Phantom Gallery Chicago Open Studio 2025 Bronzeville Art District Trolley Tour

"Art is Business" www.bronzevilleartdistrict.com

This summer is extra special as we’re celebrating 20 amazing years of programming!

Also, don’t miss out—The Phantom Gallery Chicago Network will be hosting an Open Studio in ROOM 205, on the second floor of the Bronzeville Artist Lofts, over ten years 2014 to 2025. I'm looking forward to seeing you all there! 

Jazmin Davis is the founder and owner of JD Events, hosting events in Baltimore, Maryland, specifically at restaurants sometimes referred to as supper clubs or closed-door dining establishments. These venues often operate out of someone's home or a small, intimate space, such as our atelier gallery. JD Events will join the Phantom Gallery Chicago during our Trolley Tour from June 20th to September, where we will be mixing drinks and serving bites.

Join us for small bite appetizers from 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM, happy hour cocktails by JD Events from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM, and a party with our appetizer catering services from Soul Kitchen Chicago. 

NOEL Catering:https://soulkitchenchicago.com/our-story/

Meet Noel Peters, founder and the driving force behind Soul Kitchen Chicago. Noel developed an early passion for cooking from watching her grandmother, mom, and aunts cook in the kitchen. Inspired and having learned from the matriarchs in her family, Noel quickly became known amongst her friends for making the best home-cooked meals and never shying away from sharing with everyone after school. Many years later, with ample experience under her apron, Noel has perfected her skill by traveling to various Caribbean islands, where she immersed herself in the local culture, learning from skilled chefs and home cooks alike.

This experience not only expanded Noel’s culinary knowledge but also inspired the creation of Soul Kitchen Chicago. In 2022, Noel founded Soul Kitchen Chicago to bring the soulful fusion of Southern and Caribbean flavors to the heart of Chicago. No matter the event, the hint of home-cooked dining is always present. Noel has successfully catered for various events: pop-ups, corporate events, holiday parties, business launch parties, and more!

DANI'S ART CORNER- CHILDREN AND FAMILY CREATIVE PAINTING 6pm to 8pm

We have everything you need for a fun and creative time: canvases, paints, brushes, aprons, easels, music, and plenty of inspiration! Perfect for families with young aspiring artists aged 5 to 12, it's a great opportunity to bring your friends along. Let the creative painting adventures begin while you wait for the next Double Decker! We can’t wait to see what you create!

    

We're Back and Better Than Ever! Bronzeville Art District voted #2 Best Art District's

"Art is Business" https://10best.usatoday.com/awards/best-arts-district/.

Readers' Choice Awards 2025 - View the Results

10 best arts districts in the US for a creative escape

Step into the vibrant hearts of these communities

 Our editors and readers independently select what you see on USA TODAY 10BEST. We may earn an affiliate commission when you buy through a link on our site.

What makes an arts district inspiring? They might be revitalized and renewed urban spaces in once-derelict neighborhoods, filled with big-name museums that feature architecture as impressive as their art. Alternatively, they could have streets lined with small galleries and studios, interspersed with trendy cafes. 

You'll find that and more in these 10 winning arts districts, nominated by an expert panel and voted on by readers as the best in the U.S. These districts feature vibrant and diverse arts scenes that culturally enrich their cities and visitors.

No. 2: Best Arts District

2025

Art

No. 2: Best Arts District     

Photo courtesy of Raymond Thomas Studios

Just 10 minutes from downtown on Chicago's South Side is the historic Bronzeville Art District, once known as the city's "Black Metropolis." This art district has a rich cultural legacy — the source of Muddy Waters' blues and Gwendolyn Brooks' poetry. Art galleries are housed in restored Graystones, and new murals tell stories alongside historic bronze markers. Third Fridays bring extra energy to the area, as galleries stay open late. Trolley tours of the district are a great way to get to know the area better.

Dear Chicago Arts Partner VOTE Daily to support the Bronzeville Arts District

"Art is Business"

We’re excited to share that USA Today’s 10 Best Readers & Choice Awards has nominated the Bronzeville Arts District as America's Best Arts District!

This is a huge opportunity to shine a national spotlight on Bronzeville’s incredible businesses, vibrant community, and diverse art scene. 

As you know, the Bronzeville Arts District has held its annual Trolley Tour for two decades. We also host dozens of visual arts exhibits and musical, dance, and spoken word performances yearly. This nomination demonstrates the incredible power of our South Side arts community. We would love to inform the nation what we’re up to by being named NUMBER ONE!!

Courtesy of Raymond A. Thomas Studio

We’ll win by earning the most votes, so how about your love for our community? Vote daily

until February 17. As a valued arts partner, we’d also appreciate your spreading

the word to your network.

Let’s bring this recognition home!

Here’s the link to vote: 

Thanks so much.

BRONZEVILLE ARTS DISTRICT

Tactical Urbanism in the Horizontal Landscape Short Film Screenings- Featured Renee' Baker

"Art is Business"   Join us on Friday, September 20th, 2024, as we celebrate the season's last Bronzeville Art District Trolley Tour. The film screenings will begin at dusk and conclude at 9 p.m. 

436 E. 47th Street, the film screening is a popup temporary installation. 

Phantom Gallery Chicago- Film Projection Project Manager Suzetta Withtaker

Featured Artist Renee Baker

Film 1: The Black Fertile Mind

The Black Fertile Mind is an exploration of boundless creativity, celebrating the intellect, resilience, and innovation of Black thought. This film interweaves evocative visuals with a dynamic score by Renee C. Baker, performed by the Chicago Modern Orchestra Project and the Modern Black Music Ensemble. The soundtrack melds elements of avant-garde jazz, experimental chamber music, and abstract soundscapes, reflecting the depth and complexity of the Black artistic imagination. As the film unfolds, it delves into the vast landscapes of Black intellectual history, presenting a narrative that is at once historical and visionary. The visuals are complemented by the sonic textures that highlight the journey of ideas, inventions, and artistic expressions born from a fertile cultural legacy.

Film 2: EMAK 1

EMAK 1 is a sensory journey into the enigmatic and the surreal, guided by Renee C. Baker's innovative score. This experimental film embraces the abstraction of thought and form, creating a dreamlike narrative that defies traditional storytelling. The Chicago Modern Orchestra Project and the Modern Black Music Ensemble provide a sonic tapestry that oscillates between ethereal atmospheres and dissonant crescendos, reflecting the film's exploration of consciousness and the unknown. The visuals are a montage of abstract shapes, shifting patterns, and fleeting images, inviting viewers to immerse themselves in the subconscious and question the boundaries between reality and illusion.

Film 3: EMAK 2

EMAK 2 continues the exploration of the surreal begun in its predecessor, deepening the immersion into an auditory and visual world that is both mysterious and profound. The score, crafted by Renee C. Baker and brought to life by the Chicago Modern Orchestra Project and the Modern Black Music Ensemble, is an intricate composition that blends dissonance with harmony, creating a soundscape that feels simultaneously familiar and alien. The film navigates themes of transformation and transcendence, using its avant-garde aesthetic to challenge perceptions and provoke thought. The visuals, a fluid collage of moving images, mirror the music's complexity, crafting an experience that is introspective, meditative, and ever-evolving.

BIO

Renee' C. Baker is a towering figure in multidisciplinary artistry, transcending the boundaries of music, visual art, film, and composition with unparalleled finesse. Her creative journey unfolds like an epic saga, with over 2000 orchestral and chamber ensemble compositions serving as a testament to her boundless imagination and relentless pursuit of innovation.

As the founding music director and conductor of the Chicago Modern Orchestra Project (CMOP), Baker orchestrates a symphony of genres, seamlessly weaving classical elegance with the improvisational spirit of jazz. Her conducting styles, both traditional and gestural, are modes of transformation, conjuring surreal landscapes where sonic and visual realms intertwine in a mesmerizing dance. A true Renaissance artist, Baker's canvas knows no limits as she melds movement, film projections, and sound into a breathtaking tapestry of sensory delight. Her compositions and film scores invite exploration and interpretation, blurring the lines between classicism and experimentation, subjectivity and objectivity.

Baker's influence extends far beyond her compositions. With the same fervor she brings to her craft, she nurtures and cultivates new ensembles. From the Mantra Blue Free Orchestra to the Bleueblue Walkers/Bass Kollektief, her ensembles forge new paths in the ever-evolving landscape of contemporary music.

Baker's most profound legacy lies in her gestural conducting language, CCL/FLOW, a symphony of movements that transcends words, guiding ensembles through her painted score exploratorium pieces. In her hands, music becomes not just a performance but a transcendent experience, a journey into the unknown where every note is a brushstroke.

The formation of WABI HOUSE MEDIA and Relinquish Cinema has resulted in music scores for over 500 silent and 100 experimental films, all with original scores crafted by Baker and the Chicago Modern Orchestra Project.

A visual artist, film artist, composer, and recontextualiser, Baker is a true engineer of multi-disciplines. Layering movement and film projections, she creates an exquisite arena of surrealistic activity within a sonic theatre. Her compositions, crafted with careful construction, allow indeterminacy, experimentalism, classicism, subjectivity, and objective interpretations to coexist. Both performer and audience are cast into unknown roles, inhabiting a temporary environment of limitless potential.

"Exercising Creative Agency"

Renee' C. Baker, PhD.

Artistic Director / Conductor

Chicago Modern Orchestra Project

Modern Black Music Ensemble

Producer- Wabi House Media

Editor- YUGEN Imprint

reneebaker@comcast.net

SOUNDSCAPE TAPESTRY EXPERIMENTAL FILM SERIES

"Art is Business" 

JOIN US ON FRIDAY, JULY 21, 2023, FOR AN EVENING OF EXPERIMENTAL FILM DURING THE BRONZEVILLE ART DISTRICT TROLLEY TOUR. FEATURING TACTICAL URBANISM IN THE HORIZONTAL LANDSCAPE-- SOUNDSCAPE TAPESTRY.

Alpha Bruton, lead artist, and the Phantom Gallery Chicago is my curatorial practice. I'm collaborating with composer and musician Reggie Nicholson. This project is designed as an intensive experience.

We are creating a work with an interdisciplinary approach and will present the final product during community programming. This project occurs in and around the Bronzeville community, collecting sounds from the horizontal landscape to produce the Soundscape Tapestry.

CEFF 

Featured Speaker: Ife Olatunji

Topic: Collective Voices Ethnographic Film Festival Preview

Olatunji is a visual anthropologist, documentary filmmaker, and film critic. Born into a family of artists and activists, she graduated from Syracuse University with a BA in Anthropology ('06) and a minor in photography and African American History. Ife completed her MA in Visual Anthropology from the University of Manchester, UK ('10) after creating a short documentary on daily life for girls in Rajasthan, India. She has since lived in Chicago, teaching documentary and film production to youth as young as 6 to adults at community centers and The Art Institute of Wisconsin. She has been a media educator with Facets Multimedia for the past four years, teaching media literacy, narrative editing, and documentary filmmaking. As a Diverse Voices in Documentary fellow with Kartemquin, Ife developed her own short observational film and worked with others to produce and edit their projects. Ife has continued to work with The Community Film Workshop, Reel Black Filmmakers, and Collected Voices: Chicago's Ethnographic Film Festival. An advocate for diversity and inclusion, Ife believes race and gender should not be categories of film festivals but rather the very topics film seeks to explore: www.collectedvoicesfilmfest.com.

Raymond A. Thomas, Studio/Film 12 MINUTES | 2001

CINEMA

N'spire Entertainment Inc. is the film and video production subsidiary of Raymond A. Thomas Studios.

In 2000, Raymond A. Thomas wrote, directed, and produced his first film project, 12 MINUTES. The 30-minute film short was an official selection to over 20 film festivals worldwide, winning numerous awards and honors. The film, which deals with the issues of mass incarceration and the death penalty, continues to be used in community arts engagement efforts with screenings in correctional facilities nationwide. Thomas has written over a half dozen feature screenplays, several of which have been optioned by major motion picture studios. In 2013, Thomas won an EMMY for serving as an associate producer on the documentary COLORBLIND: Rethinking Race, which aired on television station WYCC in Chicago.

Lavon N. Pettis, project manager for the 2023 Phantom Gallery Chicago Tactical Urbanism Film Series.

A Published ethnographer/researcher with program development, piloting, pre and post-evaluation, and background for hire. Civic and community engagement project manager. Best practices, technical savvy, and additional perks include negotiation. Skills include but are not limited to infrastructure setup, operations, lead planning, special events, capacity building, arts, and entertainment. Career experience includes public/social policy strategist, state director, sponsorship procurement, and fundraising.

Bronzeville Art District Trolley Tour 2023

"Art is Business" www.bronzevilleartdistrict.com    Bronzeville Art District Trolley Tour 2023 

 

CULTURAL STAKEHOLDERS IN THE BRONZEVILLE COMMUNITY COLLABORATE TO PRESENT FREE SUMMER PROGRAMMING 

CHICAGO  – Bronzeville is again a focal point for Chicago's vibrant African American culture. Like Harlem in New York, Bronzeville is a community where Chicago's African American music, Literature, Fine Art, and Theater historically thrive. The Bronzeville Art District (BAD) currently consists of five established visual art spaces working together to focus and drive cultural activities in the community so that a distinctive cultural identity can be crystallized and communicated. 

About this event

Please join us on the 3rd Friday of the month for the Bronzeville Art District (BAD) Trolley Tour 2022! Bronzeville Art District Celebrating 17 years, Every 3rd Friday between June and September, ride the Double-Decker Bus for fine art and entertainment in Bronzeville!

Ride the Double-Decker bus that will take you to the 5 participating art galleries and art institutions in Bronzeville. Featuring some of the best fine art and entertainment in the city of Chicago. Free and Fun for the entire family! Please share with your art friends and family.

2023 Summer Tour Schedule and Participating Bronzeville Locations:

June 16, July 21, August 18, September 15, 6 pm to 9pm

You can visit galleries, art institutions, or studios and experience unique art and entertainment.

Blanc Gallery

Bronzeville Artist Lofts

Gallery Guichard

Faie Afrikan Art

South Side Community Art Center

We look forward to seeing you for the 2023 Art Tour Season!
Sponsored by
The University of Illinois Cancer Center
Gift of Hope
Blue Cross Blue Shield
CIBC Bank
Building Community Foundation
Bronzeville Art District

WE GOT A GRANT! 2022 Neighborhood Access Program

"Art is Business"  #DCASEgrants

We're happy to announce our selection as a Neighborhood Access Program grant recipient from the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events! 

The City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) announces the Neighborhood Access Program. This program aims to support the cultural vitality of every Chicago neighborhood via grant programs and partnerships designed to be responsive to the complex needs of individual communities. This program offers direct grants for community-based arts and culture activities.

Tactical Urbanism in The Horizontal Landscape "Soundscape Tapestry" exposes pedestrians to the experience of what is viewed inside the gallery creating a dynamic platform for large-scale installations, moving image works, and sound performances. This collaborative effort has put two artists, a composer/percussionist, and a visual/installation artist, in a space to create a new body of work that will draw on the inspiration gained from the environment of the Bronzeville neighborhood.

Bronzeville Art District Trolley Tour 2022, Pedestrians viewing Experimental Films 

This funding will support Bronzeville's cultural vitality through collaboration with soundscape artist and composer Reggie Nicholson. The Phantom Gallery Chicago will build a sound and visual installation while expanding its body of work. The piece will be made by recording sound in the neighborhood (the "horizontal landscape" sounds) and then woven together with a new composition by Nicholson. The music tapestry will play alongside experimental film projections curated by visual artist Alpha Bruton. The piece will be presented at the Bronzeville Artists Lofts commercial space and at the corner of 47th and Vincennes. "a series of free public art installations." #DCASEgrants

Tactical Urbanism in The Horizontal Landscape "Soundscape Tapestry" exposes pedestrians to the experience of what is viewed inside the gallery creating a dynamic platform for large-scale installations, moving image works, and sound performances. This collaborative effort has put two artists, a composer/percussionist, and a visual/installation artist, in a space to create a new body of work that will draw on the inspiration gained from the environment of the Bronzeville neighborhood.

2022 AIR Composer and percussionist Reggie Nicholson Soundscape Tapestry

47th and Vincennes Empty Lot, September 16th, 2022  Tactical Urbanism In the Horizontal Landscape

We’re excited to announce Tactical Urbanism in the Horizontal Landscape "Sound Scape Tapestry," and the use of funds will be to Create a dynamic platform for large-scale installations, moving image works, and sound performances. This project was funded by the Neighborhood Access Program from the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. #DCASEgrants.

Bronzeville Art District Trolley Tour 2022- WE ARE BACK!

"Art is Business"

Join us for a fun and lively introduction to our  Bronzeville Art District 2022 Trolley Tour, designed to bring people together so you can create experiences everyone will be talking about.

The Bronzeville Art District Trolley Tour celebrates 16 years of excellence with art and culture in the community. Our mission is to provide artistic offerings at Bronzeville's fine art galleries and expose patrons to the rich culture and history of the community.

Open to the public, free admission! Take a tour and explore 5 art galleries and the art studios in the Bronzeville Artist Lofts or participate in the Art Crawl to our participating galleries located in the historic Bronzeville neighborhood.

Bronzeville art galleries will have fine art on exhibit and purchase, with live entertainment.

Reggie Nicholson Artist in Resident 2022 - "Soundscape Tapestry"

The Phantom Gallery Chicago is proud to announce a collaboration with composer and musician Reggie Nicholson as resident artists for the 2022 program year.  

"Mettle" (2018) features his second solo recording for percussion. 

The instantly recognizable style and sound of Reggie Nicholson have elevated him to one of the most distinctive, inventive, and inspirational drummer/percussionists of his generation, a formidable technician but one who uses his considerable skills constructively and with infinite taste.

Born in Chicago, his drum concept perfectly fitted the needs of many extraordinary Chicago musicians. An active member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1979, Nicholson has absorbed the musical influences of each AACM member learning the skills to compose and improvise original music.

Nicholson has performed and recorded with a wide variety of jazz and new music luminaries such as Henry Threadgill, Muhal Richard Abrams, Amina Claudine Myers, Leroy Jenkins, Anthony Braxton, Sam Newsome, Myra Melford, Wilber Morris, Elektra Kurtis, Billy Bang, Butch Morris, James Spaulding, Yuko Fujiyama, Oliver Lake, Fay Victor, Roy Campbell, just to name a few. In addition, Reggie has toured throughout Europe and Japan.

As a composer, he was nominated twice for the Cal Arts Composition Award in 1993/1994. His compositions were performed throughout NYC, including concerts for Roulette, Interpretations, Vision Festival, and the AACM.  

Nicholson's recordings, which have highlighted his compositions, are "Unnecessary Noise Allowed (1997)," which features his quintet, The Reggie Nicholson Concept. "Percussion Peace" (2005) is a solo recording experimenting with electronics and percussion instruments. In 2007,  the premiere of "Timbre Suite" (Tone Colors) was recorded for a percussion ensemble." Surreal Feel" (2008) shows the maturity and growth of his composing skills with music for brass instruments and percussion. "Mettle" (2018) features his second solo recording for percussion. His latest recording, "No Preservatives Added" (2020), features new compositions for the percussion ensemble.

Currently, Nicholson is continuing to explore the aesthetics of his musical ideas.

Reggie Nicholson, Composer/Percussionist 

 Tactical Urbanism in the Horizontal Landscape

 "Soundscape Tapestry." 

He will work directly with the lead artist and chief curator, Alpha Bruton. In addition, Phantom Gallery Chicago will provide technical and administrative support for creating new work and exploring new ideas with a two-month sound and video exhibition at the end of the project.

Phantom Gallery Chicago's mission is to promote the betterment of the visual arts community through the arts and to promote cultural activities in exhibits, workshops, and artists-in-residence projects. This collaborative project will utilize sound and visual art in a public installation. Soundscape Tapestry will echo the African American music experience unique to the sounds of Chicago. As a visual artist, Alpha Bruton will experiment with abstractions, vibrational sound narratives, and vibrational sound narrations in response to the experimental sound of composer/percussionists Reggie Nicholson in an eight-week series of concentrated studio time to develop platforms for exploration and creation of new works.

Elastic Arts and AMP- CHI Presents: Intersections, Chicago Jazz Fest Afterfest AACM

Phantom Gallery Chicago realizes artists need to keep creating and inventing at their best and that they need time to reflect and work seriously or just for fun. The journey to becoming a skilled and accomplished artist is lifelong. When you invest in your talent, you can reinvigorate your passion for making art. But, an essential part of the process is building into your schedule a time for renewal, new experiences, and a different perspective. Self-directed artist residency, "artist vacations," is not taken to get away from their work but to find ways to inspire their work with new vitality and energy.

The goal is to give artists a space to imagine new work methods. The AIR is followed by a two-month exhibition created, fully documented, and a full-color exhibition catalog. Collaborating artists are encouraged to share their ideas and complete a visual diary of drawings, collages, videos, or photography. This visual journal will reflect the on-site experience, employing themes, contemporary narratives, and personal or historical regarding the course or discourse of their work.

Elastic Arts and AMP- CHI Presents: Intersections, Chicago Jazz Fest Afterfest AACM

While artist residencies have traditionally provided opportunities for artists to work in solitude, many residency programs today are designed specifically around artists engaging the local community. Increasingly, organizations still primarily offering retreat-style residencies are expanding into community-engaged work and looking for best practices from peers.

This collaboration is curated by the chief curator of the Phantom Gallery Chicago Network and is an ambitious new sector using tactical urbanism and contributing to the horizontal landscape. With the intent of exposing pedestrians and tourists to the experience of what is viewed inside the gallery—creating a dynamic platform for large-scale installations, moving image works, and sound performances, which has had a dedicated space at the Bronzeville Artist Lofts since 2014 years. 

Past presenting film and media artists: "The Kaleidoscope Effect"  by Tali Farchi and Royce Deans (2011), "Vacation Spot" curated by Janelle Vaughn Dowell (2014); Collective Voices "CV Film Festival" curated by Ife Olatunji; (2015-2016). "Wabi House Media" Presents "Pop-Up Movie Theater," "Tactical Urbanism," "Experimental Screenings," and RACE Films" curated by Renee Baker (2017- 2021). "Ceremonial Teas," the Social Move initiative, was curated by Larissa J. Akeremi (2020).

All the projections are accompanied by original soundscapes juxtaposed with the urban sounds of Bronzeville @ 47th Street and various intersections of the community. 

 - September 16th, 2022, 8pm - 10pm

Virtual Open Studio- November Trolley Tour 2020

"Art is Business"

Alpha Bruton, Chief Curator at Phantom Gallery Chicago Network, a project that connects artists to temporary installation spaces,  aims to examine changes in current curatorial production and to develop innovative displays in relation to virtual spaces. "Curatorial Practice" explores the impact of the urban environment on the artist and their work, and the contributions that artists make to the vitality of a city. The place where art is imagined and made, whether in a physical or virtual space, affects the idea, the process, and the final product.

Alpha is looking at how the city influences art, and how artists transform the city by contributing to civic dialogue and quality of life.

Intuitive Space Lois Stone

"Art is Business"  Project Description- for gallery hours call 773-681-6570

Network

presents new works by artist Lois Stone 

Friday, August 16, 2019

Pre-boarding Viewing 5pm -6pm, Boarding 6-9pm 

440 E. 47th Street, Chicago IL  60653

Green Abstract, 12" x 12", 2019 Lois Stone

Artist Lois Stone

Intuitive Space

Intuitive Space is a collection of abstract paintings I have created in an exploration of mark-making. Decided or automatic expressions, marks are created in a push and pull manner with spontaneous movement and expression to discover, free, and reveal my own creativity. Through this process, I hope to evoke that same joy of the process to the viewer.

Untitled Abstract, Lois Stone

September 8th, 2019  3-6pm, Sunday Salon Series

September 13th, Closing 6pm - 9pm

Untitled Abstract, Lois Stone


Join us for the August 16th, 2019 Trolley Tour, during the Bronzeville Art District 3rd Friday Open Studio at the