Roman Susan Art Foundation is pleased to announce a new collaborative programming series in partnership with The Cuckoo’s Theater Project.

Woman’s Club will explore ideas around social work, community engagement, public welfare, migration, literacy, and gender. The project will commission artist-made flags to be installed at 7077 North Ashland Boulevard in Chicago – the former location of the Rogers Park Woman’s Club, current home of The Cuckoo’s Theater Project.

The inaugural flag-raising will feature a project by Olivia Jade Juárez and Remy Lucien Bordas, to be on display throughout the summer, June 21 through September 21, 2018. New flags will be raised at the turn of the seasons – Saturday, September 22 (Autumn Equinox) and Friday, December 21 (Winter Solistice).

Founded by ten women in 1891, the Rogers Park Woman’s Club expanded to 900 members and worked for over a century to provide social and cultural services in North Chicago before disbanding in 1996. Early projects undertaken by RPWC included establishment of a public library and reading room, and the founding of pre-elementary school education – the former incorporated into the Chicago Public Library, the latter into the Chicago Public School system in the late 19th century. On the 25th anniversary of RPWC, the organization commissioned a clubhouse built at 7077 North Ashland Boulevard, which housed RPWC activities into the early 1980s. For more information on the history of this organization, please visit rpwrhs.org/2014/08/04/the-rogers-park-womens-club.

Olivia Jade Juárez is an artist working in sculpture and pattern development. She currently manages the Metalworking and Forging Department at Chicago Industrial Arts & Design Center in Rogers Park, with past experience at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado and Vivian Beer Studio Works in New Hampshire. Juarez attended high school at the Waldorf School in Rogers Park, and earned her BFA from Alfred University in New York. Her current studio practice ranges from digital design, sewing, felting, forging and metal fabrication. For Woman’s Club Juarez is working with her collaborator Remy Lucien Bordas – together they form the collective Luc Jade.

The Cuckoo’s Theater Project produces plays that show the darker side of humanity. By doing so, we seek to find the light within the darkness in the hopes of a better future. The Cuckoo’s Theater Project is an Illinois 501(c)3 not-for-profit arts organization. For more information, please visit thecuckoostheaterproject.com or contact j.leff@thecuckoostheaterproject.com.

Updated information about this programming series and documentation images of the flags will be available at romansusan.org/w-club beginning with the first project this summer.

Image: Groundbreaking celebration of the Rogers Park Woman’s Club at 7077 North Ashland Boulevard (c. 1916) courtesy of Rogers Park/West Ridge Historical Society.

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Tags: Chicago, Cuckoo's Theater Project, Olivia Jade Juárez, Remy Lucien Bordas, Rogers Park, Roman Susan