Manifest Urban Arts Festival

Manifest Urban Arts Festival

Columbia College Chicago's Manifest Has Something for the Entire Family

Month-long arts showcase wraps up with a one-day urban arts, music and dance festival.

Chicago, May 2004--Columbia College Chicago's month-long arts festival, Manifest, culminates on Thursday, May 27 with a one-day urban arts festival from 9 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Except where noted, all events are FREE and open to the public. For a complete schedule, festival updates and further details call 312.344.6789 or visit www.manifest.colum.edu.

Manifest includes a Music and Dance Festival, ArtWalk, a life-size human chess game, puppet parade and performance, and a derby car race. New this year is the addition of food vendors in Grant Park and at Columbia's 11th Street Sculpture Garden (northeast corner, 11th and Wabash Ave.).

This year's dance and music festival will take place from 12--9:30 p.m. and features more than 30 performances by professional and student bands on three stages for a total of 21 hours of music and movement:

·Main Stage (where Summer Dance is held) located in Grant Park at the corner of Michigan and Harrison Avenues.

·Second Stage located in Grant Park at Balbo and Michigan Avenues and the Logan statute.

·Garden Stage located at the Columbia College Sculpture Garden, 11th Street and Wabash Avenue.

Headlining the music festival is Grammy-award winning Brazilian percussionist, Cyro Baptista and his seven-piece percussion orchestra, Beat the Donkey; Indie pop band Copeland; and Minneapolis/St. Paul hip-hop group Heiruspecs (HIGH-ROO-SPEX).

Exhibits and opening receptions, performances, installations, poetry readings, multimedia performance art, combat stage certifications and a host of other happenings will take place on Columbia's campus and other venues in the South Loop throughout the day and evening.

Highlights include:

·ArtWalk & Sale, a self-guided tour of more than 12 galleries and studio exhibits, will take place from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. and 5-7 p.m. The ArtWalk & Sale showcases work in photography fine art, interdisciplinary arts, new media, book and paper art and several design concentrations including graphic design, product design, illustration, advertising art, fashion design, sound design, theater design and interior architecture. Free trolley service between venues will be offered all day.

·Human Chess Game, complete with a medieval theme and costumes. This is the second year students from Chicago's Thurgood Marshall Middle School will perform as life-size chess pieces in a game of chance against student from Robert Healy School, The Sabin School, the Beethoven Elementary School and the general public.

·"Lost Tumbleweed Tales: Puppetry Parade and Performance." Join Columbia's puppetry class and club in a spectacle and a parade from 6:45-7:15 p.m. The parade will commence at Wabash Avenue and 11th Street and travel north to the Main Stage for the "Lost Tumbleweed Tales," a puppetry performance that explores the various myths and folklore inspired by ancient cultures that used puppetry in community rituals.

·A&D Derby: Ready, Set, Go! Seniors from the product design class will participate in a derby car race from 3:30-5 p.m. at the Chicago Public Schools Parking Lot, 645 S. Wabash Avenue. Students built the track, miniature racecars and other wheel-based creations and will compete for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes.

This marks the third year Columbia has saluted its graduating and advanced arts and media students with a month-long showcase of their work. Manifest serves to acquaint the professional arts and media community, and potential employers, with Columbia's best and brightest--well-educated, highly trained, creative professionals -who are entering the workforce. The festival also informs parents, instructors and prospective students about Columbia's programs, as well as fostering cultural partnerships between Columbia and the professional arts, media and entertainment communities and positioning Columbia as a major player in the cultural landscape of Chicago.

Manifest sponsors include 7th Street Garage, 94.7 The Zone, Apple, Calumet Photo, The Columbia Chronicle, HotHouse, Planned Parenthood, Red Bull, Red Streak, Sign Options, Shure Microphones, Technotrix, Warehouse Liquors and Zincografica U.S.A.

Columbia College Chicago provides innovative education and practice in the visual, performing and communications arts. For further information visit www.colum.edu.

Media contact: Priscilla L. Hunter, 312.344.7805, phunter@colum.edu or Micki Leventhal, 312.344.7383, mleventhal@colum.edu