Investments
Wikipedia tells us that investment is “the active redirection of resources/assets to creating benefits in the future; the use of resources/assets to earn income or profit in the future.”
So what are the benefits that you will be investing in? We describe some of the incentives here, but there are also more long-term goals that are a part of the Universal Patronage Project. The following are some of the programs and projects (the list is growing, so check back) that we are currently trying to support and expand.
In August 2009, we opened an experimental performance/project space in the Tri-Taylor neighborhood of Chicago called Fishbowl. The space is located in the storefront of a three-flat on Taylor St, one block north of Roosevelt. We’ve already had a number of events in the space – including a celebratory altar for Dia de los Muertos, an improvisational long-distance performance between an artist in California and another here in Chicago, and even some of our own work. We have events scheduled through March 2009 and are actively gathering more people from various venues.
In Spring 2010, we will start working directly with SAIC, UIC and Columbia College in an effort to involve local student populations in Fishbowl programming. We will focus on undergraduates, ideally engaging underclassmen and other groups who traditionally have limited opportunities to exhibit their work, particularly work that is experimental in nature.
In an interview in the New York Times in early November 2005, Marina Abramović explained the impetus for her most recent performances in Seven Easy Pieces. She stated that “she felt a strong need to preserve the memory of performances that influenced her as an artist. ‘There’s nobody to keep the history straight … I feel almost, like, obliged. I felt like I have this function to do it.’”
We have based our ideas about The Cover Artists on similar feelings. Who is keeping the history of performance art in the present? Is it valid (much less important) that events that were live and of a particular context be brought into the present so that they can be experienced in the body?
