Insight Arts is happy to announce their Winter 2012 programming at Rumble Arts Center.  Classes begin January 23 and end on March 17. 


TRANSITIONS

Transitions is a program specifically designed for youth in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade.  Middle school youth in Humboldt Park will be challenged for 8 weeks, Monday through Thursday with a variety of mediums and projects.  Participants will engage in writing, theater work, and visual arts in various media.


The ages of 11 to 14 are times of transition in the lives of youth.  A space where youth are safe, encouraged to ask questions and to both independently and collectively explore this time in their lives is essential.


While in this intensive class, youth will create collaborative art that will encourage them to reflect and think critically about themselves, their communities, and their role as members of the community at large.  They will explore issues that affect them directly, contributing to an ongoing dialogue about how to work for social justice.


MEDIA ARTS

Media Arts is a high school youth media-literacy program.  Through intensive workshops, high school youth in Humboldt Park will be challenged with hands-on technical training in digital media technologies including photography, sound, and video.

This program is greatly informed by the work of Paulo Freire, specifically ideas outlined in his book Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage (1998).

“…[a] correct way of thinking that goes beyond the ingenuous must be produced by the learners in communion with the teacher responsible for their education.  At the same time, it is necessary to insist that the matrix both of ingenuous and critical thinking is the same curiosity that characterizes all human vitality” (Freire, p. 43).

This 8 week workshop will allow youth to engage in a critical learning environment where interactions and communication, through critical discussions with peers and facilitators are essential.  Youth will not only be learners, but teachers and leaders, establishing a learning environment for themselves, other participants, and the community, therefore empowering them as such.

As a group, youth will investigate aspects of life unique in their community and the social impacts digital media technologies have in their community.  They will learn how to initialize concepts by teaming up with an experienced mentor throughout the process.  Youth will intensively learn basic technical aspects of the creation of media, and will lead the creation of projects in the form of moving picture or sound to promote awareness of an issue important to them.  They will learn how to make choices about interviewing, recording behavior, narration and dialogue, and visual composition before shooting. 

MULTI-ARTS CHILDREN'S WORKSHOP

The Multi-Arts Children's Workshop is a visual arts program for youth ages 7 to 12.  Participants will explore various media while learning to take a critical look at artwork at the same time.


For more information about Insight Arts classes at Rumble Arts Center contact Maritza Bautista at (773) 278-4441 or send us an email requesting more information to info@insightartsliberation.org.

Please join Insight Arts as we present our first winter series' Nights of Insight on Friday, January 20 from 7 to 9 PM at Rumble Arts Center (3413 W North Ave).




This month we will be engaging in Re-Frame: Communing (facilitated by Baraka de Soleil) exploring issues and challenges artists face in the creative process. Topics to be explored include community, gender politics and artists vulnerabilities. Participants will also get the chance to experience the process of Re-Frame.

Last month artists participating in Re-Frame: A Gathering, a D UNDERBELLY initiative curated by Awilda Rodríguez Lora and Baraka de Soleil, sought to create a communal space for rigorous experimentation and investigation of an expansive performance aesthetic. They offered three unique showings of their process in partnership with Insight Arts, Rumble Arts Center and Links Hall.

Artist participants from Chicago's 2011 Re-Frame project:
Victoria Martínez
Ching-In Chen
Iman Crutcher
Michael Johnson
Rebecca Kling
Anansi Knowbody
Sojourner Zenobia Wright
Isaac Fosl Van-Wyke
Eboni Senai Hawkins

We also invite you to join us in Rogers Park on Saturday, January 21 for a critical discussion on Re-Framing Community from 4:30 to 6:30 PM at the Center for New Possibilities (1505 W Morse Ave).

D UNDERBELLY is an underground interdisciplinary network of artists of color. For more information about Re-Frame: A Gathering visit reframeagathering.blogspot.com

We are currently coordinating the 2012 season for Nights of Insight and are seeking proposals (due January 31, 2012)!   

Nights of Insight is a cultural event presented by Insight Arts that takes place every third (3rd) Friday of the month from 7 to 9 PM at Rumble Arts Center (3413 W North Avenue; 1st Floor, Gallery - a wheelchair accessible space).  Artists, poets, writers, spoken word artists, educators, filmmakers, dancers, performance artists + are all invited to submit. 



Nights of Insight provide a safe space where issues, ideas or movements can be explored and discussed critically.  If your work addresses issues related to economic justice, immigrant rights and racial justice, criminal justice, environmental justice, social justice or human rights this is the perfect venue for you.  Homophobia and transphobia will not be tolerated. 

PROPOSALS DUE JANUARY 31, 2012
Proposals should include a one page resume, artist or curator statement and a sample of the work (descriptions are fine).  If you are interested in presenting a Night of Insight on a particular month, please specify it on the proposal.

Proposals, comments or questions regarding Nights of Insight should be addressed to Maritza Bautista and emailed to info@insightartsliberation.org.

2011 was a remarkable year!

Oppressive governments throughout Africa and the Arab world have been boldly challenged by coalitions of students, workers and intellectuals.  Throughout Europe the vast majority of citizens have rebelled against attempts to role back the quality of life for the working classes, immigrants, and the poor.  Latin American social movements have pushed the center-left governments that they helped elect to make good on their campaign promises to create a world free from poverty, discrimination, and environmental degradation.  Here in the United States scores of Americans have begun "occupying and decolonizing” public spaces with the goal of giving voice to the 99% of global citizens that are customarily disempowered and disrespected.


Insight Arts has always been an organization dedicated to the power of popular movements to effect lasting social change.  In fact, we have been so energized by the current international political climate that since January we have more than tripled our arts education, political education, and cultural programming!  We now offer ongoing programming throughout the year in the Rogers Park, Humboldt Park and Uptown neighborhoods of Chicago.  Most remarkably, we have managed through strategic partnerships to expand our arts education, exhibition, performance and archive space whilst simultaneously reducing overhead costs.  We have also begun strategic planning that will result in an upgrade in the consistency and quality of our online and print publications next year.  This means that Insight Arts will be able to reach a national and international audience with online journals like Underground Philosophy and our new biennial journal of contemporary art and social change Interactivity.

Please help us continue to provide space for cultural work that supports the development of the powerful social movements that are changing the world by making a generous year-end donation to Insight Arts by clicking DONATE.

You may also send a check to:
Insight Arts
6934 N Glenwood
Chicago, IL  60626
                           
Please make sure to date your check no later then December 31, 2011 if you want to claim this donation on your 2011 taxes.  Insight Arts is a 501(c)(3) organization and all donations are tax deductible to the full extent of the law.
 
Forward Ever, Backward Never,

Craig Harshaw
Executive Director
INSIGHT ARTS

Please join us Friday, December 16 at 1:00 PM for a special Nights of Insight (this will be our first daytime Nights of Insight).

This month Insight Arts is happy to present a collaborative project between 5th and 8th grade students at Von Humboldt Elementary and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Artists will be present.  Refreshments will be served.  This is a free event open to all the Chicago community.

Extrodinary : A 5th and 8th Grade Showcase is an exhibition that will be on view at the Rumble Arts Center's Community Gallery from December 16 to January 27, 2012.

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Nights of Insight take place every third Friday of the month at Rumble Arts Center (3413 W North Avenue), an accessible cultural space that facilitates the empowerment and education of individuals and communities. 

Purchase your ticket(s) to our 2011 Creative Movement Awards Ceremony and Dinner.  Click here to purchase now!  The awards ceremony begins at 6 PM this Friday, December 9, followed by a meet and greet reception at 8 PM. Creative Movement Awards & Dinner Benefit This year, Insight Arts has partnered with Rumble Arts Center, an accessible cultural space that facilitates the empowerment and education of individuals and communities, to present the Creative Movement awards. The Creative Movement Awards celebrate the people, projects, and organizations creating a climate for social change in the United States.  Individuals that will be honored at his year’s Creative Movement awards and dinner are political advocate Van Jones, award-winning filmmaker Yvonne Welbon, and Chicago poet Kevin Coval.               Van Jones                   Yvonne Welbon          Kevin Coval Insight Arts will also present awards to efficacious local projects like The Miracle Center’s youth theatre production of "Chicago's Puerto Rican Story," and the Unemployed Action Center of Chicago Jobs with Justice.  Organizational awards will be presented to Gender Just, the Silk Road Rising and Warehouse Workers for Justice. The event will begin at 6 PM with the award ceremony at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago's Auditorium (280 South Columbus Drive).  A dinner reception will follow at 8 PM at the Renaissance Blackstone Chicago Hotel's Crystal Ballroom (636 South Michigan Avenue).   Tickets for the awards ceremony and reception are available for $125.  Students and senior citizens may purchase reduced-rate tickets for $100.  Tickets may also be purchased for the awards ceremony alone for $30, $25 for students and senior citizens.  We are also offering group rates.  Purchase tickets online NOW!.    All proceeds benefit Insight Arts and Rumble Arts Center.  Both of these nonprofit agencies are community-based arts organizations based in the working class neighborhoods of Rogers Park, Uptown, and Humboldt Park.    Don't miss this extraordinary event and the opportunity to support local arts organizations and those doing influential work for the people of Chicago and the United States!

If you are unable to attend the Creative Movement Awards but would like to contribute please do so by clicking here.  Or, send your donation to: Insight Arts 6934 N Glenwood Ave, #2C Chicago, IL 60626 Thank you very much for your continued support!

Please join us Friday, November 18 from 7 to 9:30 PM for our monthly Nights of Insight cultural event.  This month Columbia College students join Insight Arts to explore gentrification and racism in Chicago. 

Rumble Arts Center, 7 PM
Dance Studio (2nd Floor)
3413 W North Avenue
Chicago, IL  60647
773.278.4441



This month's Nights of Insight is supported by the Urban Missions program of the Center for Community Arts Partnerships at Columbia College Chicago. This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.

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Refreshments will be served.  The Dance Studio is not a wheelchair accessible space. 

Buy Your Tickets Now! Click Here to Purchase Your Tickets.

Saturday, November 19
Please join Insight Arts and the Columbia College learning community on Saturday, November 19 beginning at 4:30 PM for a critical discussion surrounding Occupy Chicago. 

We invite you to read the Occupy Chicago website (click here), specifically Chicago Specific Demands.  You can also download: The Most Important Thing in the World and From Occupy Wall Street to Occupy Everywhere from The Nation (click here to download).   



Discussion will take place at the Center for New Possibilities, 1505 W Morse Ave.  Refreshments will be provided.

This month's Nights of Insight is supported by the Urban Missions program of the Center for Community Arts Partnerships at Columbia College Chicago. This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.

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For more information send an email to info @ insightartsliberation.org

Please join us this month for I AM TROY DAVIS, the kick off to our Nights of Insight Fall Series.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15
Join us on Saturday, October 15 at 4:30 PM for a critical discussion about the Troy Davis execution.  This discussion will take place at the Center for New Possibilities (1505 W Morse Ave) in Rogers Park.

Here are a few articles to read to prepare for the discussion:


Dispatch from Death Row: Saving Troy Davis With a Family's Love by Jen Marlowe, in Color Lines.  Click on icon for article. 


Troy Davis Executed in Georgia by Tim Murphy, in Mother Jones.  Click icon for article. 


A Wrenching Night of Global Solidarity as Georgia Kills Troy Davis by Stokely Baksh, in Color Lines.  Click icon for article.



FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21
On Friday, October 21 join us at Rumble Arts Center (3413 W North Avenue) in Humboldt Park at 7:00 PM for a night of poetry performance, a critical panel discussion and a visual exhibition.
 
Kris De La Rash will do a poetry performance.  A critical panel discussion will include Kris De La Rash, Craig Harshaw, Mark Clements and Jhonathan Gomez.    A visual exhibit of Chicago Troy Davis demonstrations will be on view.

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For more information, email info@insightartsliberation.org.