TEMPERATURES AND SHAPES :: ARCTIC LIVE/CHICAGO

Chicago Calling is organized by the Borderbend Arts Collective, a 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to promote the arts, to create opportunities for artists to explore new directions in and between art forms, and to engage the community. Annual Borderbend projects include Chicago Calling and the Mingus Awareness Project. Other organizations partner with Borderbend to enrich and extend the reach of its project, such as the Experimental Piano Series, which is co-produced by the Chicago Composers Forum and Borderbend, in partnership with the PianoForte Foundation. 

During the 2010 Annual Chicago Calling Arts Festival, Chicago-based artists collaborate with artists in other locations -- both here in the U.S. and abroad. These collaborations involve a range of art forms -- including music, dance, film, literature, and intermedia -- and they are prepared or improvised. Some Chicago Calling events involve live feeds between Chicago and other locations. 2010 Chicago Calling events include "Bicycles and the Arts" at Happy Dog Gallery, "Translations 2010" at the Reconstruction Room, "Seda Röder / Burton Greene - Harrison Bankhead Duo Concert" at Curtiss Hall, "Temperatures and Shapes / Arctic Live" at Elastic Sound & Vision Gallery, "I Remember Fred" at the Velvet Lounge, "Chicago Calling and Waiting for the Bus" at Café Ballou, "Two Way Tarot Mirrors" at Myopic Books, "My Favorite Banned Books Abecedarian Read-Out" at the Logan Square Library, "Aural Architecture" at WNUR, and other events.

Throughout October, you are invited to meet hundreds of Chicago visual artists at exhibitions, workshops, open studios, tours, neighborhood art walks and more in venues across the city. Presented by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs in collaboration with more than 200 program partners, Chicago Artists Month aims to showcase the extraordinary talent and vibrancy of Chicago’s art community.

This year's theme, "The City as Studio," explores the impact of the urban environment on Chicago artists and their work, and the contributions that artists make to the vitality of our city. The place where art is imagined and made, whether in a physical or virtual space, affects the idea, the process and the final product. And the art, once created, leaves a mark on the place it occupies. Chicago Artists Month 2010 looks at how the city influences art and artists, and how artists transform the city by contributing to civic dialogue and quality of life.

 Admission will be $10.