July 8 - September 11, 2022
All That Light: A Ten-Year Retrospective of the Artists-in-Residence (AIR) Program (2012 - 2022) seeks to survey the cumulative impact the program has had on the artists it has supported, the audiences it has convened, and the city it has engaged and depicted. Initially conceived a decade ago by artist Theaster Gates and jointly hosted by the University of Chicago’s Arts + Public Life (APL) and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture (CSRPC), the AIR program has grown to become one of the art world’s most generative incubators of talent.
The exhibition’s title is taken from a conversation with Gates, Jacqueline Stewart and Adrienne Brown, acknowledging the program’s reputation for identifying Chicago’s most ascendant artists and makers. Spread across two exhibition spaces, Arts + Public Life and the Reva & David Logan Center for the Arts, the exhibition features objects, sound, and video installation, and is organized to reflect on the multiple meanings of light: to stimulate sight; to make things visible; to illuminate or ignite; to emit radiant energy; and to be easily carried.
If Chicago, perennially a launching pad for some of our most respected artists and musicians, has in recent years become even more of a pacesetter for the rest of the nation when it comes to contemporary art, it is — in part — because the AIR residency and the artists who have participated in it have played a major role in maintaining and advancing that status. Today, Chicago is indisputably considered one of epicenters of cultural production by artists who are Black, Latino, Indigenous, and People of Color and by artists interested in the process of improvisation, co-creation, and defying genre.
Just ten years after the program’s creation, AIR alumni must be counted among the most compelling and successful Chicago-based and affiliated artists, continuing the rich and broad legacy of cultural production on Chicago’s South Side which the program was designed to honor, and cementing the city’s reputation as a touchstone for anyone interested in making and studying contemporary art.
— Curator Tracie D. Hall
Arts + Public Life’s Arts Incubator Gallery
301 E Garfield Blvd, Chicago, IL
Gallery Hours: Wed - Sat, 12:00pm - 7:00pm
Logan Center Exhibitions
915 E 60th Street, Chicago IL
Gallery Hours: Tues - Sat, 9:00am - 9:00pm | Sun, 11:00am - 9:00pm
Artists
Yaw Agyeman
AQ
LeRoy Bach
David Boykin
Jarvis Boyland
Greg Bray
Brandon Breaux
Ayana Contreras
Delano Dunn
Stephen Flemister
Krista Franklin
Ben LaMar Gay
James T. Green
Andres L. Hernandez
David Leggett
Nazafarin Lotfi
Faheem Majeed
Victoria Martinez
A.J. McClenon
Cecil McDonald, Jr.
Alva Mooses
eliza myrie
Lola Ayisha Ogbara
zakkiyyah najeebah dumas o'neal
Tomeka Reid
Amina Ross
Cauleen Smith
Arif Smith
Anna Martine Whitehead
Brittney Leeanne Williams
avery r. young
Logan Center Exhibitions installation
photos by Robert Chase Heishman
Arts Incubator installation
photos by Robert Chase Heishman
PROGRAMS AND EVENTS
FRI, JULY 8 | 6:00 - 8:00PM
Opening Reception for All That Light: A Ten Year Retrospective of the Artists-in-Residence Program (2012-2022)
Two locations, one fabulous night!
Remarks & Toast at 6:30 PM at the Arts Incubator | Arts + Public Life | 301 E Garfield Blvd
Remarks & Toast at 7:30 PM at Logan Exhibitions | Reva & David Logan Center for the Arts | 915 E 60th Street
FRI, JULY 15 | 12:00 - 1:00PM
Artists as Arts Administrators
Virtual Panel
Curator Tracie D. Hall speaks with zakkiyyah najeebah dumas o’neal, Faheem Majeed and Theaster Gates Jr. about their careers as multi-faceted and multi-talented artists and arts administrators. Join us as we trace their contributions and labor across cultural institutions like South Side Community Arts Center, Gallery 400, Floating Museum, Rebuild Foundation, and the University of Chicago.
TUES, JULY 19 | 6:00 - 7:30PM
Self Guided Family Scavenger Hunt
Both locations
Self guided activity for kids accompanied by an adult.
FRI, JULY 22 | 6:30 - 8:30PM
BIG ENERGY | An evening with author Ayana Contreras, Adam Green, Tempestt Hazel and Natalie Moore
Green Line Performing Arts Center, 329 East Garfield Boulevard
Join Ayana Contreras, author, DJ, and radio producer/host, as she discusses Black Chicago’s history, culture and resilience, lovingly and expertly captured in her latest book, Energy Never Dies.
FRI, JULY 29 | 12:00 - 1:15PM
Artists Live with Nazafarin Lotfi and Ben Lamar Gay
Virtual Panel
Moderated by Emily Hooper Lansana
SUN, AUG 14 | 2:00 - 4:00PM
Experience All That Light and its assembled art objects through the eyes of its curator, Tracie D. Hall and contributing artist, Victoria Martinez. Hall and Martinez are giving remarks this Sunday, in-person, at each exhibition location. Visit Arts + Public Life’s Arts Incubator Gallery @ 301 E Garfield Blvd on Sun. August 14 from 2:00-2:45 PM and visit Logan Exhibitions @ 915 E 60th Street from 3:00-3:45 PM for these special tours.
APL’s Arts Incubator Gallery will be open special hours this Sunday from 2-4pm. Logan Exhibitions will be open 11am-9pm.
THURS, AUG 25 | 6:30 - 8:00PM
Light Work: Black Art Practice in Contemporary America
Moderated by Tracie D. Hall, the panel features Delano Dunn, Stephen Flemister, James Green, and Lola Ayisha Ogbara. This program confronts the question of what it means to make art at a moment in this country when Black artistic production is realizing new levels of market value and cachet even as Black lives and Black narratives are increasingly embattled and circumscribed.
Logan Center, Room 901 (Penthouse)
Video: https://youtu.be/jUazhrcSAGE
FRI, SEPT 9, 7:00 - 8:30PM
Performance Showcase for All That Light: A Ten Year Retrospective of the Artists-in-Residence Program (2012-2022)
Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, Performance Hall, 915 E 60th St
SUN, SEPT 11 | 2:00 - 4:00PM
Curator Tour with Tracie D. Hall and Cecil McDonald, Jr.
Starts at Arts Incubator, ends at the Logan Center
ABOUT THE CURATOR
Artist, arts administrator, curator, and librarian Tracie D. Hall founded the small, but influential Rootwork Gallery in Chicago in 2016 and four years later, became the tenth Executive Director of the American Library Association, the oldest and largest library association in the world.
Prior to that appointment Hall served as Director of the Joyce Foundation’s Culture Program where she originated the Arts Leader of Color Fellowship in association with Americans for the Arts; Retool 21, an early-career development program for aspiring arts preparators in partnership with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; the Artist as Problem Solver summits which convened artists and organizers working on arts based community development initiatives in the Midwest; and the Chicago Black Dance Legacy Project with the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts.
Hall also served as Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) for the City of Chicago, where she oversaw the Arts and Creative Industries Division which included the visual and performing arts, arts-based small business, and the Chicago Film Office.
Hall has curated several breakout exhibitions including: ICONIC: Black Panther Chicago commemorating the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Black Panther Party in Illinois; Everyday Rituals: Bridging the Black Secular and the Divine; and Altar Call: The Architecture of Black Sacred Space. In 2019, she was listed among Chicago’s 50 Visual Vanguards by New City. Hall is currently at work developing a residency program for artists and writers in the South.
ABOUT THE AIRS PROGRAM
For the last decade, Arts + Public Life (APL) and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture (CSRPC) have co-hosted an Artists-in-Residence program intentionally designed to center Black and Brown artists working in Chicago’s South Side. Ten years later, these AIRs alumni are among Chicago’s most compelling and successful artists, continuing the rich and broad legacy of South Side cultural production that the program was designed to honor. All That Light celebrates the remarkable impact and ongoing global reach of these ten cohorts.
ABOUT ARTS + PUBLIC LIFE
Arts + Public Life (APL), an initiative of UChicago Arts at the University of Chicago, is a dynamic hub of exploration, expression, and exchange that centers people of color and fosters neighborhood vibrancy through the arts on the South Side of Chicago. As a neighborhood platform for arts and culture in Washington Park, APL provides residencies for Black and Brown artists and creative entrepreneurs, arts education for youth, and artist-led programming and exhibitions.
ABOUT THE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF RACE, POLITICS, AND CULTURE
The Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture (CSRPC) was established by Michael C. Dawson, with a founding conference taking place in June of 1996 entitled, “Race and Voice: Challenges for the 21st Century.” From its inception, CSRPC faculty affiliates, students, and staff have been committed to establishing a new type of research institute devoted to the study of race and ethnicity, one that seeks to expand the study of race beyond the black/white paradigm while exploring social and identity cleavages within racialized communities.
Scholars affiliated with the Center have also endeavored to make race and ethnicity central topics of intellectual investigation at the University of Chicago by fostering interdisciplinary research, teaching, and public debate. Fundamentally, the Center is committed to contributing intellectually challenging and innovative scholarship that can help people transform their thinking and their lives. Towards those goals, the Center provides funding and other types of support for projects initiated by faculty affiliates, graduate students, undergraduates, artists-in-residence and visiting fellows.
After extensive renovations in 2013, our building now features seminar rooms to host classes and workshops, space for our events and community activities and other resources.
Situated at 5733 South University Avenue, the CSRPC encourages all members of the University and Chicago communities to participate in our current and future development. For regular email updates on CSRPC-sponsored and co-sponsored events, fellowships, and initiatives, sign up for our listserv; for quarterly updates on the work of the Center, view our newsletter here.