[Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Jennifer Justice @ the Cultural Center

[Jennifer Justice]

Hi,
Hope you can make it out to this event, featuring work
by yours truly! Questions regarding the opening can be
directed to me or Sofia Zutautas at the Cultural
Center: 312-7447529. Official press release follows:		
										
“HUMANS BEING: DISABILITY IN CONTEMPORARY ART” 

Ground-Breaking Exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center
April 1—June 4, 2006
Highlight of the City-Wide Bodies of Work Festival

This spring, the Chicago Cultural Center will host one
of the first American surveys that will take an in
depth look at the issues of art and disability. 
Humans Being: Disability in Contemporary Art is a
ground-breaking exhibition that will be a cornerstone
of Bodies of Work: The Chicago Festival of Disability
Arts and Culture, the city’s first-ever multi-venue
festival showcasing work by professional artists with
disabilities.

Humans Being: Disability in Contemporary Art will come
to the Chicago Cultural Center’s Michigan Avenue
Galleries, located at 78 E. Washington St. (accessible
entrance located at 77 E. Randolph St.), from April 1
through June 4, 2006.  The show aims to be a complex
and serious conversation about how disability is both
understood and misunderstood by the culture at large. 
It will include paintings, sculpture, photography,
installation and samples of graphic novels by more
than 20 artists—both disabled and non-disabled—and
will explore issues of illness, impairment,
discrimination, alienation, sexuality, community,
identity and the political aspects of disability.

The exhibition is organized by the Chicago Department
of Cultural Affairs and co-curated by Illinois artist
Riva Lehrer and Sofia Zutautas, Assistant Curator at
the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs.  Humans
Being: Disability in Contemporary Art has been
underwritten by Maria Magnus and is made possible
through generous gifts from Beatrice C. Mayer, Michael
Louis Minns, Mary McFadden, Good’s of Evanston and The
Compounder Pharmacy.  Admission to the exhibition and
related programming is free.  

Humans Being: Disability in Contemporary Art will
include work by local, national and international
professional artists including David B. (Beauchard),
Madison Clell, Katie Dallam, Susan Dupor, Laura
Ferguson, Tabata Hideoshi, Jennifer Justice, Terry
Karpowicz, Leonard Lehrer, Riva Lehrer, Tim Lowly,
William Newman, Harriet Sanderson, Katherine Sherwood,
Hollis Sigler, Sunaura Taylor, Frances Turner, Richard
Yohnka and Jonathan Wos, among others.

-MORE-


Add One/  “Humans Being: Disability in Contemporary
Art”

“This exhibition challenges the way disability has
stayed beneath the radar on the art world’s screen,”
said Sofia Zutautas, Assistant Curator of Exhibitions
for the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs.  “It
also gives this artists’ community its well deserved
exposure while bringing to light a subject matter that
is rarely addressed.”

The public is invited to learn more about the
exhibition by taking part in a number of programs at
the Chicago Cultural Center.  A list of programs
include:

Public Discussion:  “The Geography of Art &
Disability”
Saturday, April 1, 2 p.m., First Floor Garland Room
Katherine Sherwood, participating artist and professor
of Art at UC Berkeley, discusses the history of art
and disability.  

Bodies of Work: A Public Forum  
“Disability Culture in the U.S.: Revolutionizing Art
from the Inside Out”
Friday, April 21, 6 p.m., First Floor Garland Room
Moderated by Carrie Sandahl, disability rights
activist, cultural critic, historian and theatre
artist, and Associate Professor at Florida State
University’s School of Theatre.

Audio Described Tours
Saturday, April 22, 12-2 p.m., Michigan Avenue
Galleries
Thursday, April 27, 12-2 p.m., Michigan Avenue
Galleries
Audio described tours will be available for the
visually impaired.

Gallery Talk
Thursday, April 27, 12:15 p.m., Michigan Avenue
Galleries
Co-curators Riva Lerher and Sofia Zutautas discuss the
exhibition. 

Public Discussion:  “Imagining and Imaging the
Disabled Self”
Saturday, April 29, 2:30 p.m., First Floor Garland
Room
Moderated by Alice Dreger, PhD., of the Medical
Humanities and Bioethics Program at Northwestern
University, and including a panel of artists whose
works are included in the exhibition.

Expanded hours for summer at the Chicago Cultural
Center begin on April 1 and run through October 31. 
Viewing hours for Humans Being: Disability in
Contemporary Art at the Chicago Cultural Center are
Mondays through Thursdays, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Fridays,
8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and
Sundays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.  The Chicago Cultural
Center is closed on holidays.

This program is presented as part of Bodies of Work:
The Chicago Festival of Disability Arts and Culture,
held in venues across the city from April 20-30, 2006.
 Bodies of Work features artwork and performances that
address disability issues and highlights the work of
artists with disabilities in a variety of disciplines
including the visual and literary arts, dance, film
and theater. Lectures, tours and workshops are also
featured.  

-MORE-


Add Two/ “Humans Being: Disability in Contemporary
Art”

The Michigan Avenue Galleries are supported by Chase. 
Exhibitions and related educational programming
presented by the Chicago Department of Cultural
Affairs at the Chicago Cultural Center are partially
supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a
state agency.  

Also on view in the Chicago Cultural Center from April
1 through May 14 is the exhibition, “Thinking Out
Loud: Studio Programs for Artists with Disabilities,”
which features the work of artists with developmental,
cognitive, and mental disabilities.  A part of the
Bodies of Work festival, “Thinking Out Loud” includes
work by artists who participate in studio programs
operated by community-based organizations in Chicago,
including Project Onward, Esperanza Community
Services, and Thresholds South. 

For more information about Humans Being: Disability in
Contemporary Art, call 312.744.6630 (TTY:
312.744.2947) or visit www.chicagoculturalcenter.org. 
For more information about  “Thinking Out Loud,” visit
projectonward.org; about Bodies of Work: The Chicago
Festival of Disability Arts and Culture, call
312.744.6630 (TTY: 312.744.2947) or visit
www.bodiesofwork.org.

###




Note to Press:  Electronic Images Available Upon Request

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