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Art Inquisition: What Art You Doing This Summer?

I don’t know what it’s like where you are, but here in Chicago we might actually be starting to get into summer. Which means FESTIVALS! Art and bacon and crafting and dancing and eating and food trucks and all the great, distracting things that make summer hoppin’.

I’m lucky enough to live somewhere that I can pick and choose what I want to get out to see, knowing that there will be more fun stuff happening tomorrow. But when I miss cool stuff, like Manifest (AGAIN AUGH), it’s gone until next year. I need to see other cool stuff to remind myself why I want to keep doing my own, but it doesn’t do me any good if I just stay home. So at the risk of over-planning, I try to keep an eye on schedules of upcoming events.

Brown paper covering a glass door with a handwritten sign: "Opening Soon, Edgewater Workbench. A community workshop & 3D print center"For example, it’s only because I’m a nerd on the alderman’s mailing list that I found out about Three Days on Thorndale. Oh, a little weekend party right at my train stop? Why, yes! where I saw the in-progress Edgewater Workbench, checked out the completed bricolage mural I’ve been watching grow every week on my way to and from the train, and tried some wine at Independent Spirits around the corner. I missed the open houses for the theater on the other side of the El tracks and the new Fearless Food Kitchen in the Broadway Armory, though, because I mixed up the days and didn’t get out of work in time.

It was there that I found out about the Pivot Arts Festival, whose theme this year is Art Meets Science. YES! I’m going to see a couple of plays, learn about gin, and hopefully take a tour of the garden rooftop at Uncommon Ground and another tour of the local architecture. (I was going to go see Science Night! but it disappeared from the calendar.)

AND THAT’S JUST IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD, FOLKS. I can pretty much walk to all these things. So how could I not?

So, what do you think? What are you doing this summer? Are there awesome festivals, shows, or events you’re excited about? Are you taking advantage of the nice weather to use/create your outdoor workspace? Are you staying in the air-conditioning and making ALL THE THINGS? Are you contributing to a community project? Are you going on field trips, adventures, exploratory jaunts? Do you have a show I can go see your work at? Because that would be way cool.

The Art Inquisition (or AI) is a question posed to you, the Mad Art Lab community. It appears on random days at 3pm ET…because NOBODY EXPECTS THE ARTIST INQUISITION!
Make with the comments!

Beth Voigt

Beth is a graphic designer in Chicago, a superhero in her own mind, and absolutely nothing on TV. She wrangles fonts professionally, pummels code amateurishly, and has been known to shove fire in her face for fun. Fond of volunteering, late-night bursts of productivity, and making snacks, she dislikes grocery shopping and sticky public transit and is only on her second smartphone. Her opinion is that you should try everything twice; if you don't like it, you were probably doing it wrong the first time around. If external links are your thing, here are links to Twitter and Instagram, and you can support her ongoing weirdness by buying her a coffee or six.

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