The Propeller Fund has announced the 15 winners of its first round of awards aimed at building “the small, self-organized operations that constitute a large catalyst for the creative activity and vitality of the Chicago visual art world.” The 15 winners of awards at levels of either $6,000 or $2,000 were selected from over 140 applications. The list of awardees includes a nice mix of new and familiar entities around Chicago, all of whom proposed projects that will be initiated in the city over the next several years.
The winners and their summaries of the projects:
The Storefront ($2,000)
Directed by Brandon Alvendia, The Storefront is an exhibition, event, and publishing venue in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago. It is designed to support local artists working on either temporary and/or long-term sustainable projects. Projects will be archived and published for international distribution.
The Lady Dissident Chicago Travel Auxiliary ($2,000)
Continuation of the Lady Dissident Publications Series by Alana Bailey and Anne Elizabeth Moore through the creation and production of 10 new editioned screenprinted Chicago neighborhood posters.
Nicholas Bastis, David Fleishman, and Brandon Pass ($2,000)
Destination architecture placed in neglected places. With collaborators Fleishman and Pass, Bastis will explore the outcomes of subverting construction and spatial hierarchies by building a temporary replica of a Frank Gehry building in a vacant lot in the West Side of Chicago.
Todd Diederich and Sara Fagala ($6,000)
With the Ballroom scene of Chicago, Todd Diederich and Sara Fagala combine their efforts to work and bridge different communities. The project includes throwing a ball, displaying pictures of Todd’s documentary project, and a photo shoot and fashion line just for the Ballroom scene.
InCUBATE ($2,000)
Pilot Studies is an ongoing publishing project, initiated by InCUBATE and involving a wide range of collaborators, to gather strategies and perspectives on how to organize and support noncommercial, grassroots and community-based creative projects.
ChicagoRICAN($2,000)
ChicagoRICAN is a curatorial and exhibition design project by Jorge Felix that addresses the arts production of Puerto Rican artists in Chicago. ChicagoRICAN promotes a dialogue on the contributions of migrant artists‚ arts production in the building of communities in contemporary America.
Dorchester Project ($6,000)
Located in Grand Crossing, out of two neighboring spaces, Dorchester Project envisions a South Side collaborative that encourages community development and access to knowledge through explorative exercises related to arts, culture, and design, with distinctly Chicago-based identities.
The Suburban and N55 ($2,000)
Replacing the N55 LAND Cairn formerly located (2001-2008) at Position: N 41° 53′ 03,4″ E 087° 46′ 06,8″. Area: 160 m2. Chicago, USA.
Kirsten Leenaars and Lise Haller Baggesen: Mutualism ($2,000)
Mutualism is a collaborative curatorial project organized by Lise Haller Baggesen and Kirsten Leenaars that explores the ways in which networks of friendship and artistic collaboration can be used as a model for curating. Artists based in Chicago and the Netherlands will participate.
The Alliance of Pentaphilic Curators (Jason Dunda and Teena McClelland, representatives) ($6,000) Five funerals scheduled to occur in April 2011 at a funeral home in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood. Each funeral is dedicated to the contemplation of one notional death and hosted by a select Chicago cultural producer.
Erik Peterson, Benjamin Liu, Koobmeej Lee, Gary Kupczak, and Laura Thompson ($2,000)
Qeej Hero is a video game that combines the instrumental karaoke of popular mass-market games like Guitar Hero with an ancient Hmong musical instrument in order to facilitate transnational communication and develop a hybrid form of cultural production.
Laurie Jo Reynolds, Stephen F. Eisenman, and Jeanine Oleson ($2,000)
Two innovative cultural projects (photo series, calling cards) will be produced with maximum community involvement, and included in a series of dialogic public presentations on the subject of sexual violence, sex offender policies, and harm reduction.
Ben Russell and exhibiting artists ($2,000)
Space Program is a bi-monthly, semi-nomadic screening series of experimental films and videos. Each program is named after, and thematically related to, one of the 8 planets in the solar system.
Yet to be named advisory group facilitated by Daniel Tucker ($6,000)
Utilizing Tucker’s history in documenting local publishing, education, spaces, community, and public art, he will convene an advisory group to conceptualize and produce a catalog/archive to document compelling projects that make up Chicago’s socially-engaged art history.
Tamalli Space Charros Collective: Omar Ureña Ximénez, Tamatz Juanes, Irradiador, The Aztlán Cardinal, La Pocha Catalana, Luis Humberto Valadez, Saúl Aguirre, Armando Morales, and Luis Muñoz ($6,000)
TSC:Interdisciplinary, a business project bringing multimedia art and Mexican cuisine into an arena where boundaries will be crossed to explore and reinvent the Chicago food scene through a social network.
For more information:
www.propellerfund.org
info@propellerfund.org
312-432-3972
Launched in May 2010, Propeller Fund is administered jointly by Gallery 400, UIC and threewalls. Initial support for the program is provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts as part of its initiative to promote informal and independently organized visual arts activities across the United States.
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