by Renee Baker a Public Conversation and Activations

November 12, 2018 5pm – 8pm, Screening, 
Saturday, Nov 17th, 2-7pm, Screening
Friday, Nov 30th, 5-8pm
December 1st, 2018 Closing

Banking on History in Lightning, Art, and Social Justice Installation Renee' Baker

Using racism as a consumer commodity, Birth of A Nation (1915) spurred drastically the resurgence of NAACP membership, the KKK, and Hollywood and had a stunning impact on real-world history. From newly found justification to harass to the openly complimentary endorsement of then-president Woodrow Wilson, the revival of the KKK, lightning struck with the release of Birth of a Nation in 1915.

The reverberations are still felt today, and the film is still a devastating insight into still tense race relations today. From racist propaganda depicting the KKK riding in to save the South from Black rule during Reconstruction, showing free blacks as heathen savages while depicting the civility of whites, this film, and its embedded bigotry and racism ignited tensions that run high until today.


In 2018, have we debunked the lower form of life" myth propagated in film history for blacks? Does society still hold racist states of mind all the while giving a "thumbs up' to continued violence and devaluation of people of color? Why does racism still count as one of the world's largest commodities?

Black Men Missing Missing Black Men

"Art is Business"

Artist Talk, panel discussion- Overton Hygenic Building, 

3619 - 3623 S. State Street, Chicago IL 5pm - 8pm

This activation features the B&W images of a family of professional photographers. While they captured the moments of life and events for family, friends, and clients this candid shot marks the passages on the other side of the lens documenting the life of family, fatherhood and the fate of our communities. The story illustrated through one family emulates the sentiments of us all. 

The team sought to use the full depth of the gallery space to communicate the passage of time and the inevitable passing of the family patriarch. The perpetual loss throughout our community. 
“The Wakunda proverb suggests: A man who has not prepared his children for his own death has failed his family.”

The theme of Social Justice and the question, where are we now? are answered internally through one family's travails and externally through bold full-color graphic design posters that billboard the exterior boarded windows of the space and illustrate the modern icons of our century. The future is in living color and the photographer's son is an Illustrator.

Team: Artist, Paula Robinson: Project Manager, Michael "Koto" Thomas: Program Manager, Walter Freeman: Design, Production & Installation, Larissa Johnson

FP Commercial, Davis Group Sponsor Phantom Art And Social Justice Installation

"Art is Business"  https://www.laurenlowery.com/lauren-lowery
This Phantom Gallery Chicago space is sponsored by Lauren G. Lowery who is both a Principal and Managing Broker at Finders Plus Real Estate and FP Commercial Advisors based in Chicago, Illinois.

Lauren Lowery,

Hi Alpha, I'm representing an historic and beautiful space at 36th and State Street in Bronzeville. The Overton 3619 South State Street 

https://animoto.com/play/Kw0MKiZQ9JyXbJ29Q8L2IA

For the past decade, the Phantom Gallery Chicago Network has been supported by Lauren G. Lowery who is both a Principal and Managing Broker at Finders Plus Real Estate and FP Commercial Advisors based in Chicago, Illinois. Ms. Lowery is responsible for business strategy, new business development, retailer relationships, and retail advisory services for FP Commercial. Her extensive real estate knowledge provides proper guidance for the company's growth and stability.

Lauren G Lowery is Co-Founder and Chief Archivist at The Modern Dance Music Research and Archiving Foundation based in Chicago, Illinois. The Dance Music Foundation documents and preserves house and dance music artifacts, scholarship and memories to reveal the genre’s significance and impact. Collection Archive duties include curating exhibitions and symposiums at Northwestern University, The Old Town School of Folk Music and Columbia College Chicago, digital restoration and storage collection. Ms. Lowery is primarily responsible for accession and organizing of memorabilia and media using a hybrid of archival technologies. Her extensive knowledge of Chicago History combined with African and African American history provides proper guidance for the foundation's growth.

ABOUT US
The Bronzeville Retail Initiative, Edgewater Development Corporation, Neighborhood Housing Services of Illinois and West Humboldt Park Development Corporation. Ms. Lowery previously managed a portfolio of more than 1.5 million square feet of retail space, has facilitated successful negotiations in over 500 sales and lease transactions and named Top Producer by the Chicago Association of Realtors. 

Ms. Lowery received her Bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL and a Master of Arts in Inner City Studies at Northeastern Illinois University, Carruthers School.


Ms. Lowery is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers, an Illinois State Licensed Managing Real Estate Broker and is a Professional Certificate candidate at NeighborWorks America in Community Revitalization. Ms. Lowery is a former member and award winner of the Chicago Urban League, Metro board, a Silver Star Member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated and a member of the Society of American Archivists. Ms. Lowery holds a Professional Certificate from the Modern Archives Institute at the National Archives and Record Administration in Washington DC and the immediate past Vice President of the Northwestern University Black Alumni Association.