Oct 1st: Bicycles and the Arts at Happy Dog Gallery

DATE: Friday, October 1, 2010 (8 p.m.)

LOCATION: Happy Dog Gallery

1542 N. Milwaukee Ave., 2nd floor

You are invited to attend “Bicycles and the Arts,” a multidisciplinary event that happens during the Fifth Annual Chicago Calling Arts Festival and Chicago Artists Month. Bicycles and the Arts creatively explores connections between these two vital elements of culture and society --

* Wheels on the Ground and in the Sky, a group show with paintings, sculptures, and videos by Andrew DelaRosa, Janina Ciezadlo, John Bambino, Alpha Bruton, Regin Ingloria, Catie Olson, Matt Weber, and Working Bikes Cooperative; * John Greenfield reads from his new book Bars Across America: Drinking and Biking from Coast to Coast; * Chicago Underground Library presents a Pop Up Library; * a musical ensemble performs -- Derek Repsch (electronics), Andrew Royal (violin), Robin Boudreaux (tenor saxophone), Dan Godston (trumpet), Alex Wing (guitar), and Jimmy Bennington (drums) -- including a telematic performance with an ensemble in Detroit and an homage to Frank Zappa’s 1963 appearance on The Steve Allen Show (when Zappa taught Allen how to play a bicycle and the Steve Allen Orchestra performed with the musical bicycles);

* conversations with bicycle groups in other communities across the U.S., including Spearfish Bike Cooperative (Spearfish, SD) and the New Orleans Community Bike Project

* images and sounds of projects by U.S. and international artists and organizations will be shown, including those by Ultra Grøn (Copenhagen), Emeka Ogboh (Lagos, Nigeria), and Cay Brøndum (Copenhagen) * a project by Catie Olson which pays homage to Jean Tinguely’s Homage to New York (1960).

“Bicycles and the Arts” involves partnerships with the Active Transportation Alliance, Copenhagen Cyclery, and the League of Illinois Bicyclists. We would also like to thank the Copenhagen Center for Traffic for their help. $7 suggested donation, all ages and open to the public.

Fifth Annual Chicago Calling Arts Festival

Chicago Calling is a multi-arts collaboration festival. During the Fifth Annual Chicago Calling Arts Festival, people in Chicago work with people outside of Chicago -- both here in the U.S. and abroad. These collaborations include a range of art forms, such as music, dance, film, literature, and intermedia -- and they are prepared or improvised. Some Chicago Calling events involve live feeds between Chicago and other locations. 2010 Chicago Calling events include “Bicycles and the Arts” at Happy Dog Gallery, “Translations 2010” at the Reconstruction Room, “Seda Röder / Burton Greene - Harrison Bankhead Duo Concert” at Curtiss Hall in the Fine Arts Building, “Temperatures and Shapes / Arctic Live” at Elastic Sound & Vision Gallery, “I Remember Fred” at the Velvet Lounge, “Chicago Calling, Waiting for the Bus” at Café Ballou, “Aural Architecture” at WNUR, “Two Way Tarot Mirrors” at Myopic Books, “Facets of Southeast Asia” at the Zhou B. Art Center, “Chicago Equinix” at Soapbox Music, “The City as Studio / Curatorial Practice” at the Phantom Gallery Chicago Network Office, and “My Favorite Banned Books Abecedarian Read-Out” at the Logan Square Library. Chicago Calling is organized by the Borderbend Arts Collective, a 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to promote the arts, to create opportunities for artists to explore new directions in and between art forms, and to engage the community. Annual Borderbend projects include Chicago Calling and the Mingus Awareness Project. Other organizations partner with Borderbend to enrich and extend the reach of its project, such as the Experimental Piano Series, which is co-produced by the Chicago Composers Forum and Borderbend, in partnership with the PianoForte Foundation.

Chicago Artists Month

Throughout October, you are invited to meet hundreds of Chicago visual artists at exhibitions, workshops, open studios, tours, neighborhood art walks and more in venues across the city. Presented by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs in collaboration with more than 200 program partners, Chicago Artists Month aims to showcase the extraordinary talent and vibrancy of Chicago’s art community.

This year's theme, "The City as Studio,” explores the impact of the urban environment on Chicago artists and their work, and the contributions that artists make to the vitality of our city. The place where art is imagined and made, whether in a physical or virtual space, affects the

idea, the process and the final product. And the art, once created, leaves a mark on the place it occupies. Chicago Artists Month 2010 looks at how the city influences art and artists, and how artists transform the city by contributing to civic dialogue and quality of life.

http://www.chicagoartistsresource.org/music/node/28762