For Immediate Release:
August 29, 2006
Bitch Magazine founders and editors, Lisa Jervis and Andi Zeisler, will read from the collection, BITCHfest, the best essays of their magazine's first ten years, on September 28, at 5:30 pm in Ferguson Hall, on the campus of Columbia College Chicago, 600 South Michigan Avenue.
Over the last ten years, Bitch Magazine has covered so much that is serious, funny and outrageous about sexual politics. Topics like lesbian fashion, fetishes, the sexual highway, incarcerated women, the disappearance of black women in sitcoms and interviews with artists, writers, filmmakers and political leaders have made Bitch a fresh and unapologetic voice in the popular media. Sarah Jones, Margaret Cho, bell hooks, Janeane Garofalo, Barbara Ehrenreich, Harriet the Spy, Gurinder Chadha and many more have contributed a "bitch" or two in the last decade.
Lisa Jervis believes that issues of "gender justice" are just as important today as they were in the early days of the feminist movement and that one of the greatest dangers to the movement spawned in the 70's and 80's is a growing divide between first-generation activists and a new generation of young people "in their 20s and 30s who don't see their concerns reflected in the feminism of their elders."
This visit by Jervis and Zeisler is presented by Columbia College Chicago's Institute for the Study of Women and Gender, in cooperation with the college's program in Women and Gender Studies and the Journalism Department, and in partnership with the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago.
WHEN: September 28, 2006 at 5:30 pm
WHERE: Ferguson Hall, 600 S. Michigan Ave., 1st floor
COST: Free and open to the public
INFO: Contact Jane M. Saks or Kelly S. Saulsberry at 312.344.8829
Established in 2005, the Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media is interested in the relationships and intersections between gender, creativity and culture.
Media Contact: Elizabeth Burke-Dain, 312.344.8695
For Immeidate Release
21 August 2006
Chicago, IL--The Arts, Entertainment and Media Management Department (AEMM) at Columbia College will honor individuals and arts organizations for their entrepreneurial spirit and outstanding service at The Annual Arts Entrepreneurship Awards Luncheon on Wednesday, September 27 at 11:30 at the River East Art Center, 435 E. Illinois Street. The college will bestow this year's honors on six Chicago-area individuals and/or arts organizations that capture such spirit. They are:
• Maywood Fine Arts Association, Lois Baumann, artistic director, president-board of directors
• Kohl Children's Museum, Sheridan Turner, president and CEO
• Maria Pinto Designs, Inc., Mario Pinto, founder and fashion designer
• The Coleman Foundation, Inc., Michael W. Hennessy, president and CEO
• The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Laryssa Reifel, vice chairman and member of the board of directors
Tickets are $85 each or $150 for an individual sponsor ticket. Tables of ten may be purchased for $800 (benefactor), $2,500 (sponsor) and ($5,000 patron. To purchase tickets or for further information call, 312.344.7658. All proceeds benefit the Chuck Suber Scholarship Fund for students in the college's AEMM program.
Mikki Markowicz and Daniel McLean will keynote this year's luncheon. Markowicz is the executive director of the River East Art Center and McLean is the president and chief executive officer of MCL Companies.
The Annual Arts Entrepreneurship Awards Luncheon (formerly known as the Paul Berger Arts Entrepreneurship Awards Luncheon) was developed by the AEMM Department to further its mission to support entrepreneurship in the arts. The award recognizes arts organizations and/or leaders exhibiting exceptional entrepreneurial skills, innovation, willingness to take risks, leadership and management.
Dance Chicago is a festival designed as an audience development project. It features more than 250 individual performances and more than 2,500 artists. It was founded by John Schmitz and Fred Solari in 1995 as a means to support the infrastructure of the dance community through collaborative programming and educational initiatives.
Kohl Children's Museum is a community-based organization that provides a hands-on learning exhibit/laboratory for children from birth to eight years old. The Museum, which opened a new $18.1 million world-class facility in Glenview in October 2005, offers 17 interactive hands-on exhibits.
Maywood Fine Arts Association was established in 1996. It was formed out of community concerns from residents of Maywood and surrounding neighborhoods to help combat a rise in drugs, gang activity and teen pregnancies. The MFAA provides a safe and nurturing environment where children can develop their skills and appreciation of the arts that will enable them to pursue higher education opportunities and develop successful social skills.
Chicago-based fashion designer Maria Pinto designs elegant, ready-to-wear fashions and accessories. She has designed dance costumes for the Joffrey Ballet and is the recipient of many prestigious design awards including the Gold Coast Fashion Award. In June she was appointed to serve as a representative of Mayor Daley's newly formed Fashion Advisory Council, an organization that will identify ways to retain and support new and established designers in Chicago and assist design students in transitioning from school to career.
The Coleman Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit, private, independent foundation founded by the estates of Dorothy W. and J.D. Stetson Coleman. The Colemans were committed entrepreneurs who cared enough to voluntarily return value to society. The major areas of grant making for the foundation are cancer care, treatment and research; education, with a strong emphasis on entrepreneurship education; and service for the disabled, with a strong emphasis on development disabilities.
The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art was founded in 1971 in the heart of Chicago's Ukrainian Village. The museum is a non-profit organization and is staffed entirely by volunteers. It is committed to a program of cultural exhibitions, concerts, lectures and literacy events, film screenings and music recitals.
Columbia College Chicago, an urban institution committed to access, opportunity, and excellence in higher education, provides innovative practice and education in the visual, performing, media and communication arts to 11,500 students in more than 90 undergraduate and graduate programs. Founded in 1890 as a communications school for women, Columbia was revisioned in 1963 as a liberal arts college with a "hands-on, minds-on" approach to arts and media education and a progressive social agenda. Under the modern leadership of President Warrick L. Carter, Ph.D., Columbia is aggressively pursuing its mission to bring a richness of vision and a multiplicity of voices to the creation of culture through the diversity of our students and graduates. For further information visit www.colum.edu.
Media Contact: Priscilla L. Hunter, 312.344.780, phunter@colum.edu
For Immediate Release
August 20, 2006
WHAT: Exalted Trash is an art exhibition that uses what is most commonly considered "trash" and redefines it as Art.
Paper is cheap, abundant and disposed of almost too easily. Patrick Miceli's art installations are comprised of fast food packaging -- one of the most abundant paper waste products in our culture. As such, it is a relic left in the wake of our consumer society. Flat boxes made from terracotta are arranged on the floor to define a circle. Viewed from this context each box is a piece of a puzzle containing a scrap of paper. Each scrap of paper can be seen as an archeological keepsake or fetish item in its own reliquary or time capsule.
Paris-based artist Bruno Richard has been publishing books and magazines of graphic drawings, text and photo-based work since the late 1970s. He and Marc Fischer, Chicago-based artist and member of the groups, Temporary Services and Mess Hall, have engaged in mail correspondence since 1998, resulting in a mountainous barrage of detritus that Fischer has received from Richard. Fischer's archives of Richard's multitudinous mailed packages have swelled beyond reason. The scraps of paper, pieces of film, book layouts, photocopied drawings, give-away postcards, used envelopes, receipts and clippings from newspapers and obscure sex journals that provide the source material for Richard's work, give the impression of a manic energy. This is, however, a controlled concern with one's obsessions; an aesthetic contrivance that has not lost its authenticity.
WHEN: October 7 - December 9, 2006
WHERE: Columbia College, Center for Book & Paper Arts
1104 S. Wabash, Ave., 2nd floor
COST: Free and Open to the Public.
INFO: 312.344.6630 or www.bookandpaper.org
Media Contact: Elizabeth Burke-Dain 312.344.8695
For Immediate Release
August 21, 2006
WHAT: Secret quests for vengeance, Robotechnology, traditional folktales, fantasy journeys to the west and the struggle to find one's identity in a small white-bred Canadian city; these are some of the stories audiences will see at the first film festival devoted to Pan-Asian animation - a screening of over 25 animated film from Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China.
While many of us might not recognize these animation artists names, most Americans have seen their work in television shows. In the case of Korean Director and keynote speaker, Nelson Shin (director of Empress Chung), his production company does the animation work for The Simpsons, X-Men, Animaniacs, Invasion America and Arthur
"This festival gives the public the chance to see the personal and creative work of animators who are little seen outside of their home countries," says Yuchia Chang, Managing Director, Asian Arts Center.
WHEN: September 28 - October 1, 2006
Opening Reception, September 28 from 6 - 9pm
Director Nelson Shin (Empress Chung)- keynote speaker
WHERE: Columbia College, Film Row Cinema
1104 S. Wabash Avenue, 8th Fl.
COST: $10 Each Screening
$5 Student with valid ID
Media Contact: Elizabeth Burke-Dain, 312.344.8695
For Immediate Release
August 20, 2006
WHAT: Columbia College's Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media presents an art exhibition of the Body Maps. The Body Maps are artworks which were created by a group of women with HIV/AIDS, The Bambanani Womens Group, based in Cape Town, South Africa. The Bambanani Women were invited to tell their stories through a community outreach program initiated by the AIDS and Society Research Unit of the University of Cape Town (ASRU) and Médecins Sans Frontières. This program began to document the lives of this group of HIV+ women who were given access to drug therapies. With the help of Cape Town-based artist, Jane Soloman, the participants created Body Maps- life size images tracing the contours of their bodies that visualize the virus and articulate each individual history.
Each Body Map image bears the name, the place and the date of birth, as well as the handprints and the footprints of its maker/subject. On the Body Maps, painted representations of wounds, marks and attacking HIV viruses appear together with textual fragments and areas of emotional significance. Each participant has selected a symbol of personal power and hope, often taking the form of a flower or a heart, to embody the optimism of the project. The shadowy forms of the participants' partners hover behind the female images to underline the crucial support and encouragement needed from others.
The Body Maps draw us into a direct dialogue with South Africa 's, and the world's, epidemic AIDS problem. We are invited to identify with individual women on a highly personal, emotive basis. But, ultimately, these are images of hope and beauty that are also used as qualitative research tools as well as instruments for narrative therapy and treatment literacy programs.
Long Life - Positive HIV Stories, a collaborative book based on the Body Maps and on the accompanying stories they illustrate, profiles the lifes of the Bambanani Woman group. With the participation of the women who authored the art and the related stories, limited edition prints of the Body Maps are for sale with proceeds allocated to HIV/AIDS organizations in South Africa. These life-sized prints were printed by David Krut Fine Art. There is also a traveling exhibition of the Body Maps available for rental.
WHEN:September 5 - October 13, 2006
Opening Reception on Thursday, September 7 from 5-7
WHERE:C33 Gallery, 33 East Congress
Gallery Hours: Monday through Thursday 9-7,
Friday 9-5, Saturday by appt.
COST: Free and Open to the Public
INFO: Note: Some images are available electronically.
Media Contact: Elizabeth Burke-Dain, 312.344.8695