CR Event Series Report: An Anti-Guided Walking Tour of the Museum

walking-as-art for all ages

On July 19th Cultural ReProducers joined forces with the Art Institute of Chicago to present "An Anti-Guided Walking Tour of the Museum" led by art historian and critic Lori Waxman in the form of a slideshow through history, from Surrealist novels to Fluxus walking performances to Janet Cardiff's contemporary audiovisual adventures. Meanwhile, our kids laid down their own art walks of inky stamps and colored tape in a sunny room across the hall. At the close of the lecture, Waxman distributed a handout packed with Fluxus walking scores for participants to enact around the museum and out into the city, providing potential outlines for endlessly sensory self-guided tours.

One of our goals has been to make the Cultural ReProducers Event Series free of charge in addition to organizing free on-site childcare. Artists are the most underpaid / unpaid workers in the arts economy, and for artist-parents the equation "time = money" is especially literal, since work time often translates directly to childcare costs. This could have made things tricky at a museum that charges $23 adult admission, but the museum's education department was amazing to work with and together we made it happen. The event was held in the Ryan Education Center, a great family-friendly space in the new Modern Wing that is always free, and joined the Art Institute's annual Kaleidoscope Festival, which provided free museum admission as well as great activities throughout the day with organizations like the Poetry Foundation and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Wendy Donahue at the Chicago Tribune did a really nice event writeup for the newspaper's website, which also brought some new visitors our way.

 The Cultural ReProducers Event Series is a roaming series of lectures, performances, and other events designed to allow parents with small children participate more actively in the art community. These curated weekend morning events include free on-site childcare and intergenerational receptions.

Our goal is twofold: to give parents and their kids the chance to participate as critical members of the arts community, and to inspire cultural institutions to better serve artists and audiences, providing positive models for future programming. This project is made possible through support from the Propeller Fund.

We're busy planning our next event for Saturday, September 13th at the DePaul Museum of Art:  Kids in the Studio: Art, Labour, and Everyday Life with artists Bonnie Fortune and Brett Bloom. Drop us an email at culturalreproducers (at) gmail dot com if you'd like information about this and other upcoming events.