Never The Same:
The goal of this project is to document Chicago’s rich art history and develop a language for discussing the impact of socially and politically engaged art practices that integrates consideration of external with internal transformation and effects.
The project was launched in the Fall of 2010 with a roundtable discussion about archiving Chicago art held at the Experimental Station. The next Fall of 2011 with 10 interviews posted online at never-the-same.org. The first round of interviews included Kelan Phil Cohran, Jorge Felix, Emily Forman and Josh MacPhee, Dara Greenwald, Aaron Hughes, Jae and Wadsworth Jarrell, Mary Jane Jacob, Ladyfest Midwest, Patric McCoy, and Christina Obregón and Jose David (Calles Y Suenos). And then in the Fall of 2012, interviews with 10 new Chicago artists and organizers were posted, along with the city-wide interview project 5 Questions About Socially Engaged Art in Chicago and updated resource listings. The second round of interviews included Barbara Jones Hogu, Estelle Carol, Joanna Brown and Mark Freitas (Homocore Chicago), Laura Shaeffer, Nicole Garneau, Pemon Rami, Penelope Rosemont , Salome Chasnoff, Terri Kapsalis, and Turtel Onli. This site will also house a significant amount of archived materials and ephemera collected from Chicago’s social and political art communities.
In 2013 NTS will be expanded in terms of our ongoing efforts at archiving and interviewing, as well as through the development of public programs. This work will be supported through a residency at the Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry at the University of Chicago.
For more information about NTS check out a write-up in Chicago Art Magazine and an extensive interview on Bad At Sports podcast episode #356.
NTS is organized by Daniel Tucker and Rebecca Zorach. Contact us at neverthesamechicago@gmail.com
Project advisors include Mary Patten, Abigail Satinsky, Theaster Gates and Ryan Lugalia Hollon.
Archival Consulting by Skyla Hearn. Transcription by Kate Aguirre, Matthew Clark, and Haley Rose Martin. Video editing by Mike Phillips and Haley Rose Martin.
Archiving Discussion, November 2010, Experimental Station (Chicago) – Photo by Jerome Grand
About the Organizers:
Daniel Tucker has been making, as well as researching and writing about, social and political art in Chicago for the last 12 years. He co-edited the pamphlet Trashing the Neoliberal City: Autonomous Cultural Practices in Chicago from 2000-2005 (published by Learning Site); organized the project 5 Questions in which 35 local artists were interviewed (supported by Creative Time as part of Town Hall Talks); edited AREA Chicago from 2005-2010; and has written about Chicago art in numerous publications including Proximity, Chicago Journal, Newcity and the Belgian magazine H-Art where he published a series entitled “Critical Culture in Chicago” (read articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). See miscprojects.com for more information.
Rebecca Zorach teaches art history at the University of Chicago. She is an advisory board member and sometime editor of AREA Chicago and a member of Feel Tank, and is collaborating on projects with the Bronzeville Historical Society and the South Side Community Art Center. She has organized exhibitions at the Smart Museum, DOVA temporary, University of Chicago Library and Gallery 400 and is currently researching and writing on art and politics in Chicago in the 1960s/70s.
Funding:
This project is funded through a 2010 Propeller Fund grant and the Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry at the University of Chicago.
Contact:
Get in touch at neverthesamechicago@gmail.com
June 22nd, 2011 → 8:36 pm
[...] end of the summer and I am having a blast conducting them so far! A bit of info is available here http://never-the-same.org/about/ and the first appearance of the archive will be at the October “Hand In Glove: Alliance for [...]
February 28th, 2012 → 6:54 pm
[...] NTS also received funding from: the Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry at the University of Chicago. Learn more about Daniel Tucker and Rebecca Zorach’s involvement in other local arts-related ventures here. [...]