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Put the indie in Indiana!
Sep 12, 2024

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so incredibly honored to have been picked to be in this gallery I haven’t put my art out in the world in so long and it felt so refreshing to meet so many other creatives and just people who care about our DIY scene ā¤ļø if you from from Chicago you should definitely come to the Zine club @ unmasked coven ;)
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Live music scene here is amazing, and there are independent venues all over doing great shows. Follow @chicagoshowcal on IG, she posts EVERY show at EVERY indie venue EVERY week.
And if you ever need a concert buddy here, hmu šŸ˜‡šŸ‘‹
Mar 29, 2024
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Located at the intersection of Western and Cermak in Chicago, the Western Pole is a makeshift rotating exhibition space on a city-owned light pole. It’s run by the artist and curator Jesse Malmed and is one of the single most delightful things in my life. I get to walk by it on my commute to the train and see the exhibitions change at a seemingly random cadence. They’re usually poster-based in format but I’ve seen a very cool sculpture of a birdhouse affixed to the pole and sometimes the work is interactive, using phone numbers, QR codes, and even links to artist’s Venmo’s. I’m aching to know how artists are picked and what the general ā€œinfrastructureā€ of running the pole is. But also, I’m addicted to the mystery and in love with the reclamation of The Commons.
Chicago has a gorgeous and historied community of alternative art spaces, including an ecosystem of apartment galleries and non-traditional exhibition spaces. We have Barely Fair, a miniature art fair with tiny booths. There’s a gallery run out of someone’s purse and a now-closed space that existed inside of someone’s medicine cabinet! One curator commissioned artists to make earrings and used her earlobes and neck as an exhibition space. I’m even in on it. My husband and I ran Curb Appeal Gallery out of our living room for a year and a half!
I guess what I’m trying to say is, be scrappy, be nimble, and be creative. You want to do a show, build up your artist CV, get into curatorial work? Make the spaces you want to be within. They can be as simple as a city light pole.
Feb 25, 2025

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