Chicago Artists Coalition’s (CAC) Midwest Artist Exchange is an annual initiative that nurtures connections and collaborations among CAC’s BOLT Residency and artistic communities in neighboring Midwest cities.

The core aspect of the program is two back-to-back weekend-long tours in Chicago and another Midwestern city in which the artists, partnering organizations and staff participate in an exchange of ideas, trends and knowledge that taps each group into the creative production within the other community. Both tours include visits to artist-run spaces, studios, galleries, and museums, as well as presentations, potlucks, and facilitated discussions amongst the artists and participating administrators. Through these tours, all participants have the opportunity to experience an intimate view of each city, share each other’s visions and ideas, as well as foster new connections and relationships.

In 2013, Chicago Artists Coalition’s Midwest Artist Exchange partnered with the Soap Factory and Springboard for the Arts in Minneapolis/St. Paul. The tours took place over two weekends in May 2013, attended by 2012-13 BOLT Residents and Minnesota-based artists identified through the partner organizations.

Addendum is the result of ongoing conversation between CAC and its Minneapolis-based partner the Soap Factory, and includes many of the Minnesota-based artists who participated in the 2013 Midwest Artist Exchange. Repositioning Addendum within the Chicago arts network extends the opportunity for social engagement by exposing audiences to the artistic practices of these Midwestern cities and fosters new dialogues on cultural production.

Curated by John Marks and David Petersen, Addendum is but one of many potential postscripts to , , , (pronounced “comma comma comma”), the Soap Factory’s 2013 Minnesota Biennial. Intent on transforming the gallery from a site for exhibition into an active space of exhibiting, the inceptive exhibition was an eight-week platform for interdisciplinary visual art, music, performance, print, and discussion that surveyed the work of thirty-nine Minnesota-based artists.

Nearly a year later, Addendum will occupy the Chicago Artists Coalition with the work of eighteen artists: Luke Aleckson, Allen Brewer, Casey Deming, Kristina Estell, Katelyn Farstad, Isa Gagarin, Peter Happel Christian, Jess Hirsch, Jonathan Kaiser, Tynan Kerr, Andie Mazorol, Ben Moren, Michael Mott, Stefanie Motta, Scott Nedrelow, Natasha Pestich, Andy Sturdevant, and Pamela Valfer.

Addendum will comprise, per definition, the things which must be added, suggesting that the originating exhibition was neither complete, fixed or perfect. Far from it, in fact, as , , , asked of its artists to experiment, embrace uncertainty and trust the potential of their work in the context of a multi-dimensional group exhibition that could never speak fully to each artist’s complex and rigorous practice. Addendum begins to do just that by including, ad hoc, additional images, objects, gestures and performance that provide a more complete representation of many of the artists that made up the , , , exhibition, while simultaneously further problematizing the original survey.

Catalogs and a limited-edition LP Record from , , , will be available at CAC during the exhibition.

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Tags: Chicago Artist Coalition