Bursting with art studios and galleries a few years ago, Pilsen’s stretch of South Halsted Street now features flyers advertising the potential of empty storefronts. Crowds continue to pack the street on the district’s monthly Second Friday event, but they find fewer open galleries and openings than in past months. A good portion of the studios in the Podmajersky artists loft complex were vacant as of mid-November, and even fewer opened to the public on Second Friday. Although some galleries continue to put out new monthly exhibitions, the vacancies signal a shift in Pilsen’s once-thriving art district.

A few miles south, Bridgeport’s former industrial district has become the quiet home of an underground art scene. Read the rest of this entry »

Independent arts collective Lumpen’s eighth annual Select Media Festival promises to offer four nights of video programming, group exhibitions, performance art, and live music that will shock, blast, and perhaps even use hypnosis to instill art appreciation back into anyone who’s been jaded by too many wine and cheese gallery openings. Read the rest of this entry »

Henry Glover has rhythm from his head to his toes—literally. He lifts up his shoe to reveal a small electrical sensor that is wired to an audio jack in the sole. When the shoes are plugged into an output device, synthesized drum beats correspond to Glover’s tapping foot. Yet as Glover wanders through the fundraiser for the ninth annual Version Festival, a 10-day artistic extravaganza in Bridgeport, his cleverly designed shoes shuffle beneath the crowd’s radar. Ironically, the scene reads like a microcosm of one of Version’s goals: to bring Chicago’s diverse and expansive art scene, much of which slips by public recognition, to the attention of the global artistic community. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s a cold, rainy night, and as the author, phone in hand, waits for her overpriced Medici takeout, Chloe from AIDS Wolf is on the other line. She finally finds silence in a bathroom at the Toronto club Sneaky Dee’s. Fighting a bad case of bronchitis and iffy reception, Chloe laughs: it’s raining in Toronto, too. Read the rest of this entry »

I know that art is supposed to transcend earthly realities and all, but when Bridgeport’s January Third Friday gallery walk also landed on the coldest winter spell so far this year, reality inevitably intruded. Gallery openings were hard to spot, with nearly no one on the streets passing from one to another. The only audible noises were a few spinning tires trying to get over snow banks to park and a few freezing patrons cursing the cold as they hurried to find a heated refuge. Read the rest of this entry »

At first glance, a casual visitor might not expect Bridgeport to be an emerging hub for Chicago’s art scene: streets are stark, shops are scattered, and the wind chimes that dangle from residential houses break the silence. But lo and behold, on the southeast corner of 32nd and Morgan is the Co-Prosperity Sphere, one of the motors behind Bridgeport’s art renaissance. Read the rest of this entry »

In 2006, the Salem Baptist Church in Pullman hosted a “Night of Terror”—one of those Halloween events some religious groups have to scare the crap out of kids. Only the things they use to scare them aren’t skeletons or ghosts, but abortions and homosexuals—because getting the former or being the latter presumably means you’re going straight to hell. You don’t even have to attend to take part in the horror.

This year, I hoped the event would once again take place—so that I could write about it in disgust, not because I actually support it—but alas, apparently negative publicity and public outrage have convinced the church to pull the plug (I don’t know for sure those are the reasons behind the move, but I’d like to think so). This left me without an article to write, but in retrospect, it’s much better this way. Read the rest of this entry »

Historically, Bridgeport has been known both as a working-class Irish neighborhood and a home to well-connected politicians, including both Mayors Daley. However, there is another side to Bridgeport: a diverse, artistic neighborhood that welcomes outsiders without losing its strong community feel. A study, conducted by the Chaddick Institute at DePaul University, ranked Bridgeport the fourth most diverse neighborhood in the city. In addition to the Polish and Lithuanian communities that have quietly coexisted with the South Side Irish for decades upon decades, Bridgeport is now home to Chinese, African-Americans, and hipsters. Mayor Daley has moved out, and the neighborhood has moved on. Read the rest of this entry »