Survey: Impact of Covid-19 on Artist-Run Chicago
06/17/20
By Cecília Resende Santos
Calling all artist-run spaces, projects and organizations in Chicago.
How has Chicago’s independent arts scene been impacted by the pandemic? How are they responding? What fundamental needs and lacks has this experience revealed—and how can we work together to address them?
Excerpts from the brochure of the first Artist Run Chicago, in 2009, from MDW Fair 2012, and from the Hyde Park Art Center’s announcements on Artist Run Chicago 2.0, postponed until later this year.
Earlier this year, I became involved with the Public Media Institute’s Lumpen Magazine to help with research for their upcoming issue, titled Artists Run Chicago, in collaboration with the exhibition of the same name at the Hyde Park Art Center. The magazine and the exhibition aimed to get to know, map, and celebrate Chicago’s vibrant artist-run scene, made of apartment galleries, ambulant projects, artist-led community organizations, festivals, warehouse galleries, community print shops, small residencies, and a variety of other projects and spaces that elude classification. We were in the midst of surveying and preparing to reach out to these hundreds of projects when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, followed by necessary social distancing measures that temporarily shut down many of these spaces.
The arts, culture, and entertainment sectors have been some of the most dramatically affected by the pandemic. While institutions of all scales have been impacted, independent projects and organizations have faced particular challenges in maintaining a bond with their communities, keeping members and workers involved, and surviving financial losses. At the same time, they have displayed thoughtful and inventive responses, reimagining programs, adopting new platforms, and redistributing resources to fellow organizations and groups—showing once more the strength and vitality of artist-run Chicago.
A broken up map of artist-run spaces in Chicago.
We want to learn more about how these projects have been affected by the pandemic and what they are learning during this time. This will allow us to form a picture of the needs of artist-run spaces and to think of ways to collectively support each other and maintain a thriving independent arts scene.
This information will help us understand the effects of the pandemic on Chicago’s art communities, providing instrumental information for collective advocacy and fundraising.
The survey linked below is designed to assess the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak and associated closures and restrictions on artist-run spaces in Chicago. The survey is composed of multiple choice and discursive questions divided in five sections: Description, Impact, Response, Relief, and Take-Aways.
The results from the survey will be synthesized and published in the Public Media Institute’s Quarantine Times, a journal for arts and social justice during the pandemic. Highlights will accompany a map and directory of Chicago’s artist-run spaces in Lumpen Magazine 137: Artists Run Chicago, coming out late this summer.
If you are involved with an artist-run space or project in Chicago, please fill out the survey and share with your networks!
If you have any questions or feedback, please email Cecília Resende Santos at resendesantoscecilia@gmail.com.
TAKE THE SURVEY: IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON ARTIST-RUN SPACES IN CHICAGO