VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

DiverseWorks ArtSpace presents The North Wind and The Sun, on view March 11-April 16, 2011. Opening Reception: Friday, March 11, 6-9pm. Panel Discussion: Wednesday, April 13, 6:30pm.

Chicago has made its mark on the American landscape. Home to Barack Obama, Da Bears, Al Capone, the taste sensation that is the Chicago-style hot dog, Wrigley chewing gum, Sears Tower and lots and lots of wind, Chicago is a metropolitan powerhouse. So is Houston. And H-town tells Chi-town to BRING IT!

DiverseWorks partners with Chicago’s oldest alternative art space, the Hyde Park Art Center, to showcase some of the best artists in the South and the Midwest through an exhibit exchange of the 2008 Artadia awardees. Houston represents in Chicago and Chicago represents in Houston in this cross-country cultural showdown.

“Artadia entered its second decade, the organization sought to better leverage exposure for Awardees, and partner communities. The Exhibition Exchange is designed to provide opportunities for Artadia artists, who may or may not be well known locally, to exhibit their work and gain vital recognition in many cases for the first time beyond their region. Through our programming in the past twelve years with communities like Chicago and Houston, we have been tracking affinities, and touch points for conversation between our partner cities. The Exhibition Exchange between Chicago and Houston opens an important dialogue between artists and institutions, and also drives us as the audience to explore notions of regionalism, and creative practice.” – Lila Kanner, Executive Director of Artadia: The Fund for Art and Dialogue

Featured artists include: Melika Bass, Juan Angel Chavez, Jim Duignan, Theaster Gates, Kelly Kaczynski, Dutes Miller & Stan Shellabarger, Kim Piotrowski.

Special Event:
Allison Peters Quinn, Director of Exhibitions at the Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago), joins Diane Barber for a conversation about the art ecologies in Houston and Chicago.

Curators’ Conversation
Date: Wednesday, April 13, 2011, 6:30pm
Location: DiverseWorks ArtSpace
1117 East Freeway
Houston, Texas 77002
Free Admission and open to the public

About Artadia: The Fund for Art and Dialogue
Artadia’s mission is to encourage innovative practice and meaningful dialogue across the United States by providing visual artists in specific communities with unrestricted awards and a national network of support. Artadia was founded as The ArtCouncil in 1997 by investment banker and art collector Christopher E. Vroom as a response to the demise of the National Endowment for the Arts’ artist fellowships. The first awards were given in San Francisco, where Vroom was living at the time. Chicago was added as a program city in 2001. In 2003, Artadia added Houston to its roster, Boston in 2007, and Atlanta this year. Once Artadia commits to a community, it returns every other year to run its awards programs and, on the off years, it co-sponsors a public program with a local institution. Started as an individual’s philanthropy, Artadia is now expanding its base of support by recruiting art patrons from across the United States to join its giving circles and board of directors to support the core of creative culture: the individual artist. Artadia has been based in New York City since 2002.

For more information on Artadia, please visit artadia.org.

About DiverseWorks ArtSpace:
DiverseWorks is a non-profit art center in Houston, Texas dedicated to presenting new visual, performing, and literary art. DiverseWorks is a place where the process of creating art is valued and where artists can test new ideas in the public arena. By encouraging the investigation of current artistic, cultural and social issues, DiverseWorks builds, educates, and sustains audiences for contemporary art.

About Hyde Park Art Center:
The Hyde Park Art Center is the oldest alternative contemporary art venue in Chicago. Presenting innovative and challenging approaches to the visual arts, the Art Center showcases work that traverses all forms of media and encourages creative collaboration. The exhibitions, installations, artist/curator talks, discussions and events invite visitors to experience the unexpected and explore untraditional topics in a stimulating and fun environment.

Pictured above: an image by Dutes Miller & Stan Shellabarger.