Kids in the Studio: Art, Labour, and Everyday Life - Cultural ReProducers + DPAM

How can artists feed their creative work while balancing the messy realities of life? On Saturday, September 13^th at 10:30 am, Cultural ReProducers is pleased to join forces with The DePaul Art Museum to present Kids in the Studio: Art, Labour, and Everyday Life led by Copenhagen-based artists Brett Bloom and Bonnie Fortune. Challenging a cultural economy that expects artists to be a mobile, accessible micro-industry, Fortune and Bloom lead a workshop at the intersection of artistic practice and family life, offering alternative models for creative work and inviting participants to share and develop their own. The workshop focuses on cultural labor, but has relevance to workers, parents and non-parents alike.

Kids in the Studio is presented at the DePaul Art Museum, located at 935 Fullerton Ave, Chicago, IL directly next to the Fullerton Red Line stop. The event is presented amidst the exhibition Ink, Paper, Politics: WPA-era Printmaking from the Belverd and Marian Needles Collection, a powerful context from which to explore the relationships between art, politics, life and labor.  

During the event, kids in our on-site childcare area will express their own creative agendas using foam stamps, washable ink and poster-sized paper. Cultural ReProducers events are free, but childcare is available through pre-registration only.

Space is limited. Sign up here to secure your spot:

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The Cultural ReProducers Event Series is a roaming series of lectures, performances, and other events curated by artists Christa Donner and Selina Trepp, designed to allow parents with small children participate more actively in the art community. Events take place on weekend mornings and feature free on-site childcare and all-ages 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.

Bonnie Fortune and  Brett Bloom are multimedia artists working across writing, curatorial projects, and social practice. Fortune’s work explores issues of social and environmental ecology, appearing in publications such as AREA magazine and venues like the Roskilde Museum for Contemporary Art, Frist Center for the Arts, and the Center for Book Arts. Bloom focuses on the use of urban space, and is a founding member of the long-running artist collective Temporary Services, who as part of their work run the publishing imprint Half Letter Press. As parents they have actively taken up issues around parenthood and creative collaboration. You can find more of their work at Let’s ReMake and The Mythological Quarter.

FAQs:

I’m not a parent. Can I come? Absolutely, and bring your friends. We hope these events will be of interest to anyone engaged in the arts - not just families. One of our goals is to include parents in the context of the broader art community, which means it’s vital to have non-parents there as part of the conversation too. Be sure to pre-register if you'd like a voucher for free museum admission.

I am a parent. Does my kid have to be in child care, or can I keep them with me? Parents who'd rather keep their children with them during the lecture are welcome to do so. We're just offering the option to participate without the distraction of wrangling small children.

Why do I need to pre-register for child care? For safety and legal reasons, space is limited to 18 children per event, and we expect it to fill quickly. Registration is first-come, first-served.

What time should I arrive if I have children? Sign-in starts at 9:30am. The event itself starts at 10:30 and will last a little over an hour. Of course, timing with children is often a bit unpredictable. You’re welcome to sign in and quietly join us at any time during the event.

Who will be watching my kids? We’ve hand-picked a great selection of experienced babysitters and playgroup facilitators who will lead hands-on activities linked to the events that parents will be attending. These are people we know and trust with our own kids regularly. Keep in mind that this is a grassroots, artist-run childcare project, not a licensed daycare facility. You will be asked to read and sign a waiver before registering your child. 

What about parking and public transportation? The DePaul Art Museum is conveniently located adjacent to the “Fullerton” CTA Brown/Red line stations. The Fullerton Bus (#74) and the Lincoln Avenue Bus (#11) both stop in front of the museum.

Street parking is available in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Validated parking rates are also available for the Sheffield garage located around the corner from the museum at 2331 N Sheffield, a half block south on Sheffield Avenue. Validated rates are $8 before 4pm and $6 after 4pm.