BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//South Side Community Art Center - ECPv6.16.2//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://sscartcenter.org X-WR-CALDESC:Events for South Side Community Art Center REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Chicago BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:CDT DTSTART:20200308T080000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:CST DTSTART:20201101T070000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:CDT DTSTART:20210314T080000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:CST DTSTART:20211107T070000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:CDT DTSTART:20220313T080000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:CST DTSTART:20221106T070000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:CDT DTSTART:20230312T080000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:CST DTSTART:20231105T070000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:CDT DTSTART:20240310T080000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:CST DTSTART:20241103T070000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:CDT DTSTART:20250309T080000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:CST DTSTART:20251102T070000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:CDT DTSTART:20260308T080000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:CST DTSTART:20261101T070000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:UTC BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:UTC DTSTART:20180101T000000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Chicago BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:CDT DTSTART:20190310T080000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:CST DTSTART:20191103T070000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:CDT DTSTART:20200308T080000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:CST DTSTART:20201101T070000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:CDT DTSTART:20210314T080000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:CST DTSTART:20211107T070000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20250328T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20250426T000000 DTSTAMP:20260526T004520 CREATED:20250220T021206Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250702T194435Z UID:10795-1743177600-1745625600@sscartcenter.org SUMMARY:Beyond Frames: Black Women Collectors Shaping Cultural Heritage in Chicago DESCRIPTION:Curated by Bethany Hill and rachel dukes \nThis exhibition highlights a trailblazing group of Black women collectors in Chicago\, exploring their practices through care\, memory work\, and cultural heritage preservation. “Beyond Frames” celebrates an intergenerational group of women who continue this legacy today. Viewers can experience artworks from the personal collections of fourteen different Chicago collectors: Patrica Andrews-Keenan\, Carol Briggs\, Monique Brinkman-Hill\, Faye Edwards\, Felicia Grant Preston\, Frances Guichard\, Eleanor Hambric\, Beverly Normand\, Cynthia Smith\, Arcilla Stahl\, Christina Steed\, Gail Spann\, Sonia Spencer\, Alita Tucker\, and Shyvette Williams. Each collector was asked: \n\nWhat piece in your collection brings you the most joy?\nWhat piece represents an aspect of who you are?\nWhat piece best represents your journey as a collector?\n\nThrough these reflections and oral interviews\, “Beyond Frames” delves into the personal and cultural significance of their collections. These stories reveal how collecting Black art is not only a creative and curatorial act but also an act of cultural preservation\, resistance\, and community building. \nPictured from top left to bottom right: Sonia Spencer\, Patricia Andrews-Keenan\, Monique Brinkman-Hill\, Faye Edwards\, Felicia Grant Preston\, Frances Guichard\, Gail Spann\, Cynthia Smith\, Shyvette Williams (photography by Marvin Wells)\, Beverly Normand\, Alita Tucker\, Carol Briggs\, Christina Steed\nThe exhibition also honors ancestors Etta Moten Barnett\, Margaret Burroughs\, Frances Minor\, Linda Murray\, and Susan Woodson\, pioneering female collectors of Black art in Chicago. These women dedicated their lives to preserving the art of the African diaspora\, creating galleries and museums in their homes and building invaluable networks to support Black artists. \nPictured from top left to bottom right: Dr. Margaret Burroughs\, Etta Moten Barnett\, Linda Murray (Photo courtesy of Nubia Murray)\, Susan Cayton Woodson and Frances Minor at a celebration of Etta Moten Barnett\n“Beyond Frames” invites viewers to consider how art transcends traditional frames\, engaging with lived experience\, ancestral homage\, and memory. By celebrating these women\, “Beyond Frames” underscores the critical role of Black women collectors in sustaining African diasporic heritage. \nCourtesy of the South Side Community Art Center\nAbout the Co-Curators:\n\nBethany Hill (she/her) is an archivist\, curator\, and PhD candidate in Art History specializing in Black visual culture and Black feminist spatial practices. Her work explores the ways Black women cultural creators engage in radical spatial thinking and worldbuilding through art and archives. She’s passionate about preserving and celebrating Black cultural heritage by leading archival initiatives\, curating exhibitions\, and developing research projects that amplify Black creative legacies. She has led numerous curatorial and research projects at the South Side Community Art Center in Chicago\, highlighting its rich history and contemporary significance. Currently\, Bethany serves as the Community Engagement Coordinator at Duke University’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library\, where she fosters collaborations that center Black voices in archival stewardship and interpretation.\n\nrachel dukes is a writer and curator based in Chicago. rachel has supported numerous curatorial projects across Chicago\, including at the South Side Community Art Center\, the Hyde Park Art Center\, and UIC’s Gallery 400. Her writing has appeared in the Chicago Reader\, Sixty Inches From Center\, LVL3\, and Black Embodiment Studio’s a Year in Black Art. A passionate advocate for community-based arts programming\, rachel also serves on the board of Chicago Tap Theatre. In her creative practice\, rachel explores the terrain for wonder that is uncovered through art and she is committed to sharing and nurturing this exploration within her community. \nAbout SSCAC: \nFounded in 1940\, the South Side Community Art Center (SSCAC) stands as a testament to the resilience and creativity of the Black American art community. As the oldest Black American art center in the United States and a Chicago Historic Landmark\, SSCAC is a beacon of cultural heritage and innovation. We take pride in our rich past and continue to build on our legacy\, serving as an artist- and community-centered resource with diverse programs and exhibitions. The mission of the South Side Community Art Center is to conserve\, preserve\, and promote the legacy and future of Black American art and artists while educating the community on the value of art and culture. URL:https://sscartcenter.org/event/beyond-frames-black-women-collectors-shaping-cultural-heritage-in-chicago/ LOCATION:South Side Community Art Center\, 3831 S Michigan Ave\, Chicago\, IL\, 60653\, United States CATEGORIES:Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/webp:https://sscartcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/I-Look-For-You_Delita-Martin.webp END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240914 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20241222 DTSTAMP:20260526T004520 CREATED:20241026T145800Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250129T232904Z UID:10681-1726272000-1734825599@sscartcenter.org SUMMARY:ReSOURCE DESCRIPTION:Join us for the opening of ReSOURCE: Art and Resourcefulness in Black Chicago \n \n Visit the Virtual Experience URL:https://sscartcenter.org/event/resource/ LOCATION:South Side Community Art Center\, 3831 S Michigan Ave\, Chicago\, IL\, 60653\, United States CATEGORIES:Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sscartcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/resource-exhibition-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240608 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240901 DTSTAMP:20260526T004520 CREATED:20250118T161543Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250123T003208Z UID:10759-1717804800-1725148799@sscartcenter.org SUMMARY:Adler and Adler DESCRIPTION:Exhibiting Artist Eli Greene | Curated by Amber Nax\nThe South Side Community Art Center in partnership with ICI\, presents “Adler & Adler”\, a poignant artistic response by Chicago-based artist Eli Greene to a selection of archival images from the Adler & Adler Studio: a Black-owned photography studio in what was once the Black Bottom neighborhood of Detroit. Founded circa 1910 by Charles and Mamie L. Adler\, the studio was one of the earliest Black photographic businesses in Detroit. Adler & Adler Studio was a place where people celebrated and immortalized the joys of everyday life: graduations\, weddings\, and the arrival of new family members. This site\, and Black photography studios across the country just like it\, were beacons of empowerment\, offering Black communities new agency in self-representation. For the first time\, it gave them power over how they were represented in the present\, and how they would be remembered by future generations. When the Adlers passed away in 1973\, they left no heirs\, and the studio\, along with its collection of photographs\, was left behind. Some of these photographs were later discovered and sold to The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History\, where they now reside as a testament to the studio’s enduring impact. \n\nImages Courtesy of The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History | Curated by Amber Nax\nAfter being approached by ICI with the idea of responding to the Adler & Adler images\, the artist\, while visiting family in Detroit\, photographed the old studio site\, now a park\, at 4215 Russell Street. Alongside the Adler & Adler images are (10) contemporary photographs of the site\, a drawing inspired by the studio backdrops present in the original images\, and a sound/video work. Invested in themes of memory\, trace\, and ghosts\, Eli Greene’s response to these images explores what it means to find something that you did not realize was lost. \nAbout the artist\n \nEli Greene holds a BA from Cornell University and an MFA from The University of Chicago. Through drawing\, film\, and performance\, her practice traces the act of one thing becoming another. Greene’s recent work has been exhibited in Chicago at The Smart Museum of Art\, Hyde Park Art Center\, Gallery 400\, Regards\, Goldfinch and Produce Model. She lives and works in Chicago. \nAbout the curator\n\nAmber Nax (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist and independent curator native to Detroit\, MI. She graduated from Wayne State University\, earning an Art History B.F.A with a personal concentration in Black American and African history\, contemporary art\, culture\, and folklore. With a background in arts administration\, programming\, urban farming\, and museum studies.\nAmber deals in the archives of art. She is inspired by how an archive will reveal the past\, validate the present\, and inform the future. \nAbout the partnerships\nDr. Burroughs/Gayden Curatorial Fellowship for African American Curators:\nThe Dr. Burroughs/Gayden Curatorial Fellowship for African American Curators\, a unique initiative between the South Side Community Art Center and Independent Curators International\, is a beacon of opportunity for emerging curators. This fellowship\, honoring the late Dr. Margaret T. Burroughs\, provides a valuable career development opportunity and reflects SSCAC’s commitment to nurturing emerging Black talent through artistic initiatives. It supports curators’ research\, the actualization of an exhibition\, and the development of their professional networks\, offering a curatorial stipend of $1\,000 and an exhibition budget of $5\,000. \nSSCAC:\nFounded in 1940\, the South Side Community Art Center (SSCAC) stands as a testament to the resilience and creativity of the Black American art community. As the oldest Black American art center in the United States and a Chicago Historic Landmark\, SSCAC is a beacon of cultural heritage and innovation. We take pride in our rich past and continue to build on our legacy\, serving as an artist- and community-centered resource with diverse programs and exhibitions. The mission of the South Side Community Art Center is to conserve\, preserve\, and promote the legacy and future of Black American art and artists while educating the community on the value of art and culture. \nAbout ICI:\nIndependent Curators International (ICI) is a 501(c)(3)\, non-profit arts organization that focuses on the role of the curator in contemporary art. We support curators to help create stronger art communities through experimentation\, collaboration\, and international engagement. \nCurators are arts community leaders and organizers who champion artistic practice; build essential infrastructures and institutions; and generate public engagement with art. We work with art spaces in the US and around the world to present exhibitions and public programs for broad audiences; and professional development initiatives for curators. \nOur collaborative programs connect curators\, artists\, and audiences from across social\, political\, and cultural borders. They form an international framework for sharing knowledge and resources — promoting cultural exchange\, access to art\, and public awareness for the curator’s role. \nThe Wright:\nThe Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History opens minds and changes lives through the exploration and celebration of African American history and culture. Our vision is of a world in which the adversity and achievement of African American history inspire everyone toward greater understanding\, acceptance\, and unity. URL:https://sscartcenter.org/event/adler-and-adler/ LOCATION:South Side Community Art Center\, 3831 S Michigan Ave\, Chicago\, IL\, 60653\, United States CATEGORIES:Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/webp:https://sscartcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/adler_adler.webp END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20231007T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20231007T153000 DTSTAMP:20260526T004520 CREATED:20230927T232147Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231003T191905Z UID:9925-1696680000-1696692600@sscartcenter.org SUMMARY:Through a Lens of Beauty & Wonderment: Notes on Collaborative Friendship | Opening Reception DESCRIPTION:Join us for an opening reception to celebrate and kick off our fall/winter exhibition with curator and artist Nnaemeka C. Ekwelum! \n  \n\n \n  \n  \n  \n…Notes on Collaborative Friendship (First floor Burroughs Gallery) is the culmination of Nnaemeka C. Ekwelum’s doctoral research on friendship\, artistic collaboration\, and decolonial Black political thought. Through a series of intentional and creative partnerships between him and eight other US-based artists/scholars\, this project experiments with the rigor of collaborative friendship as a creative methodology in contemporary art making and knowledge production. It also affectively explores alternative ways to represent Black Studies scholarship within and beyond academic spaces of learning.  \n  \nCollaborative artist interventions in the exhibition include:  Lishan AZ\, Shenequa “SHENEQUA” Brooks\, Stephen Hamilton\, Noor Jones-Bey\, Mercy Emelike\, Carmen Neely\, and Cordelia Rizzo. \n  \n*Co-sponsored by Northwestern University’s Department of Black Studies. \n  \n  \n \n  \nNnaemeka (Emeka) C. Ekwelum is a transnational and multidisciplinary researcher\, educator\, and artist/curator from Boston\, MA. He currently lives in Chicago\, IL\, where he is a Ph.D. candidate in Black Studies (African American Studies) at Northwestern University. Emeka’s scholarly and creative interests converge at the intersection of history\, critical theory\, creative expression\, curatorial practice\, and political education. His dissertation project–“On Artistic Collaboration & Decolonial Black Political Thought”–examines the critical role(s) of beauty\, wonderment\, and friendship in contemporary and craft art collaborations between and amongst Black creatives. Prior to returning to graduate school\, Emeka held a professional career as an educator in his home state of Massachusetts\, formally and informally working with youth and adult learners across a range of cultural contexts in the Boston/Greater Boston Area. His teaching philosophy\, interpersonal values\, and political commitments are a reflection of his academic training in Comparative Ethnic Studies (Columbia University\, B.A.) and Arts in Education (Harvard University\, Ed.M.)\, drawing on theories of Black feminist and political thought to interrogate ideas of power\, privilege\, and personhood through art and artmaking.\n  \n  URL:https://sscartcenter.org/event/through-a-lens-of-beauty-wonderment-notes-on-collaborative-friendship-all-of-living-is-risk-opening-receptions/ CATEGORIES:Events,Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sscartcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/SSCAC-Exhibition-Gallery-Card_Nnaemeka-Ekwelum-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20230710T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20230710T153000 DTSTAMP:20260526T004520 CREATED:20231003T185613Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240925T170742Z UID:9949-1688990400-1689003000@sscartcenter.org SUMMARY:All of Living is Risk | Opening Reception DESCRIPTION:  \nJoin us for an opening reception to celebrate and kick off our fall/winter exhibitions alongside curators Rikki Byrd\, and Gervais Marsh\, with artist Cory Perry! \n  \n  \n \n  \n  \nAll of Living is Risk (2nd floor Cortor Gallery) brings together works by Cory Perry (b. 1989\, Fayetteville\, Arkansas) and Nnaemeka C. Ekwelum (b. 1990\, Boston). Drawing on Afrodiasporic textile practices of quilting and weaving\, respectively\, Perry and Ekwelum explore the juxtaposition of Black queer grief\, joy\, and belonging. Combining second-hand textiles and deconstructed clothing objects given to them by Black queer people whose voices have been underrepresented across the South – and specifically in their hometown of Fayetteville\, Arkansas – Perry pays homage to the region’s traditions of quilting. Strung along and suspended from string\, Perry’s installation recalls a clothesline. They critically engage quotidian and gendered gestures of homemaking to reflect on the ways that queer people in the South build relationships and foster collectivity\, despite the ruptures and ephemerality of these spaces caused by harmful societal reactions attempting to stifle their existence.\n\n  \n \nImage courtesy of artist Cory Perry. 2023. \n\nEkwelum creates grief cloths using a West African upright loom inspired by Nigerian “abata” cloths\, which are used to honor the dead during funerals. The artist extends the intent of these cloths as an archive of feeling to consider his life as a Black queer American-born\, Nigerian person. Combining weaving\, sculpture\, and installation\, found and purchased art materials\, Ekwelum’s practice puts pressure on and blurs the antiquated delineation between craft and fine art. Central to his artistic materials is a plastic lacing known as “gimp.” Often considered a tool for creative experimentation for children\, the artist uses it to represent his “inner child work.” In this exhibition and others\, Ekwelum “moves according to feeling\,” sculpting each cloth in response to gallery architecture\, exhibition themes\, and history of location. Perry and Ekwelum engage textiles and found objects as conduits for histories imbued with personal memories\, delving into the interiority of Black queer life. They meditate on what cannot be immediately “seen” or “known”\, and imagine possibilities for healing while creating spaces for living through joy and collective care.\n  \n \nImage courtesy of Nnaemeka C. Ekwelum. 2023. \n\n\nVisitors are invited to gently move their bodies through Perry’s installation and closely observe Ekwelum’s cloths\, inspiring the beauty of wonderment. Please honor their practices while being respectful and careful with their work. This exhibition is titled after scholar Kevin Quashie’s reflection in his essay “Queer. Caribbean. Miami. Boy: A Personal Geography”: “The truth is\, all of living is risk\, sometimes more so because of one’s age\, gender\, race\, but all of living is deep risk.”\n  \nIt is organized by independent curators Gervais Marsh and Rikki Byrd with support by the South Side Community Art Center\, Art Noir Jar of Love Fund\, and the Black Arts Consortium at Northwestern University.\n  \n \n  \nCory D. Perry (b. 1989\, Arkansas) is a multimedia quilting and performance folk artist based in Chicago\, IL. My art practice and research investigate the possibilities of what queering Black spiritual space can and could be through textiles\, images\, beads\, and various materials. They received their Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Arkansas School of Art and attended the Post-baccalaureate program in Sculpture and Museum Research at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi\, Ghana. Perry received their Master’s degree of Fine Arts and graduate certificate of Black Studies from Northwestern University. Perry is a recipient of the 2019 Windgate-Lamar Fellowship and the 2022 Sexualities Project at Northwestern University Award. In 2019 they were an honorary international artist for Chale Wote Performance Art Festival in Accra\, Ghana. Most recently\, they were a participant artist for the 2023 Smithsonian Folklife Festival\, where they created and performed “Queer Black Sunshine” a meditative protest on the National Mall in Washington\, DC.\n“My art practice and research investigates ways to expand the possibilities of what Black queer space can and could be through textiles\, images\, beads\, and various materials. For me\, “to be Black and queer” is the potentiality of another world through self-identifying and self-actualizing gestures. I’m interested in what the materials can tell us through their palimpsest beauty. By layering various translucent textiles and allowing collaged fabrics to shift in composition from different perspectives\, windows are created for the seen and unseen. Black queer space is always in a state of flux\, and I want to explore that in my work.”\n  \n  \n \nRikki Byrd is a writer\, educator and curator who works across the academy\, arts and fashion industries. She has participated in curatorial projects with the Block Museum of Art\, SkyART\, and most recently curated the fashion presentations in the traveling exhibition The Culture: Hip Hop & Contemporary Art in the 21st Century\, co-organized by the Baltimore Museum of Art and Saint Louis Art Museum. Her research focuses on Black aesthetic practices including fashion\, performance\, and contemporary art\, and she has lectured at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis\, where she created new courses on fashion and race. Her writing appears across exhibition catalogs\, academic journals\, books\, and arts and fashion media such as Hyperallergic\, Cultured and Teen Vogue.\nShe is the co-founder and editor of the Fashion and Race Syllabus\, founder of Black Fashion Archive\, and an editorial advisory board member for Bloomsbury Fashion Publishing. Rikki is currently completing her PhD in the Department of Black Studies at Northwestern University. Her work has been supported by fellowships from the Modern Ancient Brown Foundation\, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation\, and the Presidential Fellowship at Northwestern University.\n  \n \n  \nGervais Marsh is a writer\, curator and scholar whose work is deeply invested in Black life\, concepts of relationality and care. They received a PhD in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and are currently a Helena Rubinstein Curatorial Fellow with the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. Their writing\, artistic and curatorial work is rooted in Transnational Black feminisms\, with recent curatorial projects including To be pained is to have lived through feeling with Canada NYC and Rupture: Interventions of Possibility with Art at a Time Like This. Their writing has been published in several books and exhibition catalogs including Denzil Hurley (monograph)\, Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art\, Forgotten Lands Vol. 5\, KMAC Museum Triennial (2022)\, as well as online art publications such as Hyperallergic\, C Magazine\, Brooklyn Rail\, ARTS.BLACK\, Musée Magazine\, and PREE: Caribbean Writing\, among others. They have received fellowships and curatorial support from the Jamaica Art Society\, Terra Foundation for American Art\, VisArts Center\, The Gay and Lesbian Review\, Northwestern University\, and Independent Curators International.\nThey have taught undergraduate/graduate courses focused on Black Feminist theory\, praxis and performance\, and Black queer studies. They are an editor with Ruckus Journal and research interests include Black Studies\, Art history\, Caribbean Studies and Gender and Sexuality Studies. They grew up in Kingston\, Jamaica\, a home that continues to shape their understanding of self and relationship to the world.\n\n  URL:https://sscartcenter.org/event/9949/ CATEGORIES:Events,Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://sscartcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Screen-Shot-2023-10-03-at-1.55.12-PM.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20230707T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20230707T200000 DTSTAMP:20260526T004520 CREATED:20230706T202751Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230706T202915Z UID:9849-1688749200-1688760000@sscartcenter.org SUMMARY:Black Light Cinema Project and Homecoming: Black Craft & Design in Chicago DESCRIPTION:Join us for an opening reception to celebrate and kick off our summer exhibitions!\n  \n \n  \nIn a world rich with diverse cultures and histories\, the concept of belonging and homeplace holds profound significance. Within the tapestry of human experiences\, one thread stands out with resilience\, creativity\, and an indomitable spirit – the Black cinematic experience. SSCAC is debuting the ‘Black Light Cinema Project’ to explore the intricate interconnectedness of Black life through new media and film. This inaugural iteration explores themes of belonging\, homeplace\, and identity\, while celebrating the vibrancy of our urban landscapes\, partnered alongside our 2nd floor Cortor gallery exhibition ‘Homecoming: Black Craft & Design in Chicago’.\nAt its core\, ‘Black Light Cinema Project’ seeks to dismantle conventional notions of homeplace and embrace a more nuanced understanding through the exhibiting of the underrepresented medium of film in art space. We invite visitors to venture beyond the physical spaces we call home\, encouraging them to delve into the emotional\, spiritual\, and ancestral landscapes that define our sense of belonging. Through ongoing screenings of film shorts\, we offer a multifaceted exploration of the Black experience\, revealing the complex interplay of history\, memory\, and identity.\n  \nFeatured Artists: Jada Amina \, zakkiyyah najeebah dumas-o’neal\, Cameron Granger \, Paige Taul\, and cai thomas\n  \nThis exhibition is curated by SSCAC Exhibitions Manager and Curator Lola Ayisha Ogbara.\n  \n \nCameron Granger. Heavy as Heaven. 2022\, 11 mins\, 3-channel\, Sound\, Digital file. \n\n  \n‘Homecoming: Black Craft & Design’ in Chicago utilizes the varying practices of several Black craft artists in Chicago working in the mid to late 20th century and pairs their work with historical archival materials from the socio-political movements in the city during the Black Arts Movement\, of the 60’s and 70’s.\nChicago is internationally known as a diverse cultural landscape that is rooted in segregation and discrimination\, but this exhibition aims to explore how studio craft artists are using their practices and connections to spaces like the South Side Community Art Center to explore these themes. This exhibition seeks to present the complex multivalent histories of Black artists with varying connections to the South Side Community Art Center during its early years in the mid-twentieth century. These artists all in some way play with the performative presentations of body and self through creating ambiguous figures or forms. These artists have explored complex themes of Black cultural representation\, concepts around object functionality and performativity\, issues in presentation of self through objects\, and methods of socio-cultural identity making through creative expression.\nThe exhibition will present the biographical backgrounds of the artists included while exploring how they technically executed their works (both professionally and personally)\, as well as reflecting on the conceptual subjects that fueled their practices.\n  \nFeatured Artists: Elizabeth Catlett\, Irene Clark\, Bobbe Cotton\, Jeremiah Drake\, Espi Eph\, Clinton Foreman\, Eselean Henderson\, William McBride\, Geraldine McCullough\, El Roi Parker\, Marva Jolly Pitchford\, Allen Stringfellow\, Teresa Staats\, and Bill Walker.\n  \nThis exhibition is curated by SSCAC Archives and Collections Manager LaMar Gayles Jr.\n  \n  \n \nWilliam McBride. Balancers. Oil on canvas. 1945 URL:https://sscartcenter.org/event/black-light-cinema-project-and-homecoming-black-craft-design-in-chicago/ CATEGORIES:Events,Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://sscartcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screen-Shot-2023-06-28-at-12.58.17-PM.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20230407T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20230407T200000 DTSTAMP:20260526T004520 CREATED:20230329T204612Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230329T204816Z UID:9635-1680886800-1680897600@sscartcenter.org SUMMARY:"where the light corrupts your face..." | Opening Reception DESCRIPTION:Artists Andres L. Hernandez\, Tonika Lewis Johnson and Roland Knowlden consider the many definitions of space\, site\, and home.\n  \n \n  \nSpatial griots Andres L. Hernandez\, Tonika Lewis Johnson and Roland Knowlden invite you to consider how socio-economic and geographic oppressions impact the way we see (or don’t see) our environments. Hernandez uncovers embedded histories and systems of power within built and speculative landscapes to imagine these spaces otherwise. Social justice artist Lewis Johnson advocates for urban communities by documenting the disparities among Chicago residents who live on opposite ends of the same streets across the city’s racial and economic divides. Knowlden critically deconstructs the elements of our urban fabric and its architectural histories to reassemble them as cartographic abstractions and imagined landscapes.\n\nGwendolyn Brooks\, a brilliant author\, poet\, and life-long resident of the historic neighborhood of Bronzeville\, becomes the Mecca of these stories as this exhibition interrogates dilapidation\, buried histories\, and what it could mean to be Black in space. Architecture is an ever-present form of storytelling. The architectural historiographies of Black space have often been written by poets who have elegantly told our stories of spatiality. Brooks gave us a voice we didn’t know we needed while underlining the importance of Black interiority. Like Brooks\, June Jordan has used poetry to advocate for Black lives. Jordan was an architect\, through a feminist practice that centers how we think about cartographies. Jordan invited us to challenge and redefine prevailing socio-spatial constructs towards dignified spaces for all communities. This is one of many reasons why she is an additional pinnacle of reference for an exhibition which poetically grapples with the many definitions of space\, site\, and home.\n  \n \nAndres L. Hernandez is a Chicago-based interdisciplinary practitioner. Initially trained as an architect\, he has previously worked within architectural offices\, community organizations\, public schools\, museums\, and other institutional contexts.\n  \nHernandez’ projects include commissions for the University of Arizona School of Art; 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale; and Pulitzer Arts Foundation and Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. With Dark Adaptive\, he co-developed performances for The Drawing Center; MoMA; Sharjah Biennial; and Performa. Hernandez held artist residencies with MCA Chicago; University of Arizona; Chicago DCASE; and University of Chicago. He participated on design teams for the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial\, and the Museum of the Obama Presidential Center. His awards include the Efroymson Family Fund Contemporary Arts Fellowship\, and the 3Arts Award in Visual Arts.\nHernandez is currently an Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.\n  \n“My work draws forward the latent potential of words\, spaces\, sounds\, and movement to elicit liberatory ways of being. I explore the embedded attitudes\, histories\, policies\, and systems of power within and beyond our world(s) as a method of imagining and existing otherwise. I site my practice at the intersection of the social and the spatial. I consider the symbiotic\, yet\, fraught relationships between built and natural environments and their inhabitants\, and speculate alternative pasts\, presents\, and futures for all. My work takes many forms\, including collaborative and socially-engaged works\, as well as independent\, studio-based practices. Drawing\, installation\, and writing are my preferred media\, alongside sound and performance”.\n  \nhttps://andreslhernandez.com/\n  \n  \n \n\n\nTonika Johnson is a photographer\, social justice artist and life-long resident of Chicago’s Southside Englewood neighborhood. Her art explores urban segregation and celebrates the nuanced richness of the Black community\, countering media depictions of Chicago’s violence. Tonika’s work reveals injustices and inequalities\, past and present\, evidenced in the built environment and enshrined in real estate and land use practices\, including historic preservation. Her Folded Map Project™ brings residents who live at similar addresses but miles apart on Chicago’s racially segregated South and North sides together in conversation about the city’s racial and economic divides. The Folded Map Project™ questions how everyone is socially impacted by racial and institutional conditions segregating the city and challenges viewers to contribute to a solution.\n  \nTonika was selected as the National Public Housing Museum’s 2021 Artist as Instigator to expand her investigation through “Inequity for Sale\,” a project highlighting the living history and legacy of greater Englewood homes sold through Land Sale Contracts in the 1950s and 1960s\, which led to the unscrupulous loss of people’s homes and equity preventing the generational transfer and building of Black wealth. Tonika’s artistic contributions have gained citywide recognition in the last seven years\, including being named a 2017 Chicagoan of the Year by Chicago Magazine\, being exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art\, the Rootwork Gallery in Pilsen\, the Chicago Cultural Center\, the Harold Washington Library Center and at Loyola University’s Museum of Art. She is a 2019 Field Foundation “Leader for a New Chicago” and a Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events Cultural Advisory Council member. In 2022\, Landmark Illinois’ named her one of their Influencers for her “Inequity For Sale.”\n  \nTonika is the co-founder of the Englewood Arts Collective and Resident Association of Greater Englewood\, and she now serves as the Creative Executive Officer of the Folded Map Project™ nonprofit organization.\n  \nhttps://www.tonijphotography.com/\n  \n\n \nRoland Knowlden is a Liberian American interdisciplinary artist and architectural designer from New Jersey\, currently based in Chicago\, IL. Knowlden’s architectural background has cultivated his ongoing interest in constructed landscapes\, city planning\, and the cultural and social implications of racialized spatial mapping. Working across painting and drawing\, Knowlden’s approach to abstract and experimental mapping articulates a visual language which makes visible the tensions wrought by erasure\, displacement\, and palimpsest.\n  \nInterrogating notions of origin\, belonging\, boundaries\, and power\, Knowlden’s critical cartography aims to not only reproduce existing environmental experiences and affects\, but to propose new spatial realities. With each new configuration and composition\, Knowlden furthers his practice of imagining otherwise.\n  \nhttps://rolandknowlden.com/ URL:https://sscartcenter.org/event/where-the-light-corrupts-your-face-opening-reception/ CATEGORIES:Events,Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sscartcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/IMG_6527-1-scaled-e1680122640199.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20230120T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20230120T200000 DTSTAMP:20260526T004520 CREATED:20230107T225331Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230120T200105Z UID:9511-1674234000-1674244800@sscartcenter.org SUMMARY:The Promised Land: Opening Reception DESCRIPTION:Eleven artists with ties to North and South of the Mason-Dixon Line respond to just how much Black life has always been in transit. \n  \n \n  \nThe Great Migration was one of the largest movements of people in United States history. It has transformed cities like Chicago\, Detroit\, New York and Pittsburgh between 1916 and 1970. Chicago received more than 500\,000 Black Southern Americans during this time.\n  \nTo Southern Blacks\, Chicago was considered the “Promised Land”. Stories of big city life — jobs with good wages\, homes with running water\, and basic freedoms denied to Blacks in the South — made the Northern city a prime destination for Blacks coming from below the Mason-Dixon line. As the most documented migration in US history\, photographers like Gordon Parks\, Florestine Perrault Collins\, Moneta Sleet Jr.\, Roy DeCarava\, and Coreen Simpson created imagery that demonstrated Black life in movement.\n\nToday\, contemporary artists and image makers respond to the many migrations of African Diaspora peoples and the influences of these movements in their work.\n  \n \nDerrick Woods-Morrow. Non-traditional Acts of Divination: Impression. Photograph. 18 in. x 24 in. 2019.\n  \nFeatured Artists:\n  \nLawrence Agyei\nAnwulika Anigbo\nRose Blouin\nBillie Carter-Rankin\nJen Everett\nMandela Hudson\nShabez Jamal\nSulyiman Stokes\nDarryl Terrell\nLoren Toney\nDerrick Woods-Morrow\n  \n \nDarryl DeAngelo Terrell. 279º W 42º21’39” N 83º2’20″W Detroit\, MI. Archival inkjet print. 24 in. x 36 in. 2021\n  \n  \nJoin us for an opening reception as we celebrate a diverse breath of photo and image works from some of the most promising artists exploring the possibilities and realities of Black life in image-making and photography.\n\nImage courtesy (above). Sulyiman Stokes. Untitled (Momma #2). Photograph. 11 in. x 14 in. 2021 URL:https://sscartcenter.org/event/the-promised-land-opening-reception/ CATEGORIES:Events,Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://sscartcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-06-at-3.11.29-PM.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221008 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221218 DTSTAMP:20260526T004520 CREATED:20220930T175349Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230210T220923Z UID:9404-1665187200-1671321599@sscartcenter.org SUMMARY:9 Artists/ 9 Months/ 9 Perspectives DESCRIPTION:9 Artists/ 9 Months/ 9 Perspectives features work by the collective\, Dandelion Black Women Artists.\n  \nOPENING RECEPTION RSVP HERE\n  \nNine Black women artists engaged in collaborative efforts to create artworks that transcend and transform events in the year 2020. In their eyes\, art-making became a transgressive act through activism\, documentation and vision. Utilizing book-making\, craft-making and works on paper\, 9 Artists/9 Months/ 9 Perspectives presents a birth of vision under hardship felt worldwide\, collectively allowing us to reckon with our own perspectives\, reflections and welfare.\n  \nThis exhibition presents the conception\, gestation\, and birth of a collaborative artists’ books created by nine Black women artists of the collective\, Dandelion Black Women Artists. Their responses\, perspectives\, and reflections were inspired by the continuous struggle for health\, social\, and economic welfare of marginalized people during COVID-19\, the lack of response from the federal government\, and the political allyship of socio-political grassroots movements like Black Lives Matter. Craft-making became a transgressive act through artivism\, perspective\, and vision.\n\n  \n \n  \nTheir work embraces Black feminism as theorized by artist/art historians such as Freida High Wasikhongo Tsesfagiorgis\, in which art created by Black women artists depict the Black woman as: 1) subject rather than an object; 2) the exclusive or primary subject; 3) active rather than passive; 4) sensitive to the self-recorded realities of Black women; 5) imbued with the aesthetics of the African continuum—sustaining a personal vision that embraces Afrocentric tastes in color\, texture\, and rhythm. \n\n\nExhibiting artists include: \nAdjoa J. Burrowes\, Julee Dickerson-Thompson\, Aziza Claudia Gibson-Hunter\, Michele Godwin\, Francine Haskins\, Pamela Harris Lawton\, Gloria Patton\, Gail Shaw-Clemons\, and Kamala Subramanian.\n\n\n9 Artists/ 9 Months/ 9 Perspectives will be on view from October 8 – December 17\, 2022. URL:https://sscartcenter.org/event/9-artists-9-months-9-perspectives/ CATEGORIES:Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sscartcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/9ARTISTS-DIGITAL_FLYER-scaled-e1664560404629.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20220819 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221023 DTSTAMP:20260526T004520 CREATED:20220812T205853Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220817T184014Z UID:9282-1660867200-1666483199@sscartcenter.org SUMMARY:Emerging Artist Series featuring Tianna Bracey DESCRIPTION:SSCAC IS PROUD TO FEATURE ARTIST TIANNA BRACEY FOR A SOLO PRESENTATION OF RECENT WORKS.\n  \n\nTianna Bracey is an emerging artist employing portraiture as a vessel for connection. Her most recent series of work reimagine space as connection to ancestry. Her portraits are transformed into whimsical dreamscapes to amplify the presence of generational storytelling through repurposing and reinventing elements from daily surroundings. Each work aims to consider the ways in which familial ties\, nostalgia\, and memory can be woven into the fabric of daily life as an invitation to find purpose\, strength and solace through heritage.\n  \nTianna received a Bachelors of Art in Art History from the University of Missouri (Columbia\, MO). Her work has been exhibited at The Chicago Athletic Association (Chicago\, IL)\, Happy Gallery (Chicago\, IL)\, The Martin (Chicago\, IL) and Zhou B Art Center (Chicago\, IL). In 2021\, she was awarded the Curious Creators Grant from curious elixirs (Brooklyn\, NY) and the New Futures award from Saatchi Art’s The Other Art Fair (London\, UK). The following year\, she was a recipient of the SPARK grant from the Chicago Artists Coalition (Chicago\, IL).\n  \nWe’re thrilled to feature Tianna as our first exhibiting artist to be showcased in our micro-gallery\, and hope you’ll join us!\n  \nDJ ShamPain Wishes will also join us for the opening reception.\n  \n \n  \nShamPain Wishes is an Artist/DJ/Designer native to St. Louis but based in Chicago.\n\nInspired by the Spike Lee Joint “25th Hour” where a toast is given stating “Champagne for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends!\,” their eclectic sound touches on Dance music from across the African and Club Diasporas.In any given set you’ll touch House\, Funk\, Soul\, Disco\, R&B/Soul\, Garage\, Ballroom and so much more!\n  \nOPENING RECEPTION: \nFriday\, August 19\n6-8pm\nRSVP HERE URL:https://sscartcenter.org/event/emerging-artist-series-featuring-tianna-bracey/ CATEGORIES:Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sscartcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/girlfriends_adiptych2-e1660337798267.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20220715 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20220925 DTSTAMP:20260526T004520 CREATED:20220705T170037Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220817T182926Z UID:9232-1657843200-1664063999@sscartcenter.org SUMMARY:...of the land: acts of refusal and ratification DESCRIPTION:A three-person exhibition featuring new and recent works from Chicago-based artists Ajmal ‘Mas Man’ Millar\, Lola Ayisha Ogbara\, and R. Treshawn Williamson exploring homeplace through sculpture\, self-imaging\, & materialism. \n  \n\n\n\nR. Treshawn Williamson. Charcoal rubbing\, screen printed debris\, White Oak\, Etched plaque. \nLeft half. 15 x 20. 2021.\n  \n…of the land: acts of refusal and ratification features new and recent works from Chicago-based artists Ajmal ‘Mas Man’ Millar\, Lola Ayisha Ogbara\, and R. Treshawn Williamson exploring sculpture\, self-imaging and history through postcolonial lenses\, collective & individual recollection and peculiar materialism. Their use of storytelling holds significance for spatiality and locality to become common ground through the fielding of land\, labor and industry.\nAjmal ‘Mas Man’ Millar expands the sculptural form welding metal\, Trinidadian carnival culture and identity politics alongside the African diaspora. Lola Ayisha Ogbara merges West African and African American interior design aesthetics with bodily sculptural ceramic forms\, with performative photography – that rest and refuse a Western gaze.\n  \nR. Treshawn Williamson creates historical context for his own familial roots in the mining of charcoal material for large scale screen-printed tapestries in a careful consideration of laborious processes as praxis. Millar\, Ogbara and Williamson engage in practices that consider topographic timelines and performance as an essential tool making for an interesting dialogue about homeplace.\n  \nAn opening reception will take place July 15th\, 5- 8pm.\nPlease RSVP here\n  \n  \n \nAjmal ‘MAS MAN’ Millar is a self-taught contemporary visual artist and mas man (carnival costume designer). His work includes mixed–media sculpture that combine collage\, painting\, repurposed materials\, scrap metal\, performance\, and photography interrogating notions of cultural heritage\, sexual and gender identity\, and ritual practices as a first-generation African American black queer man born to Trinidadian immigrants. Ajmal earned an undergraduate degree from Morehouse College in 2008 and earned an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2021.\n  \nI am working on a collection of works engaging the Yoruba cosmological concept of Chi and its existence in everything\, alive or inorganic. I create amalgamations of found objects and scraps of steel combined with encaustic. Inspired from my carnival technique of ‘wire bending’\, Afrofuturism\, and Afro Surrealism\, I have an opportunity to express my emotions and thoughts as experienced in the various environments I collect from and exist in. My welding is drawing in space to depict the transcendent properties in masquerade. My goal is to contextualize a queer blackness rarely experienced through imagination\, invention\, and the investigation of dreams\, magic\, and ritual.\n  \nHe currently lives and works in Chicago\, IL.\n  \n \nLOLA AYISHA OGBARA (cultural worker & artist) born and raised in Chicago\, Illinois holds many talents under her belt\, i.e. sculpture\, sound\, design\, photography and installation art. Ogbara holds a Bachelor of Arts in Arts Entertainment & Media Management from Columbia College Chicago in 2013 and a MFA in Visual Arts from Washington University Sam Fox School of Art & Design.\n\n“My practice explores the multifaceted implications and ramifications of being in regards to the Black experience. I work with clay as a material in order to emphasize a necessary fragility which symbolizes an essential contradiction implicit in empowerments.”\n  \nIn 2017\, Ogbara co-founded Artists in the Room\, a collective of artists and scholars who host artists\, emerging and established\, in hopes of serving as a catalyst for artist development and networking. Ogbara has also received numerous fellowships and awards\, including the Multicultural Fellowship sponsored by the NCECA 52nd Annual Conference\, the Arts + Public Life and Center for the Study of Race\, Politics & Culture Residency at the University of Chicago\, and the Coney Family Fund Award hosted by the Chicago Artists Coalition.\n\nOgbara has exhibited in art spaces across the country and is currently based in Chicago\, IL.\n  \n  \n \nR. Treshawn Williamson is a Chicago based essayist and multidisciplinary artist of Black American descent\, from Prince George’s County\, MD\, by way of Livingston\, Alabama\, and Augusta\, Georgia.\n  \nWilliamson’s work is a meditation on the obstruction and surveillance of the lived histories of African-Americans. He investigates the application of cultural re-imagination in the African Diaspora through the engagement of oral histories\, post-colonial theory\, folklore\, and ethnomusicology. In 2020 Williamson earned his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.\n  \nHe currently lives and works in Chicago\, IL.\n  URL:https://sscartcenter.org/event/of-the-land-acts-of-refusal-and-ratification/ CATEGORIES:Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sscartcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/APL_LolaOgbara_PerformancePhotos_Large_2202-1-scaled-e1657041442234.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20220415 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20220703 DTSTAMP:20260526T004520 CREATED:20220331T204255Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220817T183109Z UID:7004-1649980800-1656806399@sscartcenter.org SUMMARY:EMERGENCE: Intersections at The Center DESCRIPTION:OPENING RECEPTION:   \nAPRIL 15\, 6-8PM   \n  \nEMERGENCE: Intersections at the Center spotlights The South Side Community Art Center’s historical role in supporting a full spectrum of Black artists through an intersectional viewpoint. The first exhibition of its kind at the South Side Community Art Center\, EMERGENCE positions the Center as an important anchor for Black LGBTQ artists who belonged to its community from its founding in 1940 to the 1980s. The exhibition features work addressing identity and community\, queer spaces and performance\, in collage\, painting\, sculpture\, photography\, and more. \n  \n \n\nRalph Arnold (1928–2006). Love Sign II. Mixed media\, 1995. \nCollection of the South Side Community Art Center. \n\n  \nEMERGENCE emphasizes the middle decades of the twentieth century\, from the 1940s to the 1980s. For much of this time period\, sexual orientation was heavily policed\, both literally by the Chicago Police Department\, and in a variety of other ways through the imposition of norms by society and its institutions\, such as church\, family\, medical institutions\, and school. For this reason\, many of the artists in the exhibition\, especially in the early decades represented here\, were careful to exercise discretion in their life and work. Most did not publicly identify themselves as gay\, lesbian\, trans\, or bisexual. At the same time\, particularly in Bronzeville\, Chicago’s South Side Black community held spaces that were open to participants of differing sexual orientations and identities. Political movements on behalf of Gay Liberation were active throughout this period\, gaining strength in the 1970s and 80s.   \nEMERGENCE features work by Ralph Arnold\, Richmond Barthé\, Sylvester Britton\, William S. Carter\, Mikki Ferrill\, Jonathan Green\, Juarez Hawkins\, Berry Horton\, Patric McCoy\, Charles Sebree\, Allen Stringfellow\, and Ellis Wilson.\n\n\nCurated by LaMar Gayles Jr. & zakkiyyah najeebah dumas o’neal\n  \n \nJuarez Hawkins (1962–). Self-Portrait. Oil pastel and acrylic onmuseum board\, 1992. Collection of the artist. \n  \n\nEMERGENCE promo image courtesy: \nMikki Ferrill (1937–). Untitled (Portrait of Terry Readus). Gelatin silver print\, 1973. Collection of the South Side Community Art Center. Design by Aay Preston-Myint.  \n  \nEMERGENCE is supported by a major grant from the Re-envisioning Permanent Collections program of the Terra Foundation for American Art and by a partnership with Northwestern University’s Department of Art History.\n              URL:https://sscartcenter.org/event/emergence-intersections-at-the-center/ CATEGORIES:Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://sscartcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/EMERGENCE-assets_v2-IG.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20220121 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20220327 DTSTAMP:20260526T004520 CREATED:20220129T205845Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220329T194709Z UID:6839-1642723200-1648339199@sscartcenter.org SUMMARY:WE ARE HERE: Honoring Women in the Center's Collection DESCRIPTION:WE ARE HERE: Honoring Women in the Center’s Collection\, features artworks made by several women artists in the Center’s collection.\n  \nThis exhibition provides us an opportunity to think about the materiality of Black women’s art\, while also expanding biographical and visual information on Black women artists. The curatorial project permits the center an opportunity to reflect on impactful key women artists who have shaped and inspired persons in our institution and beyond. The exhibit will not feature the works of every woman artist in the collection\, instead it will focus on developing the biographical representations of several artists who are often obscured in favor of others\, while also highlighting artists very well documented in the canon of Black Art like Dr. Margaret Burroughs and Barbara Jones Hogu. \nCurated by SSCAC Archives and Collections Manager LaMar R. Gayles Jr \n\n  \nEXHIBITING ARTISTS\nMargaret Taylor Burroughs \nEspi Eph (Frazier) \nMadeline Haydon \nYasmin Sabu \n  \n  \nBIOGRAPHIES \n\nEspi Eph Espi (Eph) Frazier\, is an artist who is initially from the Chicago Area but relocated to the Baltimore area in 1993\, included here are a selection of her works from the Center’s collection ranging from wood graphics to a mixed media composition. In the 1980s Frazier created the wooden pieces featured here by partaking in a process of staining wood with ink drawn graphics and detailing those graphics by relief carving into the surfaces. A great deal of her work explores abstraction but some of it also explores representation of women figures especially Black women. \n  \nDr. Margaret Taylor Burroughs is an internationally known artist and educator who is heavily connected to the historical foundations of both the South Side Community Art Center and DuSable Museum of African American History. Burroughs is well known for her work in printmaking and poetry\, but was known to work in a plethora of media. Included here are several examples of her painting work coupled with a reproduction of possible prototype sketches she completed while in Mexico which might have served as inspiration for the two paintings. \n Yasmin Sabur is initially from Chicago and now works and lives out of California\, her work consists of a range of themes from the environment\, to visualizing how Black persons interact with their surroundings. In her exhibited piece titled Private Beach- Keep Out we see Sabur reference discrimination that occurred on Chicago beaches in the 20th century when Blacks weren’t allowed on many of the beaches in the city. Sabur renders the clearly Black figures in a popular expressionless monochromatic motif that is seen echoed throughout Black art in the 20th century which often is referencing issues or stigmas in private and or social life. \nMadeline Haydon Born in Chicago and later relocating to Hawaii\, exhibited in many spaces throughout her career\, including the South Side Community Art Center. Haydon defined herself as a realist working with a heightened awareness for color. This proclivity for color is exemplified in the oil painting still life included here in the exhibition which consists mainly of warm toned objects overlaid on top of a green background moving from warm to cold hues. \n  \nCOVID PROTOCOL \nHow to visit The Center safely: \n– Vaccine verification required for entry \n– Beginning January 3\, in accordance with City of Chicago policy\, all visitors 5 and older will be required to show proof of full vaccination. \n– Please bring either your vaccine card\, a printed copy\, or a digital photo of your card. \n– Visitors 16 and older will need to provide identification that matches their vaccination record \n– Masks will continue to be required by all visitors 2 and older while in the museum. \nWe continue to require all visitors\, vaccinated or unvaccinated to wear masks that cover both your nose and mouth. \n  \n*image courtesy: Madeline Haydon (American artist\, b. 1909) Still Life\, 1967 Oil on canvas 20 1/8 x 16″. Collection of South Side Community Art Center URL:https://sscartcenter.org/event/we-are-here-women-in-the-centers-collection/ CATEGORIES:Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://sscartcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Screen-Shot-2022-01-29-at-2.48.58-PM.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20220114 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20220327 DTSTAMP:20260526T004520 CREATED:20220112T210829Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220329T193758Z UID:6641-1642118400-1648339199@sscartcenter.org SUMMARY:THE UNDERWORLD: George Crump DESCRIPTION:THE UNDERWORLD: George Crump articulates a collective\, yet intimate expression of his mind’s eye through a body of work that makes social statements regarding life experiences\, both subjective and observational.   \nIn his most recent body of work\, Crump situates his conceptions of “the underworld” by way of the psychological and social afterlives of oppression\, with a tone of the spiritual\, often positioning his figures between reality and surrealism. Crump applies the principles of discipline\, understanding\, and compassion to his work through his specific use of color\, rich narrative approach\, and form.   \n  \n“The source material of my work is the truth of my past and present life experiences”\, Crump says.   \n  \n \nGeorge Crump. I Don’t Know. Oil on canvas. 24″x 20″. \n  \nThemes of remembrance and the spirit of determination traverse the scope of Crump’s work as he’s concerned with aspects of universal notions of existentialism\, affliction\, redemption\, and triumph.  \nThe exhibition opens for public viewing on January 14th and runs through March 26th. Please RSVP for our opening day here.   \n  \nGeorge Crump is a Chicago-based native and visual artist.  He attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago\, and most recently held a solo exhibition at Faie African Art Gallery.   \nGeorge developed his focus on the sensual nature of art\, aiming to evoke universality and honesty within his practice. So much so\, his strong emotional connection to his paintings are open to a variety of rich interpretations that span a wide range of emotions and forms.    \n  \nRSVP for our timed viewing  HERE.  \n  \n  \nCOVID PROTOCOL\n\nHow to visit The Center safely:\n– Vaccine verification required for entry \n– Beginning January 3\, in accordance with City of Chicago policy\, all visitors 5 and older will be required to show proof of full vaccination. \n– Please bring either your vaccine card\, a printed copy\, or a digital photo of your card. \n– Visitors 16 and older will need to provide identification that matches their vaccination record \n– Masks will continue to be required by all visitors 2 and older while in the museum. \nWe continue to require all visitors\, vaccinated or unvaccinated to wear masks that cover both your nose and mouth. \n  URL:https://sscartcenter.org/event/the-underworld-george-crump/ CATEGORIES:Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sscartcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/IMG_0290-scaled-e1642021785927.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20211008 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20211224 DTSTAMP:20260526T004520 CREATED:20211002T173700Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220129T210415Z UID:6444-1633651200-1640303999@sscartcenter.org SUMMARY:The Balm: Art for Black Women's Wellness DESCRIPTION:  \nThe Southside Community Art Center is proud to host a group exhibition that exclusively highlights Black women artists\, and there’s never been a more pertinent time to do so. \nThe Balm: Art for Black Women’s Wellness emerged as a collective artists’ action. Eight women who engage the time-honored tradition of using their artistic practice to give vision and form to our healing have contributed work across a variety of media and points of view. Themes emerged organically\, with works that stand in both testimony and conversation. Together\, they frame inquiry into the experiences of psychological fragmentation\, the sustaining value of breathwork\, cultural healing practices of the African Diaspora and healthcare disparities affecting maternal fetal outcomes. Themes of kinship and the restorative powers of the familiar\, coalesce around memory of home\, especially the south\, which weaves its way through many of the works presented and finds its way to us here in Chicago. The alchemy of this project—bringing together artists and communities around a subject that concerns us all—demonstrates the power of Black women’s creative ingenuity.  \nOrganized by visual artist and culture worker Kyrin Hobson\, the exhibition will showcase artists based in and outside of Chicago\, which include Hobson\, Alexandria Valentine\, Venise Keys\, Jasmine Best\, Brie Ortega\, Janelle Dunlap\, and Ashley January. \nThe exhibition opens for public viewing October 8th\, in addition to an opening reception October 22nd\, 6-8pm. RSVP here \nLearn more about the participating artists below:  \n  \nJasmine Best \nJasmine Best is a true Southern Artist\, gathering narratives from her Carolinian family and childhood. The North Carolina based artist uses her personal memories and manipulations of her memories to create dialogues about the black female identity in the south and in predominantly white spaces. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Recently was awarded the Artwork Archive Art Business Grant. She works with tangible and traditional mediums combined with digital means of art making. Her work often depicts maternal figures\, each depicting the diversity and qualities that make up the black southern women in her life through several generations. \nJasminebest.com \n  \nJanelle Dunlap \nJanelle is a Charlotte\, NC and Chicago based social practice artist\, curator and creative consultant who works to generate intentional and transformational change through her practice. She has a ten year background as a nonprofit professional where she worked in several roles that continue to inform and fuel her creative roles. \nJanelle’s broad body of work ranges from micro museum exhibitions to performance art installations and continues to generate institutional and community based funding. Some of her previous funders include Art  Science Council\, the Knight Foundation\, The Institute for Museum and Library Services\, Z Smith Reynolds Foundation\, and the Sweet Water Foundation in Chicago\, IL. She is currently a 2020 recipient of the New Artist Society Scholarship through the Low- Residency MFA program at School of the Art Institute of Chicago and also a current student in the inaugural class of Social and Environmental Arts MFA program at Prescott College.  \nBeekeeping is a meditation on collective effort for survival. Through the use of abstraction\, I use the medium of encaustic paint to articulate what is incommunicable between myself and the bees. This co-species relationship seeks wisdom beyond the anthropocene and gains knowledge through observation\, care\, and engagement with the honeybee. The west African goddess Oxum\, is known for her healing powers that transmute pain into honey for her devotees. As one of Oxum’s totems\, the bee is a sacred symbol of the healing power  \n \nhttps://www.janelledunlap.com/ \n  \nAlexandria Valentine \nAlexandria Valentine (b. on the South Side of Chicago\, in 1996) uses archival practices\, writing\, collage\, photography and textiles to explore themes of Black latent thought\, ancestral landscapes\, and the Black Romantic. Informed by the legacy of her loved ones who lived in and traveled from the South during the Great Migration\, Valentine seeks to explore the past\, create pathways to the future and peer at the spaces in between.  \nAlexandria received a Master of Fine Arts in Fiction from Columbia University School of the Arts and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They are the co-founder of North Star Memory Project\, a transmedia archive that prioritizes Black Chicago and Great Migration histories through counter-archive building.  \nMy art investigates the liminal spaces of Black women’s wellness–what happens when we cease to be well and the process of trying to make our way back to wellness. Being Black and woman means that there are many people and structures actively trying to limit our wellness\, my work explores the effects of that and the way we act upon those forces in return.  \nhttps://www.alexandriavalentine.net/ \n  \nAshley January  \nAshley focuses on contemporary portraiture informed by her maternal experience. Due to pregnancy complications that led to her son being born premature\, her new body of work addresses the crisis of the Black maternal mortality rate in America. This year Ashley has exhibited work with Dominique Gallery on Artsy\, and with SoLA Contemporary in LA in 2020. Her work has been exhibited in numerous venues including\, the Museum of Science and Industry\, Chicago\, IL; Viridian Artists Inc\, New York\, NY; Laguna Art Museum\, Laguna Beach\, CA; Pacific Art Foundation\, Newport Beach\, CA; and the Irvine Fine Arts Center\, Irvine\, CA. She was selected as a first-place award winner at the Woman Made Gallery’s Midwest Open in Chicago\, in 2018 and won the Beverly Bank Best of Show Award at the Beverly Arts Center’s juried competition in 2017.  \nAshley earned her MFA in Painting from Laguna College of Art and Design\, Laguna Beach\, CA and her BS in Communication with an Advertising concentration and Minor in Studio Art from Bradley University\, Peoria\, IL. She lives in Chicago with her husband\, son\, dog\, and works from her studio at Mana Contemporary. \nI address the growing crisis of the Black maternal mortality and morbidity rate in America through painting and multimedia. Black women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women. Motherhood\, for Black women\, is not detached from the state of being “Black” in the United States. For us\, the decision to enter motherhood involves considerable risk\, personal identity\, healthcare disparities\, burden-bearing and survival. My first pregnancy abruptly ended with a traumatic delivery. I was diagnosed with preeclampsia at 32 weeks and 4 days. Two days later\, I delivered by emergency c-section. My baby boy was born prematurely with a low birth weight of 2 pounds and 13 ounces. Mothers who have suffered similar complications that lead to more adverse birth outcomes are considered to be a “near miss” meaning that they suffered severe maternal morbidity (SMM) in which Black women are disproportionately affected.   \nWhile uplifting Black mothers and children\, the images and sound narratives serve as a call to action for more awareness\, research\, and eradication of unnecessary maternal and infant death in the United States of America. \nhttps://ashleyjan.com/ \n  \nKyrin Hobson \nKyrin Hobson is a visual artist and independent arts professional dedicated to creating understanding and opportunity among diverse cultures. Her distinctive approach to art making and her commitment to building connections for institutions\, audiences and artists define a multifaceted career. Studio work and research interests engage Hobson’s role as a cultural signifier and pragmatic change agent. Hobson’s artistic practice includes narrative figurative painting\, portraiture\, drawing and mixed-media installations. Multi-layered works fuse autobiography with myth and care giving traditions of New Orleans\, Haiti and the Black Diaspora. Finding Guinen is a current body of work that interrogates the racial imaginary with regard to the wholeness and histories of women of African ancestry in the Americas. \nHobson is a 2023 MFA candidate at University of Chicago\, in addition she holds a Master of Arts degree in Arts Administration and Museum Studies from New York University and a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art from UCLA. \nThese works are part of a series considering Black women’s health and wholeness through the lens of history. I use the body as a symbol of collective experience and hope for reconciliation. Fecundity Trick Card\, We Spoke of Vessels and No. Money Man. engage imagery of the  body and specifically the uterus to explore how we have maintained our wholeness during times when our reproduction has been hijacked and tied to commerce. Bearing witness to our physical legacies of fecundity\, commodification and survival is important in the here and now as we cope with threats to reproductive rights\, disparities in women’s healthcare and maternal fetal outcomes\, and the scourge of human trafficking. \nhttps://www.kyrinhobson.com/bio.html \n  \nVenise Keys  \nVenise Keys is a visual artist\, writer\, and educator raised on the South Side of Chicago\, Illinois. Venise’s art has been exhibited at Front Room Gallery in Brooklyn\, NY as well as the Museum Science and Industry\, Plus Gallery\, Woman Made Gallery\, and Intersect Chicago (formally known as SOFA: Sculpture\, Objects\, and Functional Art & Design Fair) in Chicago. \nShe has a Bachelors and Master’s degree in Painting with a Certificate in Women’s\, Gender\, and Sexuality Studies for her research on Black Feminist politics. She served as adjunct faculty of art for Illinois Central College\, Bradley University\, and has lectured at Dillard University on the role of the Black artist. This work is published in the scholarly journal\, Kalfou: Comparative and Relational Ethnic Studies. \nThis year\, Venise’s writing on art education has circulated to Norway\, and she is recently published in a New York arts and culture magazine\, Hyperallergic. Venise is currently a visual art teacher at Art In Motion Creative Arts School and is the program director for the Kappa Chapter of Gamma Xi Phi. \nThe visual aesthetics and rituals of my studio practice explore personal intersections of race\, gender\, sexuality\, age\, and class. I use painting\, drawing\, craftwork\, paper cutting\, and found objects to explore art history\, popular culture\, and my childhood memories. Common themes in my artwork are queerness\, generational trauma\, the Black Arts Movement\, intersectionality\, Black feminist theory\, rootwork spirituality\, identity politics\, and empowerment. \ntheartofvenisekeys \n  \nBrie Ortega  \nBrie Ortega is a photographer\, digital artist\, non-profit do-gooder\, and social worker interested in how art can draw attention to health issues and potential solutions\, particularly in Black communities. Her work is informed by navigating complex personal and familial health landscapes involving mental illness\, traumatic birth\, migration\, metabolic dysfunction\, breathing trouble\, abuse\, and neglect. Much of her life has been an experiment in healing from these contexts and reclaiming the health and happiness she believes is our birthright. While Brie has oscillated between California and Atlanta throughout her life\, her mother is originally from Chicago\, where Brie was last present as a toddler in foster care. Participating in The Balm represents a positive and poetic return to a familial place of origin. \nBrie is currently living as nomadically as possible after spending 11 years in Los Angeles\, where she was inspired to develop an art practice and also rebel against dominant notions of what it means to be an artist and to create in the social media era. It is important for her to use art as a tool for activism and therapy while disrupting the false dichotomy between artist and “non-artist.” \nThese portraits were created in 2019 as part of a small community effort with friends Krissy Leahy and Monique Hall called The Black Breath Project. In collaboration with members of the Los Angeles Black yoga and wellness community\, we developed a zine called Breathing While Black in which participants submitted portraits or had their portraits made by me while engaged in mindful breathing practice. The focus on breath was inspired by its importance as a taken-for-granted yet integral part of life; the way breath can be interrupted by anxiety\, respiratory illnesses\, and pollution; the attention to breath given by yoga and meditation practices; and Eric Garner’s immortal last words. Accompanying the portraits are “breath testimonials.” \nThe time during which I created these portraits is very meaningful. I was on a partial sabbatical and really pouring resources into my own health. For the first time\, I was managing depression and anxiety through nutrition and without medication. After a string of unhealthy relationships\, I was being extra intentional about seeking people out who treated me with kindness and respect. And\, of course\, this was shortly before COVID put the act of breathing front and center on the world stage. In many ways\, these portraits are an ode to that time of discovery. \n@mrbrie \n*top image credit: Alexandria Valentine. A Cosmic Anger\, A Cosmic Rage. Mixed media collage. 2021 URL:https://sscartcenter.org/event/the-balm-art-for-black-womens-wellness/ CATEGORIES:Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sscartcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/img20200908_13233366-copy-1-scaled-e1633196405454.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210717 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210926 DTSTAMP:20260526T004520 CREATED:20210709T181426Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220129T211919Z UID:6368-1626480000-1632614399@sscartcenter.org SUMMARY:Whitfield Lovell: The Spell Suite | An Initiative of Toward Common Cause DESCRIPTION:Whitfield Lovell: The Spell Suite\nAn Initiative of Toward Common Cause\n  \nSSCAC is beyond thrilled to be participate in this 19 institution collaborative exhibit and excited to showcase new works by Whitfield Lovell!\n\nToward Common Cause: Art\, Social Change\, and the MacArthur Fellows Program at 40 explores the extent to which certain resources—air\, land\, water\, and even culture—can be held in common. Raising questions about inclusion\, exclusion\, ownership\, and rights of access\, the exhibition considers art’s vital role in society as a call to vigilance\, a way to bear witness\, and a potential act of resistance. Presented on the 40th anniversary of the MacArthur Fellows Program\, Toward Common Cause deploys the Fellows Program as “intellectual commons” and features new and recontextualized work by 29 visual artists who have been named Fellows since the award program’s founding in 1981. \nMining vintage photographs of unknown people for much of his subject matter\, Whitfield Lovell (MacArthur Fellow\, 2007) aims to\, in his words\, “illuminate the humanity and richness” of ordinary African Americans who lived between the Emancipation Proclamation and the civil rights movement. Shown here are portraits from Lovell’s Spell Suite\, a series name that references a sequence of pieces in music or dance and conjures the mesmerizing quality of enchantment. Lucidly rendered and powerfully expressive\, these Black figures contradict the stereotypes of African Americans that have been perpetuated by mass media\, such as The Beulah Show recording that plays from Lovell’s installation of radios\, After an Afternoon. Together\, these works probe the effacement of cultural memory with sensuous tones that activate the legacy of those whose personal histories have been lost. \nWhitfield Lovell: The Spell Suite is a collaboration between the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago and South Side Community Art Center. It is an initiative of Toward Common Cause: Art\, Social Change\, and the MacArthur Fellows Program at 40\, which is organized by the Smart Museum of Art in collaboration with exhibition\, programmatic\, and research partners across Chicago. Toward Common Cause is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and curated by Abigail Winograd\, MacArthur Fellows Program 40th Anniversary Exhibition Curator\, Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago.\nWhitfield Lovell’s artwork is also on view at the Stony Island Arts Bank from July 15 to December 19\, 2021. For more information\, please visit towardcommoncause.org.\n\nImage courtesy:\nWhitfield Lovell (b. 1959). “Spell no. 12 (Richesse Noire)\,” 2021\, Conte on paper with attached found object. © Whitfield Lovell. Courtesy of the artist and DC Moore Gallery\, New York URL:https://sscartcenter.org/event/whitfield-lovell-the-spell-suite-an-initiative-of-toward-common-cause/ CATEGORIES:Events,Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sscartcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Whitfield-e1631384440251.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210710 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210830 DTSTAMP:20260526T004520 CREATED:20210709T192938Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220129T212123Z UID:6371-1625875200-1630281599@sscartcenter.org SUMMARY:Artists and Models: A Tribute to the South Side Community Art Center. DESCRIPTION:Artists and Models: A Tribute to the South Side Community Art Center \nJuly 10-August 29\, 2021\n\nStudents from across Columbia College Chicago brought the South Side Community Art Center’s (SSCAC) administrative archives to life through a recent exhibition titled\, “Artists and Models: A Tribute to the South Side Community Art Center.” The exhibit was previously on display at C33 Gallery (33 Ida B. Wells Dr. first floor).\n\nThis student led exhibition celebrates the South Side Community Art Center’s pioneering role in promoting Black art and creativity in Chicago. This exhibition features documents from the Center’s archival records to trace aspects of the Center’s history from its first four decades. \nArtists and Models was curated by Charlotte Briskin\, Anastasia Murphy\, Justin Ridgel\, James Ross\, Matthew Walcott\, and Teanna White in Dr. Melanie Chambliss’s Fall 2020 course Black Artistry and the Archive. The exhibition was designed by Elsa Mae Brydalski\, Hannah Davila\, Bri Elliott\, Raegan Townsend\, and Joseph Trezek in Sarah Faust’s Spring 2021 Graphic Design course. \n\nSSCAC is proud to showcase this archive\, and we share our thanks to students who brought this to life! We hope you enjoy. URL:https://sscartcenter.org/event/artists-and-models-a-tribute-to-the-south-side-community-art-center/ CATEGORIES:Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sscartcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/postcard-High-Res-e1625858108946.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210501 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210701 DTSTAMP:20260526T004520 CREATED:20210428T204750Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220129T212545Z UID:6214-1619827200-1625097599@sscartcenter.org SUMMARY:Just Above My Wall\, (To The Right) DESCRIPTION:Just Above My Wall\, (To The Right)\, curated by Ciera Alyse McKissick\, brings together Black collectors and SSCAC’s permanent collection.\n  \nJust Above My Wall\, (To The Right)\, showcases Black contemporary artworks from 13 emerging and established Black art collectors from Chicago. During a time when Black artists and their work is in high demand\, McKissick chose to highlight Black collectors who are invested in the preservation of Black art\, much like the South Side Community Art Center’s mission and legacy. \nThis show encompasses parallelled histories between Black artists within the South Side Community Art Center’s collection\, Black artists of today\, and what Black art collectors are acquiring. \nDuring a time when Black artists and their work is in high demand\, McKissick chose to highlight Black collectors who are invested in the preservation of Black art\, much like the South Side Community Art Center’s mission and legacy. Collector\, Tracie Hall\, describes her collection as “living with the ancestors.”  \n“I think that it’s important for us to demystify art because for me\, the art that I live with charges my space. I think that our homes are almost like our safe harbor\, and for me art is very spiritually charged\,” Hall says. “I think that for Black people it’s important for us to really charge the space that we’re in\, because a lot of times our spaces are so contested\, our spaces are sometimes grabbed from us\, or we’re displaced — the simple act of collecting art\, or placing art in a place that you can see it\, and letting it envelop you\, is almost like resistance. I think that seeing art puts you in dialogue with something beyond yourself\,” she said.  \n  \n \nWork by Sylvester Britton from the South Side Community Art Center Permanent Collection. \nSelected works from the SSCAC collection include Bill Walker\, Ralph Arnold\, Sylvester Britton\, Yaounde Olu\, Hale Woodruff\, and Dorothy Higgenson-Carter among other works from the 20th century. Selected work from collectors include both emerging and established artists from the 21st century like\, Krista Franklin\, Hebru Brantley\, Brandon Breaux\, Alexandra Antoine\, Erin Mitchell\, and Lawrence Agyei to name a few.  \nFor the curator\, McKissick\, who is also one of the emerging collectors featured\, it was important to center the exhibition around collecting\, and use the Center’s collection as a catalyst.  \n“Oftentimes when you think of an art collector or you see an art collector\, the first thing you’re seeing is a rich white man or couple with money\, and if you’re seeing a black collector\, it’s someone famous like Jay-Z and Beyonce\, Diddy\, or Swizz Beats. While I am glad that celebrities are bringing the notion of owning art to the forefront\, I think it also creates a misconception that you need to be of a certain caliber to collect artwork\, or that it’s an unobtainable thing\,” McKissick says. “I ideated the show around the Center’s collection because the space itself was created in that same vein. A group of college art students created this space because they didn’t see spaces that looked like them or represented them. Their collection is a representation of the hard work of those artists\, and a sign that they were creating and existing\, and so is the work of the artists these collectors are representing today.  \n  \nCollectors Include: Patricia Andrews-Keenan\, Janelle Miller\, Stephanie Graham\, John Ellis\, Martha Wade\, Tracie Hall\, Drew Enstrumental\, Raub Welch\, Amanda Williams\, Ayanah Moor\, Alicia Goodwin\, Rob McKay\, and Ciera McKissick \nArtists Featured From Their Collection: Solomon Adufah\, Robert Pruitt/Thomas Lucas\, Alexandria Valentine\, SHENEQUA\, John  H. Blanton\, Lawrence Agyei\, Krista Franklin\, Adler Guerrier\, Max Sansing\, David Anthony Geary\, Alexandra Antoine\, Hebru Brantley\, Zephyr\, Brandon Breaux\, Paul S. Benjamin\, Leasho Johnson\, Erin Mitchell \n  \n*Image courtesy: Lawrence Agyei from the collection of John Ellis. URL:https://sscartcenter.org/event/just-above-my-wall-to-the-right/ CATEGORIES:Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://sscartcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Screen-Shot-2021-03-27-at-9.39.20-AM.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20210116T120000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20210327T150000 DTSTAMP:20260526T004520 CREATED:20210115T124704Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220129T213754Z UID:5363-1610798400-1616857200@sscartcenter.org SUMMARY:Faheem Majeed - From the Center DESCRIPTION:“From the Center”is a retrospective of works created by Faheem Majeed over the past twenty years. As a former executive director and curator(2005-2011) of the South Side Community Art Center(SSCAC)\, Majeed’s works are especially attuned to the history and legacy of the 80 year old arts institution. The SSCAC has been themuse fora number ofhis series of worksand has been the impetus for hiscontinual exploration and critique of culturally specific institutions. Please join the South Side Community Art Center as it welcomes home one of its native sons. \n  URL:https://sscartcenter.org/event/faheem-majeed-from-the-center/ CATEGORIES:Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sscartcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Faheem-Majeed-Poster-FTC-2021-1000px.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20201020T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20201231T235900 DTSTAMP:20260526T004520 CREATED:20210104T062130Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210119T022311Z UID:4970-1603152000-1609459140@sscartcenter.org SUMMARY:Jesse Howard – The Spirit of Community DESCRIPTION:October 2020-December 2020\nJesse Howard’s first solo exhibition at South Side Community Art Center explores the Black American community as more than a singular philosophical concept of a culture\, but rather a more diversified community of multifaceted voices through a body of charcoal based works. Howard’s socially concerned work is informed by his own lived experiences growing up on Chicago’s west side and the collective societal challenges faced by Black Americans today.\nUtilizing charcoal\, watercolor\, and collage\, Howard’s figures are typically warped\, transcending time and space in their presentation\, yet very attuned to the social realities and hardships experienced by Black Americans in urban environments. With close attention\, Howard’s striking portrait drawings also reveal moments of glory\, honor\, and elevation. URL:https://sscartcenter.org/event/jesse-howard-the-spirit-of-community/ CATEGORIES:Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sscartcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Jesse-Howard.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200807 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200926 DTSTAMP:20260526T004520 CREATED:20210119T054850Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210119T064040Z UID:5545-1596758400-1601078399@sscartcenter.org SUMMARY:Existing Between Line & Space DESCRIPTION: URL:https://sscartcenter.org/event/existing-between-line-space/ CATEGORIES:Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sscartcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Existing-Between-Line-Space.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200301 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200401 DTSTAMP:20260526T004520 CREATED:20210119T054922Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210119T064122Z UID:5547-1583020800-1585699199@sscartcenter.org SUMMARY:Cosmic Yoga: Smai-Tawi DESCRIPTION: URL:https://sscartcenter.org/event/cosmic-yoga-smai-tawi/ CATEGORIES:Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sscartcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Cosmic-Yoga-Smai-Tawi.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20200131T080000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20200220T170000 DTSTAMP:20260526T004520 CREATED:20210104T071419Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210504T031743Z UID:5002-1580457600-1582218000@sscartcenter.org SUMMARY:Resonance DESCRIPTION:This group show featured art that evokes emotions of reflections and creativity. The show featured the work of Marcus Alleyne\, Keith Conner\, Ladipo Famodu\, Reynaldo Ferdinand\, Felicia Preston Grant\, Alvin Hawkins\, Zhana Johnson\, Raymond Mays\, Miguel\, Yaounde Olu\, Mary Qian\, Patricia Stewart\, Patrick Thompson\, and Krystal Grover Webb. URL:https://sscartcenter.org/event/resonance/ CATEGORIES:Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sscartcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Resonance-Flyer.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20191201 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200201 DTSTAMP:20260526T004520 CREATED:20210119T055159Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210122T043302Z UID:5553-1575158400-1580515199@sscartcenter.org SUMMARY:Divine Presence! DESCRIPTION: URL:https://sscartcenter.org/event/divine-presence/ CATEGORIES:Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sscartcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Divine-Presence.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20191201 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200301 DTSTAMP:20260526T004520 CREATED:20210119T055130Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210119T125820Z UID:5551-1575158400-1583020799@sscartcenter.org SUMMARY:Conjuring Black Histories in Jewelry DESCRIPTION: URL:https://sscartcenter.org/event/conjuring-black-histories-in-jewelry/ CATEGORIES:Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sscartcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Conjuring-Black-Histories-in-Jewelry.jpg END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR