Open Engagement 2017—JUSTICE

April 21–23, 2017

University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, IL

openengagement.info
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Registration for Open Engagement 2017 is open now!

Open Engagement (OE) is an annual, itinerant, artist-led conference dedicated to expanding the dialogue around—and creating a site of care for—the field of socially engaged art.

Open Engagement 2017—JUSTICE will take place April 21 to 23, 2017 at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a constellation of sites across the city. This year’s conference, guided by the curatorial vision of Romi Crawford and Lisa Yun Lee, will feature presenters including Theaster Gates, Maria Gaspar, Maria Varela, Ai-jen Poo, Marisa Jahn and Laurie Jo Reynolds.

Now in its ninth year, OE will bring together hundreds of artists, activists, educators, students, institutions, and thinkers to explore this year’s theme of JUSTICE, as well as take stock of the field of socially engaged art. This year’s program will feature local, national and international presenters with more than 100 workshops, presentations, panels, conversations, tours, parties and projects. OE 2017 will offer a selection of focused trainings to provide attendees with skills and tools to help better address creative work at the complex intersection of art and social justice, as well as opportunities for intimate discussion. In the evenings, queer-inclusive nightlife organizers will host celebrations, guided by the belief that transformative acts of change are deeply indebted to self-made spaces for collective joy.

OE is working with partners spanning the breadth of Chicago’s neighborhoods to represent the work being done at the intersection of art and activism across the city. Current partners include 3Arts, 6018 North, ACRE, Art Institute of Chicago, Bad at Sports, The Block Museum, Co-Prosperity Sphere/Lumpen Radio, Columbia College Chicago/Glass Curtain Gallery/Wabash Arts Corridor, Gallery 400/Threewalls/Propeller Fund, Hyde Park Art Center, Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, National Museum of Mexican Art, Party Noire, Rebuild Foundation, Reunion, Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, Roots and Culture, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Smart Museum of Art, The Stockyard Institute, TRQPITECA, and Weinberg/Newton Gallery.

In anticipation of the the full weekend of conference programming, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Art Institute of Chicago co-host a full day of pre-conference activities on Thursday, April 20 including panel discussions, break-out sessions and a performance.

This year OE is offering a sliding scale for registration fees that ranges from 40–1,000 USD. Anyone who wishes to attend Open Engagement is welcome to come, and no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

In light of our current reality and to align with this year’s theme of JUSTICE, OE has created RESOURCES ON JUSTICE, and invited contributors to share resources for organizing, moving forward and thinking creatively during particularly unjust times.

Open Engagement 2017—JUSTICE is presented in partnership with The School of Art & Art History at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and marks the second year of a three-year cycle that situated the conference in the Bay Area (2016—POWER) in partnership with the Oakland Museum of California and the California College of the Arts, and will complete in New York in partnership with the Queens Museum (2018—SUSTAINABILITY).

Founded in 2007, OE has evolved into a vital hub for practitioners and audiences of socially engaged art to assemble. OE is the only conference on this subject of this scale that operates on an inclusive open call model, that supports emerging and established artists, and collaborates closely with national institutions to further the networks of support for socially engaged art.

To register and see more information about the 2017 conference, visit OE online.