University of Chicago to Host 'Arts Incubator' Open House, 3/8

The University of Chicago's (UChicago) Arts and Public Life initiative will host a free open house for its new Arts Incubator on Friday, March 8, 2013, from 3-6 p.m. Located in Chicago's Washington Park neighborhood at 301 E. Garfield Boulevard (55th Street and Prairie Avenue), the Arts Incubator is the latest project envisioned by renowned artist Theaster Gates and provides space for artist residencies, arts education and community-based arts projects, as well as exhibitions, performances and talks.

The open house will include tours of the newly renovated 1920s building as well as a performance of Double Duos (drones for drummers) by incubator artist-in-residence LeRoy Bach, with Mikel Avery, Dan Bitney, and David Hilliard. Attendees may also preview Feedback, an exhibition of visual art and various programs happening within the confines of the Arts Incubator and reverberating into the Washington Park community in the form of public art and performance. The first piece in this series is artist-in-residence Cauleen Smith's Park Interiors: 17 Possible Directions, silkscreened wallpaper that she has adhered to the exterior of buildings from 118-132 E. Garfield Boulevard as well as the interior of the incubator gallery space. For directions to the Arts Incubator and more information, visit http://arts.uchicago.edu/artsandpubliclife/ai.

The University of Chicago has launched an ambitious suite of new initiatives and programs to enhance the existing UChicago Arts landscape. These include the Arts and Public Life initiative and its flagship project, the Arts Incubator, the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, and the Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry. The new initiatives join academic departments and programs in the Division of the Humanities and the College, as well as professional organizations, including Court Theatre, Oriental Institute Museum, The Renaissance Society, Smart Museum of Art, and University of Chicago Presents, and more than 60 student arts organizations, in forging an integrative model for practice, presentation, and scholarship.

For more information about UChicagoArts, visit https://arts.uchicago.edu/.

Pictured: The University of Chicago's new Arts Incubator in Washington Park. Photo by Tom Rossiter.