Welcome October -- Chicago Artists Month Events & Exhibitions Begins With Portage Park

Enjoy Portage Park This Weekend  October 4-6           CAM Neighborhood Curator Cyd Smillie (center) with Featured Artists Myra Kalaw and Dennis PaSamba.     Long home to many artists, Portage Park has begun to blossom with sculptures, dance studios, theaters, mask and mural makers, filmmakers and the National Veterans Art Museum. Portage Park will surprise you with its depth, beauty and talent.    -Cyd Smillie, CAM 2013 Neighborhood Curator ____________________________________________________________________________________  E See / Hear / Make / Do Exhibitions: Cubivino's Portable News Stand & Urban Swamp Art Cart  Featured Artist Myra Kalaw of CUBIVINO and the Urban Swamp Art Cart duo of Josh Baigelman & Al Steger team up to create a Portable Newsstand/Art Cart outside the largest news magazine store in Chicago, City News Stand & Café.  Brush with Happiness  Dedication of two murals created by veterans: Scars Make Warriors by Jeff Kierna and Tears of War by Phil Cashdollar. The Magic of Masks  Explore the ancient fascination for mask and puppets with Semmerling & Shaefer. Won't You Be My Neighbor  Group exhibition at Silo Art Space. In the City  An aerosol arts exhibition that transforms a 60' x 18' wall into a colorful work of collaborative art during a two-day period by a hand-picked group of aerosol art veterans and pioneers. Learning/Making: Draw Like Degas  Featured artist Dennis PaSamba opens his studio for drawing and dancing. All are welcome to draw as the class prepares, practices and packs-up. No ballet, though! Mambo, Salsa, Bachata or Hip Hop!   M[ani]Fest Mural  Pick up a brush with muralist Tony Sparrow under the Blue Line Stop on Irving Park. Creativity as Identity  Exhibition and panel discussion about the divide between fine and commercial art, presented by the Chicago Creative Coalition. Art + Architecture Bike Tour  Join Lee Diamond of Big Shoulders Realty and Chicago Velo on a bicycle tour of Chicago's PortagePark and adjacent neighborhoods.  Screenings: Philip Kaufman's Goldstein  Shot entirely on the streets of Chicago during the fall of 1963, Goldstein offers an invaluable record of apartments, factories and downtown movie palaces soon buried by urban renewal by the Chicago-born filmmaker who later directed The Right Stuff, Rising Sun and other films. Moving Pictures/Moving Bodies  Independent films accompanied by dance, music, poetry and food trucks.         And More! About Chicago Artists Month  Chicago Artists Month combines curated weekends with a non-juried program featuring more than 200 events throughout October including open house/open studio tours, neighborhood art walks, informal discussions, workshops and exhibitions, featuring Chicago-based artists and arts organizations. This year CAM features arts activity in a different neighborhood every weekend. Find out more here. Chicago Artists Month is presented as part of an ongoing collaboration between the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and the Chicago Park District. In-kind support was received from Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises®, Inc. and Chicago Gallery News. Many thanks to our program partners: 6018North, 25th Ward Alderman Danny Solis, Alderman Harry Osterman and the 48th Ward, Arts Alive 45, Cedar Street Companies, Claretian Associates, Inc., Garfield Park Conservatory, South Shore Chamber Inc., South Chicago Chamber of Commerce, and Uptown United.