Poster Show Photos by Paul Rizzuto

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

WPA - Gabriel Villa's Mural Destroyed

As part of Version>09 and the Bridgeport WPA artist Gabriel Villa created an astonishing mural at the corner of 31st and S. Keeley Street in Bridgeport.

Early May 14th the mural was illegally painted over by the city.
Alderman James Balcer (Ward 11) told WBEZ that he called
the city’s Streets and Sanitation Department to have it destroyed.

This type of blatant censorship is sad and frightening.
It has sparked an enormous amount of dialogue through out the community.

Coverage ::
Chicago Public Radio's (WBEZ)
Eight Forty-Eight
NBC Chicago
CBS Chicago
Huffington Post




Gabriel's mural before



after

Andrew St Lawrence for Version '09

Project Treehouse

As part of the WPA Kathleen Tieri and Wade Tillett have created Project Treehouse. Look for and here we are silkscreened fabric signs placed out in the streets of Bridgeport in an effort to promote reflection on the present place, moment and body.

They will also be at outside the Benton House on April 25th and 26th conducting surveys, collecting audio recordings and showing documentation of the project.

Printing Posters

The wonderful Reba Rakstad has been helping us print WPA posters over at No Coast.
Poster Show is only a week away!

Amazing Art for next to Nothing! THIS FRIDAY

The Version Festival User-Directed Super Raffle and
V-Bay Buy-it-Now Art Auction!


Giant Seripop prints


Silkscreen by Adrianne Goodrich

SEE MORE ART HERE!!!!

Friday April 17, 2009 7pm to midnight
@ Country Club
1100 N. Damen Ave
Chicago, IL 60622

The awesome must-have works and services are available due to the generosity of Version festival friends and participants. You can win something pretty amazing for just a few bucks. Or buy the work right off the wall.

The deal: Donate at the door and get raffle tickets ($5 for 2 tickets/ $10 for 5 tickets)
Put tickets in the cups underneath the items you want (art, objects, dates, services.) At 11:30pm, a winner will be drawn from each cup. You must be present when your ticket is drawn, or another winner will be chosen.

Or, if you really must have it, pull the ticket with the "BUY IT NOW" price, bring it to the Reception desk and pay cash (or check) on the spot.

more info on how this works:
www.lumpen.com/CPS/future.html

Volunteer at Version!

We need volunteers for the festival. Please sign up. Tons of perks for donating your time. We need door people, wood humpers, installers, muralists, builders, clean-up crew, floors for artist to sleep on, food prep and more.

Please fill out our VOLUNTEER SURVEY and our Volunteer Coordinator (Heather Mitchell) will let you know where, when and how you can be of use.

Poster Show + Versionfest.org

The Poster Show is scheduled for APRIL 23rd, opening night of Version>09, at the Zhou B. Art Center. Visit versionfest.org for details on all the festival's programming + more. Stay tuned for further info about WPA sites at the fest.

Tonight! Version Fundraiser + Matériel Magazine Release party and more

March 21, 2009, 8pm
Co-Prosperity Sphere
3219 S Morgan St

$10 Suggested Donation.

Matériel Magazine and Pr Launch Party and fundraiser for Version Festival

Please come and help us raise funds to pay for Version>09 Immodest Proposals.

We will be giving to everyone who attends a complementary copy of our new publishing projects, Matériel and the new Pr poster/newsletter.

We will be hosting an evening of performances and displaying pages from Matériel on the gallery walls. Musical performances by Bobby Conn and Julie Pomerleau, Casual Encounter , Caw! Caw! (not cawcaw) and a few secret super special guest stars.

Matériel is an oversized broadside newsprint publication that’s a collection of the best/brightest designers/ illustrators/photographers work we can find – creating a showcase for their submitted work. It’s a sister magazine to Proximity providing a ‘design’ counterpoint to Prox’s ‘art’ focus. Download a digital copy here.

Pr is Proximty’s in-between issues newsletter and art poster featuring articles interviews reviews a calendar and more. The debut issue is beautiful.

Art and the Depression

Readymade Magazine asked five artists to reimagine the popular poster art of the first Great Depression. Pretty awesome work. We hope this inspires work by Bridgeport WPA-ers

The Chicagoist has a feature about how artists are coping in these times.

In these recessionary times, galleries are closing down, auction houses are getting millions less than normal in sales for even big-name masterpieces, and starving artists are starving even more. Recently we asked a few dozen artists and gallerists how they were surviving Great Depression II:

New Site for 9 panels

Our neighbor Jay is launching his 3x3x9 panel project and will show work from Bridgeport WPA participants. If you are interested in creating a work on these nine vinyl panels please let us know. The dimension are 3 feet by 3 feet for each panel. The building is near 32nd St and Morgan St.

Extened Deadline + New POSTER Call for Entries

We have extended the proposal deadline to MARCH 7th!
Email all submissions to bportwpa@gmail.com

Plus we would like to announce an additional call for entries.

WPA POSTER CAMPAIGN Calling all illustrators & designers

Inspired by the captivating posters of the 1930’s and 40’s Works Progress Administration, we are creating a fresh WPA poster campaign to speak to the citizens and inspire the community.

We would like to encourage subject matter that is directly related to Chicago and /or the Bridgeport community. A list of themes and possible subject matter is provided below.

Posters should be 22x14 inches in size (or other size if you print them)
1-3 colors (more if you print them)
and preferably submitted as a pdf. (we will ask for eps files later if needed)

For inspiration check out the Library of Congress WPA archive
To download our bp wpa logos for use in your poster go here

Possible themes
• HEALTH
• ENERGY
• END THE WAR
• EATING LOCALLY
• TRANSPORTATION
• COMMUNITY ACTIVISM
• SUPPORTING THE ARTS
• EDUCATION
• CHOOSE YOUR OWN THEME!!!


Poster submissions are due MARCH 7th.

San Francisco Chronicle

Great article by Carla Blank : How to Make a Renaissance, A New Deal for the Arts

"As an artist, I suggest Obama and Congress include projects that employ creative ideas and energies of artists, as did two famous New Deal programs, the Public Works of Art Project, instituted in 1933, and it successor, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), formed in 1935, when more than 8.5 million jobless Americans worked on arts-related projects that paid the equivalent of today's minimum hourly wage."

Economic recovery plans in limbo

While we know the absolute importance of the arts to the vitality of our culture and community, it is not always clear to everyone. $50 million was included for the The National Endowment for the Arts in the bill that passed in the House last week, but this is not included in the Senate bill due to be voted on as early as tomorrow. Debate has been wide spread, but most sensible people know what is the right thing to do.

Article from Chris Jones, theater critic for the Chicago Tribune.
Article from the Boston Globe
Also here is information from the NEA

Call for Entries

Announcing the BRIDGEPORT WPA Call for Entries!
Deadline : February 28, 2009.

We’d like you to join the Bridgeport WPA.
Here’s what we are looking for ::

Project 1, Federal Art Project
We are looking for fresh, insightful works that speak to the citizens of Bridgeport. Works may be visual in form, but are not limited. We are inspired by the 1933 WPA’s Federal Art Project and are looking for works that use this platform to create, motivate, document, chronicle, campaign and archive the current social and economic climate.
Send us your visual and written proposals.

Public Mural Project
We are challenging artists to think publicly, not privately, and engage in an open conversation with the people. We are looking for individuals or groups to join and create a series of public murals in the Bridgeport Community. We want to emphasize the relationship between the people and the community and between the artist and the people. Submit your ideas for visual style and subject matter.
Look for further details... location of the spaces, sizing... to be posted soon

WPA Photographer
We are looking to enlist one photographer to help us document the workings of the Bridgeport WPA during Version>09. Duties would include chronicling the progress of WPA projects, documenting people and places in Bridgeport and WPA workers in the community. Please send us your credentials and samples of photo work.

We will work to help find ways to supply printing, paint etc if needed.

Submit all proposals to : bportwpa@gmail.com

or mail to
Bridgeport WPA
c/o Public Media Institute
960 W 31st St
Chicago Il 60608


The Bridgeport WPA is part of Version>09 Immodest Proposals which takes 
place April 23 - May 2, 2009.

During the depths of the Great Depression of the 1930s and into the early years of World War II, the Federal government supported the arts in unprecedented ways. For 11 years, between 1933 and 1943, federal tax dollars employed artists, musicians, actors, writers, photographers, and dancers. Never before or since has our government so extensively sponsored the arts.

- The National Archive

The online exhibition A New Deal for the Arts gives a brief but thorough history of how the New Deal and WPA supported the arts.

Codename: WPA Bridgeport Project 1

This project is meant to be an imagined cultural program that the federal government would instigate as part of the new Economic Stimulus Project being put through Congress by the Obama Administration. We are launching it at Version Festival this April.

Inspired by Roosevelt's New Deal cultural programs under the WPA (WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION) we hope this project underscores the necessity for the support of artists and the idea of civic responsibility to the greater society.

We will be using the neighborhood of Bridgeport as a pilot program to install fresh public works, sculptures, murals, as well as poster and other media campaigns to inspire citizens in these trying times. We have secured walls, interior and exterior and are working with our neighbors to provide space to show new permanent and temporary works.

This blog is an informational site to keep in contact with participants of Version festival and any interested participants. If you want to get involved please contact Emily at clayton.emily(at)gmail.com. and edmarlumpen (at) gmail.com.

Version>09 Immodest Proposals takes place April 23 - May 2, 2009. http://www.versionfest.org