Outside the Loop Radio which reportedly broadcasts from it’s (for our benefit) 100-watt artsy-fartsy radio station took time to interview Richard and DMac and ask about the birth and direction of Bad at Sports. If you want to listen to the entire episode click here for the direct link.

Duncan & Richard appear at 6 min 20 seconds into the show. Richard geeks out over audio tech, Duncan tells the back story with eloquence. They both have a jaw drop moment when the hosts ask how you could get hate mail doing a art audio program.

Check it out.

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A supporting blog for the panel can be found at artblogging.org.

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More to come as it unfolds…..

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The City Council is on the verge of passing an ordinance that is bad for Chicago, bad for its citizens and particularly bad for the art community.

We have proposed an alternative ordinance that will not be considered unless you act.  We are the following groups: Bad at Sports, the Chicago Artists Coalition, Lumpen, Sharkforum, ArtLetter and others to be named soon.

Short Story:

Mayor Daley and the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) have proposed a terrible ordinance to modify the Public Art Program.  The stated reason makes no sense: that the meetings were open to the public was cumbersome and unnecessary in their judgment.  That the previous ordinance existed for 25 years and that the City has an exemplary art collection they deemed irrelevant.

• It “privatizes” the the selection of public art by eliminating all Open Meetings.
• It means the DCA does not have to post thorough information on their website about upcoming commissions.
• It will remove transparency and accessibility from the Public Art program and  art commissions.
• It eliminates voting, democracy and public recourse.

Unless the art community acts the City Council will approve their proposed ordinanceon the 13th of June.  The best way to prevent this from happening is for artists to

stage a large rally at 5:30 PM Monday, June 11th at the Picasso Sculpture

and a letter writing campaign to make the Mayor and the Aldermen aware of what Chicago artists think and want.

Full Story:

• Visualize 100’s of Chicago artists rallying around a single cause – Artists’ Rights.
• Have you ever read about a large group of artists speaking out publicly with one voice?
• Think about the media coverage.
• To a large extent the events of the next ten days stand to significantly affect the future of Chicago artists (and Chicago galleries that care about their
  Chicago artists).

Here’s the deal:

WELL, the issue is coming back up for a City Council vote on June 13th.  We’ve spoken to a number of aldermen.  Most aldermen think: If the artists don’t care, we don’t care.

It is possible to change the system and it is not going to be easy. 

As an artist or a member of the art community in Chicago, or elsewhere, if you ever want to able to apply for a commission, or give a damn about your peers
being able to, now is the time to act:

• Appear at a RALLY FOR ARTISTS’ RIGHTS on the Monday the 11th at 5:30 at the Picasso
  – 2 days before the City Council meets to vote on the 13th.
• Write letters to the Tribune & Sun Times editorial page.
• Write a letter to the Mayor
• Write a letter to your alderman. Speak to your alderman.
• Speak in favor of Our New (alternative) Ordinance supporting Artist’s Rights
• Send an email to me or a member of our team telling us what you think. We’ll count them, print them and share them where they’ll hopefully make a difference.
• Under the pretense of streamlining the selection process, the DCA’s proposed ordinance means the DCA does not have to have “open meetings” to give or get any information to artists about upcoming commissions, nor answer to anyone about selected commissions.
• They do not have to put information on their website anymore (they’ve been doing a horrible job putting out information so far.)
• They do not have to allow artists to apply for specific projects.
• They do not have to respond to the community.
• They do not have to be responsible for their actions.
• They do get to keep their inbred selection process whereby they dip into their archaic database, pick whoever they want, sometimes repeatedly, and not have to tell artists why or how they chose or choose.
  If you are going to write a letter, here are some key points.
• No fair, honest or open consideration of Chicago artists
• No Open Meetings.
• No useful listings of commission possibilities
• No applying for a specific commission
• No knowing why you weren’t considered
• Under their proposed new ordinance, the finger-pointing will shift from the DCA to the aldermen because alderman will be asked to have ward forums to discuss art commissions in their ward. This will be an added logistical and financial responsibility for the alderman they may not want.  The aldermen will be responsible to post notice of the forums (many don’t have web sites). They will have to pay for postage out of their own pockets. They will have to host and attend art meetings in their wards. They will have to put up with the potential for dividing their community over art issues. These selfish reasons may be sufficient reason aldermen will defeat this ordinance June 13th – if they are informed.
• If the aldermen think you care, you will be heard.
• If the aldermen don’t think you care they will automatically vote with the Mayor and pass this ordinance assuring a closed doors, patronage system where those who are favored will get the most commissions.  It will not be based on quality, or a competent committee considering your work.  Instead of a democracy we’ll have the Department of Cultural Affairs acting like a country club, picking who they want, why they want, without opening up the selection process and broadening the amount of art they can consider.
• The artists suffer.  The City suffers. The community suffers. The DCA gets a free ride.
• Think about Chicago’s reputation in the rest of the country.
• We are already being discussed by National Public Art Administrators
• We will be a topic of discussion at the National Public Art Conference in Las Vegas.
• Is this going to look good for Chicago in the rest of the country?
• How about internationally?
• How about the Olympics?
• Every Olympics has a large Cultural Olympics held concurrently.
• Do you think the Olympic Committee is going to be favorably impressed with this ordinance?
• You and the Olympics
• Hidden in the bowels of their ordinance is a distinction between Percent for Art and Public Art. The DCA has succeeded in keeping this totally vague. All Percent for Art (a specific term) is part of Public Art (a general term).  Only the Percent for Art must have public forums.(Percent for Art applies to money spent in City government buildings and land.  But Public Art also includes money for art not for city property yet still administered by DCA – like housing to be constructed for Olympic athletes – which could be billions of dollars.) Can you say cronyism?
• Well get this: According to their proposed ordinance they only have to have forums (namby-pamby discussions with not binding authority and no vote) with Percent for Art. Okay, but for Public Art they don’t even have to have any forums at all.
• Who do you think they are trying to take care of?
• Actions speak louder than words.

Do
you understand why the Mayor doesn’t care about you – the Chicago artist? Or why the Alderman don’t, or the rest of the world for that matter?  Because you haven’t made yourself seen and you haven’t made yourself heard enough.

It is time again to assume responsibility for your career, to take a stance.

Can you visualize the impact just 500 artists showing up at a rally could have globally?

Do you realize the publicity Chicago artists can get?

Do you grasp the impact the discussion of this ordinance will have?

You can either shape your future constructively or get screwed.

It is up to you.
Paul Klein

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We are doing a show from CAA, if you are interviewing, being interviewed, presenting, or just there for the non-stop action and fun, we are looking to get brief reviews of the experience from you! E-mail us and we will set up a meeting place at CAA to record.

Michael Velliquette
Joey Fauerso
The Stray Show
Deitch Projects
Michelle Grabner
Nancy Mladenoff
Artpace
Douglas Gordon
Jenny Saville
William Wegman
John Stewart Curry
Laura Lark
Jeff Ward
Packer Schopf Gallery
Rich Lehl
NW Coast Invasion
Rebecca Raven
Eric Stotik
Ed Wicklander
Dan Attoe
Navta Schulz Gallery
Henry Darger
Paul Gauguin
Fifty/50 Gallery
Niagara
Cynthia Plaster Caster
Giola Gallery
Jason Ruhl
Martin O’Connor
Oprah Winfrey
Susan Gescheidle
Peregrine Honig
Chris Jahncke
Abigail Lazkoz
Kacy Maddux
Ilona Niemi
Casey Roberts
A.A. Rucci
Erika Somogyi
Chris Uphues
Patrick W. Welch
Marcel Dzama
Yayoi Kusama
Howard Fonda
Chris Cosnowski
Marianna Levant
Gallery 40000
Too Check Effect
Amanda Ross-Ho
CAA
Three Walls
Knitting Factory
Cat Mazza
Bruce Mau
Scott Wolniak
Bodybuilder and Sportsman Gallery
DCKT Contemporary
Direct download: Bad_at_Sports_Episode_72_Reviews.mp3

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Chicago gallerist and legend Rhona Hoffman recorded live in a discussion with Bad at Sports at Three-Walls, on November 7, 2006, election day… when happy days arrived again.

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Rhona Hoffman
Donald Young
Sol LeWitt
Richard Tuttle
Fred Sandback
Barbara Kruger
Cindy Sherman
Lorna Simpson
Allan McCollum
Gordon Matta Clark
Vito Acconci
Museum of Contemporary Art
Shannon Stratton
ThreeWalls
Michelle Grabner
Paul Klein
Lisa Dorin
Hamza Walker
Tony Tasset
Judy Ledgerwood
Richard Rezac
Adam Brooks
Gerald S. Elliott
Art Institute of Chicago
Donald Judd
Dan Flavin
Robert Ryman
Leon Golub
Jenny Holzer
Brice Marden
P.T. Barnum
Alan Artner
Maria Rilke
Roy Lichtenstein
Spencer Finch
Richard M. Daley
Claude Monet
Susanne Ghez
Art Basel Miami Beach
Frieze Art Fair
Wayne Newton
Mickalene Thomas
Barbra Streisand
Direct download: Bad_at_Sports_Episode_63_Rhona_Hoffman.mp3

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Feeling consumed by your art? Contemplating selling your soul for fame? Take a breather from the back-breaking quest for immortality and join us November 14th at ThreeWalls (7pm) to talk about Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray – a tale of excess, indulgence, murder and art.

As part of their BASECAMP residency, Bad At Sports invites you to their first ever Book Club. Filled with sex, opium, and more dandies than you can shake a stick at, The Picture of Dorian Gray undertakes
a discussion of the relevance of art and the role it should play in daily life. People’s destinies are changed and characters are destroyed because a painter strays beyond aesthetics and puts too much
of himself into a painting. Another character is permanently “poisoned” by reading a book. So we must ask: Can one person’s artistic expression really alter the viewer/reader forever?

Come and join us as we share insights about art making, soul selling and, well, dandies.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is widely available. It is currently on sale at Barnes and Noble for 2.50 and available for free at Project Gutenberg

Event Details:
Tuesday, November 14, 7:00-9:00 PM
Three Walls
119 North Peoria Street #2A
Chicago, IL 60607
http://www.three-walls.org
Refreshments will be provided.

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Internationally renown, Chicago based, artist Kerry James Marshall talks to Bad at Sports live before a studio audience on October 24, 2006.

Mr. Marshall talks about his work, race, the art world, his career trajectory, and reveals that art school is the biggest fraud of all time! Also, audience participation!

This is a fantastic interview, don’t miss it.

UP NEXT!!! NOVEMBER 7:
Rhona Hoffman, interviewed live. 119 N. Peoria Street, 7:00 p.m.!!!

Thanks to all who came out for some pancakes on October 28!! Fun times.

Kerry James Marshall
Jim Sleeper
Thelma Golden
Peter Schjeldahl
Damien Hirst
Rhona Hoffman
Thomas McKnight
Bill Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Chalk & Vermillion
Erte
Billy Hork
Art:21
Kathryn Hixson
Ayn Rand
Corbett vs. Dempsey
Matthew Barney
Richard Serra
Charles Barkley
Jack Kirby
Linda Goode Bryant (owner of Just Above Midtown Gallery)
Leonardo da Vinci
Direct download: Bad_at_Sports_Episode_61_Kerry_James_Marshall.mp3

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Bad at Sports

The nonprofit ThreeWalls has been offering studio space to artists from around the world as part of its residency program since 2004. For the next six weeks, the artists-in-residence will be Bad at Sports, the year-old local art podcast hosted by Richard Holland, Duncan MacKenzie and Amanda Browder.

From their temporary “base camp” in the West Loop, the BASters will host panel discussions, record interviews before a live audience—and cook us pancakes.

For their first event on Friday 20, artists Tony Fitzpatrick, Bill Conger, Phyllis Bramson, and curators Mark Pascale and Gregory Knight will speak to this question: What the heck do you mean “Chicago art”? It’s what the trio refers to as the “James Yood challenge.” This all goes back to an early program when the Northwestern University art critic was asked if there was a “Chicago art” and responded, in short, that place matters. “It’s the ultimate question,” says Kathryn Born, who joined the group recently and proudly calls herself the “publicist.” BAS is about as grassroots as it gets. Born met cofounder Holland via the art listserv The Other Group. “We’ve been arguing for years,” she says. And Browder stumbled into BAS during an art stroll. “Amanda was walking down a street in the West Loop while Richard and Duncan were recording.”

The first live recording will be with artist Kerry James Marshall on Tuesday 24 at 7pm. Gallerist Rhona Hoffman will be November 7; curator Francesco Bonami will be on November 21. The pancake breakfast on October 28 at 10:30am is circled on our calendar.—Ruth Lopez

ThreeWalls is at 119 N Peoria St between Randolph Ave and Washington Blvd. For the complete schedule of BAS events, check out www.badatsports.com or www.three-walls.org.

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Artists and cultural producers discuss how their podcasts, forums, blogs and festivals are bringing new intimacy and openness to Chicago’s art scene. Panelists include: Richard Holland, Duncan MacKenzie, Amanda Browder from Bad at Sports; Ed Marszewski from Lumpen, Version and Select Media Festival; David Roth and Wesley Kimmler from Shark Forum.

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