Chicago, April 16, 2003 - Socially conscious videographers will be hitting the streets the weekend of May 3 to document issues of human rights in Chicago. From the aspiring to the professional, the videographers will have 48 hours to shoot and edit their three-to-five minute project as part of a contest sponsored by Columbia College Chicago's Television Department as part of the college's conference, Dignity Without Borders: Art, Media and Human Rights. All contest entries will be screened at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 8 at the HotHouse, 31 E. Balbo. At the screening, first, second and third place winners will receive software provided by Avid Technologies and Apple Computer. The screening is free and open to the public. For more information call 312-344-7959.
"We're looking for issues that are specific to Chicago," explains Eric Scholl, assistant chair of Columbia's Television Department and one of the organizers of the contest. "Racism, homelessness, social and economic injustice, police brutality, anti-war activism, gender issues are just some of the possibilities. Obviously, these issues also resonate on a national and international level, but for our purposes we want the videographers to focus on the local level."
"Any genre is fair game," adds contest organizer Tom Weinberg, an artist-in-residence in the department. "Documentary, narrative, experimental, music videos, and any creative mode can be used to get the message across."
"When planning this contest we felt very strongly that it should be open to videographers at all levels," says Columbia faculty member Margie Nicholson. "The contest is open to independent producers, media educators and community media organizations. We are encouraging collaborations and can help link producers up with community groups.
"We're very excited about the hands-on nature of this initiative, its wonderful creativity and the terrific opportunity it provides for collaboration between people with diverse areas of expertise," adds Nicholson, who also serves on the steering committee for the entire human rights conference which takes place May 2, and 5-8 on the Columbia College Chicago campus and at the Chicago Hilton and Towers. For more information and schedule updates on Dignity Without Borders visit http://humanrights.colum.edu or call 312-344-8510.
"We hope Dignity Without Borders will function as a catalyst to bring the human rights stakeholders together, explore and examine terms, goals, mutual interests," says Rose Economou, conference coordinator and professor of journalism at Columbia. "We intend to provide a forum for networking between scholars, educators, artists, media makers, social justice activists and other interested audiences, thereby stimulating ideas that will move forward beyond the scope of the conference and develop collaborations and partnerships that will address the issues of human rights on a global level.
"Dignity Without Borders is being organized in partnership with educators, humanists, students from Columbia College Chicago and other educational institutions, representatives from local and national human rights organizations, artists, journalists, documentary filmmakers, community leaders and victims of human rights abuse. It will include community forums, workshops for educators, film and video screenings, exhibitions, and performances and address four main themes: Crimes Against Humanity; Violence Against Women; Children; State; Corporate Abuse; and Religious, Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Intolerance."
Dignity Without Borders is sponsored by the McCormick Tribune Foundation with grants from the Illinois Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Illinois General Assembly and the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation.
Chicago, April 2003 - From a van that is a pinhole camera to the Hebraic Tabernacle, students in Columbia College Chicago's Interdisciplinary Arts and Interdisciplinary Book & Paper Arts graduate programs employ a vast array of media to explore themes of gender and family, time and space, vulnerability and control, and language and divination in their Spring thesis shows.
Trace Elements, exhibitions and installations by Master of Arts and Master of Fine Arts candidates, will be presented in two group shows. Part one of Trace Elements opens on May 2 and runs through May 22, with an opening reception on Friday, May 2 from 5:30 -7:30 p.m. Part two opens on June 2 and runs through June 20, with an opening reception from 5:30 -7:30 pm on Friday, June 6. Exhibitions and receptions for Trace Elements, will be located at the college's Center for Book and Paper Arts, 1104 S. Wabash, 2nd floor, are free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Monday - Friday, 10 a.m. -5 p.m., Saturdays by appointment. Call 312-344-6630.
There are so many graduates this year, we have an absolute embarrassment of riches, explains Suzanne Cohan-Lange, chair of the Interdisciplinary Arts Department.
In addition to the eleven artists participating in Trace Elements, which is focused primarily on visual arts, there are another twelve artists in the upcomingWeapons of Mass Construction.Weaponswill present a total of ten performance art pieces and two multimedia installations in two shows that run the last two weekends in May. Our artists delve deep using their bodies, minds and spirits in the service of their art and exploring every aspect of the human condition. Be prepared for a powerful experience.
Media Contact: Micki Leventhal, 312-344-7383; mleventhal@colum.edu
Chicago, April 2003 - Interdisciplinary artists in Columbia College Chicago's graduate program employ time arts, new and traditional media to explore themes of isolation, reality, gender communications, desire and marine biology in their Spring thesis shows.
Weapons of Mass Construction, performances and installations by Interdisciplinary Master of Arts candidates, will be presented over two weekends. Part one ofWeaponsruns Friday and Saturday, May 23 and 24. Part two runs Friday and Saturday, May 30 and 31. Weapons will take place in the college's Raw Space at 1104 S. Wabash, 8th floor, and is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with performances beginning at 7 p.m. Call 312-344-7670.
There are so many graduates this year, we have an absolute embarrassment of riches, explains Suzanne Cohan-Lange, chair of the Interdisciplinary Arts Department.
Earlier in the month we opened part one of the Trace Elementsexhibition, which focuses primarily on visual arts. Part two of Trace will open the beginning of June. In the two shows ofWeapons of Mass Construction, we present a total of ten performance art pieces and two multimedia installations. Expect the unexpected, from lyrical dance pieces to frenzied micro-bugs to living cartoons, just about anything can happen during these performances and installations.
Schedules for Weapons of Mass ConstructionandTrace Elementsare included.
NOTE: Images available as glossies or digitally.
Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Arts Performances and Installations
LOCATION: The Raw Space, 1104 S. Wabash, 8th floor. 312.344-7670
Performances I
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Performances begin at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, May 23 and Saturday, May 24
Mermaid by Lisa Barcy. Married wite marine biologist, dissatisfied in marriage, seeks romantic rendezvous in the abyss with elusive giant squid. Discretion a must, no commitments.
One Heart Suite by Laura Foronda. A poetic one-act play in three movements starring the human heart and featuring the struggles between Systole and Diastole.
Cupped Geboren by Christine Maraia. Using several languages, movement and sound, Maraia's performance investigates memories hidden in the body.
Body of Grace by Neil Ellis Orts. Comic book narratives intertwine to create a layered exploration of identity and the human body: strength, beauty, gender, age, spirit, you, me.
...root and bone and things unknown by Wendy Parman. Balloons, dead bodies and rebirth collide in Parman' performance with music that explores a woman's transformation.
Performances II
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Performances begin at 7:30 p.m.
Friday May 30 and Saturday May 31
Small Proof of My Existence by Gina Marie Gabriel. Sifting through pounds of paper to recall generations of memory, Gabriel rejects stale words and static pictures in an effort to capture a moment in time.
Lonely Islands by Meeha Lee. Is it possible to trust someone from another culture? In this movement-based performance, Lee and collaborators Lisa Barcy and Vanessa Curto explore the burdens of isolation and lack of communication that exist in all cultures.
Move Me by Brian Read. Beauty clashes with the beast as movements trigger hallucinations of light and sound. One man's quest to understand women involves sex, ghosts, basketball and tap dancing along the way.
Shadowbody by Suzanne Senese. Sense's performance-installation traces the inner structures of her ancestors for clues to heredity. What she uncovers are countless stories of broken dreams and unfulfilled talents
Seeing Ceilings by Kelly Westergaard. Youth, Pleasure, Grudge and Wisdom weave together their own perspectives of the past to reveal the relationships between themselves and the world.
INSTALLATIONS
Installations will be on view before and after performances, May 23-24 and May 30-31.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Coiled Bones by Monica Fox. Follow the path of pain through Fox's installation of mutilated bones, broken mirrors, fossils, prescriptions for living and of course, chocolate.
:// SEARCH / RESCUE by Dan Jacobson. A multimedia installation in which viewers enter a coliseum of the absurd where truth and meaning are devoured by technology. Experience the information spectacle of contemporary society. Can you distinguish the artificial from the real?
TRACE ELEMENTS
Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Arts and Master of Interdisciplinary Arts Thesis Exhibitions.
LOCATION: The Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts, 1104 South Wabash, 2nd floor. 312-344-6630. Gallery hours: Monday through Friday: 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. Saturday's by appointment.
Trace Elements I
Exhibition: May 2 - May 22. Opening Reception: Friday, May 2, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Punctum by Robin Mucha, MFA. In these drawings on handmade paper, Mucha anticipates the moment of transition from a static object to one in motion.
Caught in the Crossfire by Elizabeth Drake, MA. This installation examines the experiences of a thirty-year-old single woman torn between life as is, and her occasional desire to play the traditional role of wife and mother. The narrative unfolds through illustration, photo manipulation, text, and handmade artist's books.
Orbis Iter by Colin Browne, MFA. Course of the World is a book of emblems starring Life, Death, Phaeton, The Wheel of Fortune, the Four Elements, the Seasons of the Year, the Sun, the Moon, bees, snakes, bison, an apple tree, and a variety of metaphors for the human condition.
Here: There by C. Joel Beaman, MFA. Imagine entering the eye of a camera that gets 8 miles per gallon. . . what would you see? Hitch a ride to nowhere (or is it somewhere?) on a van-sized camera. Try to stay awake, smile at patrolmen, don't run out of gas, and please slow down!
The Sewing Room by Rose Camastro-Pritchett, MFA. The exotic becomes familiar and the ordinary seems foreign. Through the work of a seamstress, the artist explores perceptions of vulnerability and control in this installation, performance, and sound piece.
Finding Space by Yoonshin Park, MA. An installation about the space-in-between, relocation, and unfamiliar places. Viewers will be invited into a space filled with familiar but unique materials, which the artist uses to connect personal thought with her present and past.
Trace Elements II
Exhibition: June 2 - June 20. Opening Reception: June 6, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Sanctum by Sylvia Ramos Alotta, MFA. A visual installation of a bookbinding studio modeled after the ancient Hebraic structure, the Tabernacle. This meditative space will feature drawings that elucidate the design process and showcase bookbinding furniture designed by the artist.
Readings by Jennifer Hunt, MFA. This workconsiders the relationship between language, books, and divination, and questions the role of personal experience as a filter for reading. Fine leather bindings entice the audience into this interactive installation.
Last Rites by Rosanna Mark Andreu, MA. All cultures have rites of passage to mark transitions. After witnessing her dying father draw his last image under the influence of morphine with eyes closed, Andreu's installation is an exploration of how an artist intuitively or objectively interprets the final transition of death in their last work.
Inocencio's Ark by Miriam Centeno Marrero, MFA. An archaeology of childhood that weaves stories from the Bible, family history and the Taino Indian creation myth. In an installation with book stelae and paper hammocks, Centeno Marrero tells the story of the man who stole all the women and left his progeny among the stars.
Media Contact: Micki Leventhal, 312-344-7383; mleventhal@colum.edu
Chicago, April 2003 -- Columbia College Chicago, the country's premier visual, performing and media arts college will host, in collaboration with its community partners, an international conference examining issues of human rights and ways in which the arts and media are, or can be, engaged in furthering human rights agendas.
The conference, Dignity Without Borders: Art, Media and Human Rights, will take place May 2 and 5--8 at the Chicago Hilton and Towers and at selected venues on Columbia's south loop campus. Most events are free and open to the public. For further information call 312-344-7675 or visit http://humanrights.colum.edu.
"The conference is to function as a catalyst to bring the human rights stakeholders together, explore and examine terms, goals and mutual interests," says Rose Economou, conference coordinator and professor of journalism at Columbia. "We intend to provide a forum for networking between scholars, educators, artists, media makers, social justice activists and other interested audiences – thereby stimulating ideas that will move forward beyond the scope of the conference and develop collaborations and partnerships that will address the issues of human rights on a global level.
"Dignity Without Borders is being organized in partnership with educators, humanists, students from Columbia College Chicago and other educational institutions, representatives from local and national human rights organizations, artists, journalists, documentary filmmakers, community leaders and victims of human rights abuse," adds Economou. "It includes community forums, workshops for educators, film and video screenings, exhibitions, and performances and addresses three main themes: Crimes Against Humanity; Violence Against Women and Children; State and Corporate Abuse; and Religious, Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Intolerance."
Conference highlights include: a keynote panel moderated by NPR's Scott Simon on "Diplomacy, War, Collateral Damage, Global Policy Challenges and Human Investment"; a keynote panel on "Crimes Against Humanity: Human Rights Abuse, International Law and The Media" moderated by Charles Madigan, Perspective Editor of the Chicago Tribune, and featuring Cherif Bassiouni, Salim Muwwakil, Zafra Lerman and Bart Brown; a panel discussion among visual artists on "Art and Human Rights: Destined to Collide?" exploring the question of whether artists have a responsibility to respond to human rights abuses; a briefing on "Africa, AIDS and Global Responsibility" moderated by Roger Simon of U.S. News and World Report; a participatory dialogue on "The Human Rights Struggle: Exploring the Transformative Power of Arts and Media"; concurrent sessions on "Compromising Civil Liberties in a Time of Terror" and "Meditation and Intentional Prayer as an Alternative to War" and presentations by documentary photographer Peter Turnley and NPR's The Kitchen Sisters.
Women's and children's issues are the focus of a series of programs on Wednesday, May 7 when scholars, artists and activists will address issues including: "Rape, Mutilation and Violence Against Women--What Everyone Should Know," "The Trafficking of Women and Children: Prevention, Protection and Prosecution," "Listening to Women's Voices: Exploring Art, Media and the Humanities," and a keynote address by Cook County Public Guardian Patrick T. Murphy who will present "A Status Report on the Treatment of Children in Foster Care."
The conference will also feature a photographic installation by internationally renowned artist Despina Meimargalou that explores "the humanity of religious women as they struggle to do God's work in the face of persecution and oppression." The exhibition, which opens at Columbia's A + D Gallery, 72 East 11th Street on Friday, May 2 with an artist's reception, runs through May 16.
A Human Rights Film Festival -- organized by the Michael Rabiger Center for Documentary at Columbia College Chicago -- will open on Monday, May 5 with a preview screening of an episode of The New Americans, an extraordinary new multi-part series for PBS by Kartemquin Films, the producers of Hoop Dreams. The New Americans puts a human face on the harrowing journeys of today's immigrants, revealing human rights abuses and the personal impact of the global economy. A discussion with the filmmakers will follow the screening. On Tuesday the festival will screen three films on forgiveness, reconciliation and healing, followed by a panel discussion and on Wednesday "Big Issues/Short Films" will wrap up the film festival with the screening of excerpts from student and faculty work.
Dignity Without Borders is sponsored by the McCormick Tribune Foundation with grants from the Illinois Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Illinois General Assembly and the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation.
Media Contact: Micki Leventhal, 312-344-7383; mleventhal@colum.edu
Chicago, April 2003 -- The Clear Valley Incident, 1615-2003, a room-sized photographic installation by internationally renowned Greek Artist Despina Meimaroglou, uses digital images of a 1615 mural depicting "the Martyrdom of the Nuns of the Cistercensi Order in Vittavia of Poland" and contemporary photographs of individuals that capture a sense of the modern indifference to violence. The juxtaposition of these provocative and poignant images is intended to "explore the humanity of religious women as they struggle to do God's work in the face of persecution and oppression."
The Clear Valley Incident opens in Columbia College Chicago's A + D 11th Street Gallery, 72 East 11th Street on May 2 and runs through May 16. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. -- 5 p.m. Tuesday -- Saturday. For more information call 312-344-6156.
The exhibition, which kicks off Columbia's multi-day conference, Dignity Without Borders: Art, Media and Human Rights, opens with an artist's reception in the gallery at 5:00 p.m. on May 2. At 6:30, artist Meimaroglou will join co-panelists Leonard Lehrer, Dean of the School of Fine and Performing Arts, Columbia College Chicago; Helen Frederick, Executive Artistic Director, Pyramid Atlantic; Kay Hartmann, Art and Design, Columbia College Chicago; Ed Paschke, artist, Northwestern University; Mysoon Rizk, Ph.D., Center for Visual Arts, University of Toledo; John Richardson, sculptor, Wayne State University and moderator Jay Wolke, Chair, Art and Design, Columbia College Chicago for a panel discussion on "Art and Human Rights: Destined to Collide?" Participants will discuss whether or not artists have a responsibility to respond to human rights abuse and, when artists do respond, does the definition of art change?
Dignity Without Borders: Art, Media and Human Rights will continue May 5 – 8 at the Chicago Hilton and Towers and at selected venues on Columbia's south loop campus and will include keynote addresses, workshops, panel discussions and film screenings. Most events are free and open to the public. For further information call 312-344-7675 or visit http://humanrights.colum.edu.
"The conference is to function as a catalyst to bring the human rights stakeholders together, explore and examine terms, goals and mutual interests," says Rose Economou, conference coordinator and professor of journalism at Columbia. "We intend to provide a forum for networking between scholars, educators, artists, media makers, social justice activists and other interested audiences – thereby stimulating ideas that will move forward beyond the scope of the conference and develop collaborations and partnerships that will address the issues of human rights on a global level. It is being organized in partnership with educators, humanists, students from Columbia College Chicago and other educational institutions, representatives from local and national human rights organizations, artists, journalists, documentary filmmakers, community leaders and victims of human rights abuse. The conference will address three main themes: Crimes Against Humanity; Violence Against Women and Children; State and Corporate Abuse; and Religious, Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Intolerance."
Dignity Without Borders is sponsored by the McCormick Tribune Foundation with grants from the Illinois Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Illinois General Assembly and the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation.