Thursday August 4
Lunchtime Program: On the Exhibition
Dance Scholar Lizzie Leopold and Artist Brendan Fernandes on the Arabesque in Dance
Virtual Program 12:15 pm
Celebrated for inserting live dancers in tutus into unexpected contexts, performance artist and professor Brendan Fernandes (Northwestern University) converses with dance scholar/professor Lizzie Leopold (University of Chicago) on the topic of the arabesque–a ballet position with one leg and both arms extended. Their conversation concludes our series of thematic lectures related to Kamrooz Aram: Privacy, An Exhibition now in the galleries. Fernandes is currently researching the arabesque for a work of his own. He will dig into the topic with Leopold, who draws upon her knowledge of the genres and geographies of dance.
$10 per person remote viewing
Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/
Saturday August 20
Public Program: The Arts Club Garden Projects
Jean Carlos Claudio Performance in the Gallery
In-person Program 1:00 pm | Conversation to follow
Jean Carlos Claudio performs often as Claucho the clown, a persona whose portrait features prominently in The Arts Club’s garden as part of Adrian Wong’s sculptural installation Oogenesis exploring the complexity of clown identities. Claudio is a Puerto Rican circus and theater performer established in Chicago in 2016, collaborating frequently with Emerald City Theatre, Midnight Circus, La Vuelta Ensemble, and Urban Theater, among others. In conjunction with Wong’s Oogenesis, Claudio devises a solo performance for The Arts Club, compelling for both adults and children, and using the gallery space in exciting ways! Stay after for a reception and conversation with the performer.
Free and Open to All
Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/
Friday July 8
Historian Marina Warner on the Arabesque in Art & Design History
Virtual Program 12:15 pm
The arabesque in aesthetics describes the branching interlace chiefly found in Islamic art, and has acquired slightly pejorative connotations, as purely decorative on the one hand, and orientalizing and condescending on the other. The word was later borrowed into the world of dance to evoke a certain graceful and extreme extension of the limbs. Next in the series of programs surrounding Kamrooz Aram’s exhibition in the galleries, we hear from British scholar Marina Warner, an author of fiction and cultural history. Warner will explore the history of the term’s changing meaning and consider its potential as a site of consciousness well suited to the digital age. Could the arabesque offer an alternative structuring principle of time and space in our troubled times?
$10 per person remote viewing
Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/
Past Arts Club Artist Hannah Levy was featured in Artnet News for her work in The Venice Biennale. Read the full article here.
Image Credit: Michael Tropea
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From Afro Sheen to Theaster Gates and from Soul Train to Chance the Rapper, Black Chicago draws sustenance from a culture rooted in self-determination, aspiration, and hustle. Cultural historian, memory worker, radio DJ and archivist Ayana Contreras weaves a hidden history from true stories and the magic released by undervalued cultural artifacts in her passionate and enlightening book, Energy Never Dies.
Free virtual viewing