2010 Awardees

Please click on the project titles to be led to an individual page featuring project statement, images, links and upcoming events.

ChicagoRICAN ($2,000)
ChicagoRICAN is a curatorial and exhibition design project by Jorge Felix that addresses the arts production of Puerto Rican artists in Chicago. ChicagoRICAN promotes a dialogue on the contributions of migrant artists‚ arts production in the building of communities in contemporary America.

Dorchester Project (Theaster Gates, Founder and Lead Artist, Elly Fishman and Dara Epison, Program Managers) ($6,000)
Located in Grand Crossing, out of two neighboring spaces, Dorchester Project envisions a South Side collaborative that encourages community development and access to knowledge through explorative exercises related to arts, culture, and design, with distinctly Chicago-based identities.

Five Funerals ($6,000)
The Alliance of Pentaphilic Curators (Jason Dunda and Teena McClelland, representatives): Five funerals scheduled to occur in April 2011 at a funeral home in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood. Each funeral is dedicated to the contemplation of one notional death and hosted by a select Chicago cultural producer.

Forms of Spectacle and Solutions to Vacancy ($2,000)
Nicholas Bastis, David Fleishman, Brandon Pass and Beidler Elementary: Destination architecture placed in neglected places. With collaborators from local and neighboring communities, Bastis will explore the outcomes of subverting construction and spatial hierarchies by building a temporary replica of a Frank Gehry building in a vacant lot in the West Side of Chicago.

Life's A Ball ($6,000)
Todd Diederich, Sara Fagala, Melissa Marinaro and Solomon Arnold: With the Ballroom scene of Chicago, Diederich, Fagala, Marinaro and Arnold combine their efforts to work and bridge different communities. The project includes throwing a ball, displaying pictures of Diederich's documentary project, and a photo shoot and fashion line just for the Ballroom scene.

Mutualisms ($2,000)
Mutualisms is a collaborative curatorial project organized by Lise Haller Baggesen and Kirsten Leenaars that explores the ways in which networks of friendship and artistic collaboration can be used as a model for curating. Artists based in Chicago and the Netherlands will participate.

Never The Same: Transformative experiences of art, politics and community in Chicago ($6,000)
Utilizing Daniel Tucker's history in documenting local publishing, education, spaces, community, and public art, he will convene an advisory group to conceptualize and produce a catalog/archive to document compelling projects that make up Chicago's socially-engaged art history.

Pilot Studies ($2,000)
Pilot Studies is an ongoing publishing project, initiated by InCUBATE and involving a wide range of collaborators, to gather strategies and perspectives on how to organize and support noncommercial, grassroots and community-based creative projects.

Qeej Hero ($2,000)
Erik Peterson, Benjamin Liu, Koobmeej Lee, Gary Kupczak, and Laura Thompson: Qeej Hero is a video game that combines the instrumental karaoke of popular mass-market games like Guitar Hero with an ancient Hmong musical instrument in order to facilitate transnational communication and develop a hybrid form of cultural production.

Sex Offender Next Door ($2,000)
Laurie Jo Reynolds, Stephen F. Eisenman, and Jeanine Oleson: Two innovative cultural projects (photo series, calling cards) will be produced with maximum community involvement, and included in a series of dialogic public presentations on the subject of sexual violence, sex offender policies, and harm reduction.

SPACE PROGRAM ($2,000)
Curated by Ben Russell, the Space Program is a screening series of experimental films and videos. Each program is named after, and thematically related to, one of the 8 planets in the solar system.

Tamalli Space Charros Collective: Omar Ureña Ximénez, Tamatz Juanes, Irradiador, The Aztlán Cardinal, La Pocha Catalana, Luis Humberto Valadez, Saúl Aguirre, Armando Morales, and Luis Muñoz ($6,000)
TSCC: An interdisciplinary business project bringing multimedia art and Mexican cuisine into an arena where boundaries will be crossed to explore and reinvent the Chicago food scene through a social network.

The Lady Dissident Chicago Travel Auxiliary ($2,000)
Continuation of the Lady Dissident Publications Series by Alana Bailey and Anne Elizabeth Moore through the creation and production of 10 new editioned screenprinted Chicago neighborhood posters.

The Suburban and N55 ($2,000)
Replacing the N55 LAND Cairn formerly located (2001-2008) at Position: N 41° 53' 03,4" E 087° 46' 06,8". Area: 160 m2. Chicago, USA.

The Storefront ($2,000)
Directed by Brandon Alvendia, The Storefront is an exhibition, event, and publishing venue in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago. It is designed to support local artists working on either temporary and/or long-term sustainable projects. Projects will be archived and published for international distribution.