COMMENTS: AN ARTISTS' MARKET ON CHICAGO'S LAKEFRONT

We invite you to send us your visions of what an Artists Market on the lakefront would be and where it should be. RESPOND TO umcac@art-teez.org		Click here to review the Chicago Cultural Plan

I am responding to your inquiry concerning 1) what cities have free spaces for artists to sell their work; and 2) website for Chicago Cultural Plan.

I have not been able to identify any city that offers free space. It is something that I will track and let you know about if I find an example. Almost all exhibitions, whether juried or not, charge a fee. The only type of space I can think of that does not are community sites, such as banks, theatres, libraries and other spaces, which let artists exhibit their work; sometimes allowing them to sell what is on exhibit. There is usually a screening process of some sort as well. in 1990 the Chicago Artists' Coalition published "Artists Gallery Guide for Chicago and the Illinois Region" which listed some of these spaces. You may want to contact them at 312-670-2060 to see if they still offer this information.

Also, thanks for the information on your website -- your strategy for developing the plan in Chicago seems like a good one for involving more of the community. We frequently get inquiries about cultural plans so I'll probably make referrals to your site.
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To: Chris Drew Date: 08-17-98 (06:13)
From: IN: : ARTISTpres@aol.com Number: 1582712[0] E-mail
Subj: Re: Building a movement f Status: Private (Rcvd)
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Mr. Drew,

Check out our website http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html and you'll understand why I cannot support the idea of an "Artists' Market". Our group is about artists' First Amendment right to use the public forum of streets and parks for expression. Cities give artists a separate market in exchange for giving up their constitutional rights on the streets. I suggest you and your friends might look into a lawsuit against Chicago if they are preventing you from selling on the street now.

Robert Lederman
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To: Chris Drew Date: 08-16-98 (19:36)
From: IN: : mar@interaccess.com Number: 1582677[0] E-mail
Subj: Re: Open air art market o Status: Private (Rcvd)
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Hi Chris,

Please put your notice below on your website and we will put a link to your site and to this particular page. What would an intern do? I need to know this to announce about it in my classes.

In any case, I think the project idea is great!

I would hope that preference would be given to poor, homeless, and unemployed people/artists.

But you can take the project a much bigger step forward. Here is my suggestion.

Think big. Teach people, especially in our low income neighborhoods, how to make t-shirts (and other art objects) with political content such that it would fall under constitutional First Amendment protection to sell anywhere in the city. This would provide extra avenues for people to earn income and it would place more people selling stuff in the outdoors which would make our streets livelier and safer. This would be better than just focusing on one marketplace. Our anal-retentive City bureaucrats and politicians would probably prefer that this activity be in one place to contain the people but it is better to have people selling their stuff everywhere. Selling everywhere would create more income generating opportunities. You will need to have legal backup on this but this could really get Americans more aware of and involved in the needs and suffering of people at the bottom.

-- Professor Steve Balkin, Roosevelt University and OPENAIR MARKET
NET www.openair.org
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To: Chris Drew Date: 08-16-98 (19:45)
From: IN: : mar@interaccess.com Number: 1582679[0] E-mail
Subj: T-shirts and Maxwell St. Status: Private (Rcvd)
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Hi Chris again,

I am involved in trying to save the remnants of the old Maxwell Street as a historic district to honor Chicago Blues, Chicago peddlers, and all the ethnic groups that made Maxwell Street their first home. http://www.openair.org/maxwell/preserve.html.

We are having four protest events this August and September.

We invite all of your T-Shirt artists to make t-shirts with a Maxwell Street or anti-TIF theme and then sell them at our events either as vendors or to wholesale them to existing vendors on the street.

Also, it would be nice if you did a show on the art of the Maxwell Street t-shirt.

Be well, Steve

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OPENAIR-MARKET NET: The World Wide Guide to Farmers' Markets,
Flea Markets, Street Markets, and Street Vendors http://www.openair.org/
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