This summer UIC is offering free studio and art history classes in Chicago with prominent artists from Chicago and beyond.
Lisa Yun Lee, the director of the school of art and art history at the University of Illinois at Chicago is taking action to involve a wider public in the production of art.
Inspired by Joseph Beuys statement that “everyone is an artist”, Lee has curated a curriculum of open spaces for creative thinking and expression. The democratic program, “will require a willingness to discuss issues and to make things with strangers”, says Lee. The program, funded by a $35,000 grant from the National Endowment of the Arts is completely free to participants.
The classes are mainly one to two sessions: workshops or art history lessons with prominent artist and historians from Chicago and beyond. Theaster Gates will host a workshop “Soul Sharing” at his own studio; SAIC teacher Jason Lazarus will lead a studio workshop; Dan Peterman will lead a sculpture tour of Manilow Sculpture Park and serve lunch at his Millennium Park Sculpture, “Running Table”; and historian Hannah Higgins will docent an architectural tour of a Paris with a live guide skyped in at the Jane Addams Hull House. There are also a number of workshops that culminate in public works including a graffiti institute with Miguel Aguilar and a performance led by Christine Sun Kim.
The classes, running from 6 July to 10 August are open to anyone that registers on a first come first serve basis; the classes are small, so get in there quick!