December 2, 2010
For Immediate Release
Contact: C. Drew (day) 773/561-7676
e-mail: umcac@art-teez.org
Art Patch Project Appears
in Public December 21st
At 12:00 noon Tuesday, December 21st, under the “L” train at State and Lake, volunteers for the Uptown Multi-Cultural Art Center (UM-CAC) will give free art away. This will be a celebration of the winter solstice. It marks a slow rebirth when the sun begins to climb back toward us, the days begin to lengthen again and results eventually in the warmth of summer. The giving away of art is intended to gradually increase the acceptability of artists on Chicago's streets and the rebirth of street art culture in Chicago.
UM-CAC's Art Patch Project will give away the art of more than forty different artists and over 100 different designs to demonstrate the variety of artists missing from public spaces in Chicago. The Art Patch Project is on-going and will continue to add artists and designs until artists have attained their full First Amendment right to survive by selling art in public. The art-patches will be given away at public events and exhibited in a series of traveling exhibits planned for years to come. This long range project is designed to educate the public about First Amendment rights and our fight for expressive freedom in Chicago.
The peddlers license and Chicago's Park District policies that prevent artists from selling their art in public have destroyed street art culture in Chicago. Chris Drew, Executive Director of UM-CAC, says, “Artists have more opportunities to survive by their art in traditionally repressive Moscow than we have in Chicago where the First Amendment is supposed to protect our speech right to survive by selling our art in public. Not one free open-air arts market exists in Chicago where artists can sell their work. None – zero – zilch!”
The Art Patch Project invites artists to submit art to be printed on cloth by volunteers and given away to educate citizens that artists are absent from public view due to unconstitutional laws and policies in Chicago. The goal of the Art Patch Project is to increase support for common sense laws to make Chicago more friendly to artists through allowing artists to survive by selling art in public and to create enjoyable art scenes which enable the public to meet artists presently hidden in their midst.
During these difficult economic times it is important for cities to help their citizens survive and create their own jobs by increasing the freedom to use public space for legitimate public purposes. Allowing speech vendors their First Amendment rights makes great economic sense. The artist who makes a dollar spends a dollar. The arts encourage greater enjoyment from life increasing the attractiveness of a city. Tourists like to meet a city's artists and want to discover its local character. Those who would ban artists from public spaces have a narrow vision of the City and do not demonstrate a concern for free-speech. Art has an important role to play in our society. Chicago can't continue to force artists to be marginalized.
Apparently not everyone in Chicago shares Mr. Drew's enthusiasm for street art culture. Presently, the State of Illinois is prosecuting Mr. Drew on a charge one step below attempted murder after he was arrested for selling art for $1 on State Street. Mr. Drew audio-recorded his own arrest. In 47 other states this is legal but in Illinois since 1994 it is not. The ACLU is suing Cook County State's Attorney in federal court for prosecuting Mr. Drew and others on wiretapping charges for audio-recording police in public. They are defending your right to monitor police in public.
Fighting for artists' rights has led Mr. Drew to fight for your basic rights. That's one of the roles of art in society. Stop by and see him at work giving away art at noon at State and Lake on December 21st. Make up your own mind if Chris Drew deserves up to 15 years in prison for the work he does out of love for Chicago and its artists.
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