The College Arts Association (CAA) is the country’s most important gathering of professionals in the visual arts. It takes place in Chicago this year from February 10 to February 13, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. Hundreds of presentations, lectures and associated programs are featured in a conference hall setting. It is also the place academics troll to find jobs within the art schools.

This year a few local organizations, spaces and groups bring the CAA outside the conference corridors of the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

These selected off-site programs will be a treat for socially engaged artists in Chicago. We highly encourage your attendance.

RECOMMENDED SHADOW CAA EVENTS

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10

“Pedagogy of the Periphery” CAA Shadow Session

Wed., Feb. 10, 4-8pm, at Three Walls (119 n. peoria #2d, http://www.three-walls.org/ )

A workshop-style event on the history, practice, and theory of experimental pedagogy inside and outside institutions, in conjunction with AREA Chicago’s issue #9 (Peripheral Vision), the Open Practice Committee, the Emma Goldman Center for the Study and Practice of Creative Anarchosyndicalism, and the Radical Caucus for Art’s Autonomizing Practices panel at the College Art Association meeting. Educators and students discuss pedagogical practices, broadly defined—with their optimism, obstacles, methods, pleasures, and frustrations—with short informal presentations and time for large- and small-group discussion, including questions submitted for discussion in advance by students and flexibility to address current events as needed (such as events in the campus uprisings happening in California, Europe, and elsewhere). This free event allows people not attending the conference to benefit from a sampling of visiting speakers and Chicago teachers. It is not conceived as anti-CAA, but happens alongside the conference to illustrate the fact that some conversations are easier to hold outside the professional machine.

List of speakers in formation includes: Greg Sholette, Dara Greenwald, Counter Cartographies Collective, Bert Stabler. Open discussion.

Tentative Program:

4:00 meet and greet

4:30 Panel I: Greg Sholette / Dara Greenwald / Liz Mason-Deese and Tim Stallmann

5:45 Panel II: Eve Ewing / Nicole Marroquin / Bert Stabler

7:00 Small group discussions / report back from small groups

wrap up

< some snacks will be available but you are welcome to bring your own>

Recommended readings:

From Occupied Berkeley

http://anticapitalprojects.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/necrosocial5.pdf

From AREA Chicago

http://www.areachicago.org/p/issues/peripheral-vision/please-bring-your-cell-phone-art-class/

http://www.areachicago.org/p/issues/6808/educating-68/

http://www.areachicago.org/p/issues/peripheral-vision/relative-freedom/

Questions and discussion:

Students and others are invited to send questions in advance that will be compiled and distributed for discussion in small groups of no more than 8 to be facilitated by the speakers. These might be responses to the readings, burning questions about your education, things you want to discuss. There will be time for discussion of the speakers’ presentations, but this allows everyone in the room an opportunity to help set the agenda for discussion.

Send proposed questions (and any requests for information about the event) to youngjkwak@gmail.com. pLease also indicate if you would like to register to participate in a small group discussion. The event is free and open to all but there are limited spaces in discussion groups. Anyone can also start their own small group discussion at the event.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10 THROUGH SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13

Art Work: A National Conversation About Art, Labor and Economics by Temporary Services

January 26th – March 6th 2010

UIC Gallery 400

400 S Peoria

Art Work is a newspaper and website (artandwork.us) that consists of writings and images from artists, activists, writers, critics, and others on the topic of working within depressed economies and how that impacts artistic process, compensation and artistic property. The independently published, 40-page newspaper is distributed throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. The exhibition features a display of the newspaper, a distribution site for the Chicago area, and multiple events related to economic sustainability.

The Free Store

Melinda Fries, Salem Collo-Julin, and Biggest Fags Ever

January 26th – March 6th 2010

The Free Store is a nomadic, temporary free store that irregularly visits a variety of Chicagoland neighborhoods. The Free Store, open during all gallery hours, invites you to be involved: come to the store, bring stuff you want to give away, and take stuff that you want. There is no restriction on what you can take – you don’t have to trade or barter. Just take it. Services, such as massage, food, music, etc., may also be available. The Free Store organizers are always happy to accept donations. Contact The Free Store directly: free@freestorechicago.org or 773-562-1428.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12

Chicago Activist Art Spaces, Collectives, and Projects

Friday, February 12th 7:00pm-on and Saturday, February, 13th 7:00pm-on.

Mess Hall

6932 North Glenwood Avenue

(Rogers Park neighborhood.)

Open invitation to CAA conference attendees and the public to come to Mess Hall to informally gather, meet, and learn about Chicago art and activism, including a visual display highlighting many of the current Chicago-based collective art spaces, periodicals, campaigns, and activist art projects.

Mess Hall is an experimental cultural center. It is a place where visual art, radical politics, creative urban planning, applied ecological design and other things intersect and inform each other.

Directions: Morse CTA Red Line train stop; Mess Hall is a half block away.

RECOMMENDED CAA CONFERENCE PROGRAMS

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11

1. Radical Art Caucus Business Meeting, 7:30-9:00AM: Regency A, Gold Level, West Tower, Hyatt Regency. All members and anyone interested in joining the Radical Art Caucus are most welcome! (Agenda forthcoming in January)

2. Radical Art Caucus Session “Autonomizing Practices in Art, Art History, and Education,” Thursday, February 11, 9:30 AM–12:00 PM Grand CD South, Gold Level, East Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago

Chairs: Alan W. Moore, independent scholar, Staten Island, New York; Susan King Obarski, University of California, Irvine

Speakers:

a. Autonomy, Pseudo-Autonomy, and Prefigurative Politics, Rebecca Zorach, University of Chicago

b. San Francisco 1978-83: Socialist School and Rats for Profit, Michael R. Mosher, Saginaw Valley State University

c. The Guerrilla Clock-Fixers of UX, Jonathan Lackman, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University

d. Autonomous Practices: Media Collectives of the Women’s Liberation Movement, Dara Greenwald, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

3. Radical Art Caucus, Drinks, 9:00PM-? BAR 151, Hyatt Regency Atrium. Join members of the Radical Art Caucus at BAR 151 and learn more about the organization. (BYOD)

4. Collectivism after Collapse: Chicago Activist Art Spaces, Collectives, and Projects

Thursday, February 11, 8:00 PM–10:30 PM

Regency A, Gold Level, West Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago

Chairs: Gregory Sholette, REPOhistory; Salem Collo-Julin, Temporary Services and Mess Hall, and Nicholas Lampert, Justseeds Artist’s Cooperative and Mess Hall

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12

1. Radical Art Caucus, “Occupations: Labor, Activism, Art, and the Academy in Crisis”

Friday, February 12, 12:30 PM–2:00 PM, Regency C, Gold Level, West Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago

Chair: Sarah Kanouse, University of Iowa

Speakers:

a. Taking a Radical Stance against Occupation without Perpetuating Myths of a Militant Resistance, Aaron Hughes, Iraq Veterans Against the War

b. 3Cs: Counter-Cartographies Collective, Tim Stallman, 3Cs: Counter-Cartographies Collective, Liz Mason-Deese, 3Cs: Counter-Cartographies Collective

c. Preoccupied: Organizing, the Work of Art School Academics, Therese Quinn, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13

CHICAGO CAA PANEL: ON PTG

CAA Studio Art Session: PAINTING PANEL

Saturday, February 13, 9:30 AM-12:00 PM

Grand A, Gold Level, East Tower, Hyatt Regency

Susanna Coffey, Ann Craven, Anoka Faruqee, Michelle Grabner, Peter Halley,

Thomas Lawson, Judy Ledgerwood, Rebecca Morris, Carrie Moyer, Sabina Ott,

Jon Pestoni, Scott Reeder, and Molly Zuckerman Hartung

CHICAGO EXHIBITIONS: ON PTG

JULIUS CÆSAR

3311 West Carroll Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60624

312-725-6084 (gallery voicemail) / email: julius@juliuscaesarchicago.com

reception: Saturday, February 13, 4-7 pm

exhibition: February 13 – 28, 2010

Thomas Lawson, Scott Reeder, Carrie Moyer and Michelle Grabner

Shane Campbell Gallery

1431 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60622

312-226-2223 / email: info@shanecampbellgallery.com

reception: Saturday, February 13, 6-8 pm

exhibition: February 13 – March 13, 2010

Ann Craven, Peter Halley and Jon Pestoni

Western Exhibitions

119 N Peoria St, 2A, Chicago IL 60607

312.480.8390 / scott@westernexhibitions.com

reception: Saturday, February 13, 7-10 pm

exhibition: February 13 – March 20, 2010

Anoka Faruqee, Judy Ledgerwood, Sabina Ott, Susanna Coffey and Richard Hull

Rowley Kennerk Gallery

119 N. Peoria St., #3C Chicago, IL 60607

773-983-0077 /
email: info@rowleykennerk.com

reception: Saturday, February 13, 7-10 pm

exhibition: February 13 – 27, 2010

Rebecca Morris, Molly Zuckerman-Hartung and Jutta Koether

A few weeks ago we also opened up a branch in Helsinki! Check out what they have going on and copy some classes, follow there’s, or visit if you happen to be in that part of the world.

Lastly, the first post-architecture class, The Page + The Screen: Siting Text in the Early 21st Century and Beyond, at The Public School New York will be in a couple weeks and I’ll be there to “teach” it.

Next week I’m off to Chicago for CAA to talk about East of Borneo, a project I’ve been working on with folks from CalArts – Stacey Allen and Thomas Lawson. If you will be there, let me know!

Last, but not least, a new project I’m working on with Ken Rogers and Bill Kelley, Jr. called Third Rail just launched our website. It is still a bit raw so check back in a few weeks when we’ll have some more updates.