Imagine an improv troupe rewriting the rules of Monopoly. Now add a room full of craft supplies, W.A.G.E.’s wo/manifesto, your friends, artwork for auction, glitter, snacks, glitter, a band, glitter, and homegrown arts organizations that need your $$$. That’s what’s up with TA$K Party: A Fundrai$er, the art game where you make it rain.

TA$K Party: A Fundrai$er will utilize the procedural game TASK to provoke questions about the value of creative labor, while creatively coercing participants to labor and give $$$ to two $$$-worthy causes: the upcoming Art + Value conference and 2nd Floor Rear 2017, a sixth annual festival of art in alternative spaces.

Conceived by multimedia artist Oliver Herring, TASK is an improvisatory art event in which participants use provided materials to carry out a set of instructions. All TASK
events rely on the same basic infrastructure: a designated area, a variety of props and materials, and the participation of people who agree to follow two simple, procedural rules: 1) to pull a task from the “TASK pool,” and, interpreting it any which way he or she wants, perform the task, and, 2) to write a new task on a piece of paper and add it to the “TASK pool.”

With TASKs focused on generating, fabricating, and accumulating $$$, TA$K Party: A Fundrai$er will imitate the absurdity of arts economies and call attention to our collective complicity in its maintenance. (TA$K Party: A Fundrai$er is, after all, a fundraiser.)

TA$K Party: A Fundrai$er will also offer artwork for auction, a live performance by a local (TBA) band, things to sip and munch, and the warm glow of the organizers’ love and gratitude.

$10 suggested donation to enter and just hang out. $5 suggested donation to enter and play TA$K. Check out 2ndfloorrear.org/task for more details.

About 2nd Floor Rear:
2nd Floor Rear is a DIY festival of art in experimental contexts, apartment galleries, and ephemeral and migrant projects, celebrating Chicago’s vibrant community of alternative art spaces. Each February, this yearly festival connects artists with new audiences, helps underfunded and under-appreciated alternative spaces get some exposure, and enlivens a dreary winter weekend at the peak of Chicago’s bleakest season. Visit 2ndfloorrear.org to learn more.

About the Art + Value conference:
Art + Value is a conference that will explore the ways in which artists and their work are valued in Chicago today. Leaning in to the haziness of the term ‘value’, panels will address monetary worth in terms of economic gain, personal meaning, and the intersection of both. Slated for November 2016, Art + Value will feature six roundtable and panel discussions hosted by artist-run spaces around the Avondale/Logan Square neighborhoods. Through this decentralized conference, we hope to open the door for Chicago artists to speak more confidently about the ways in which their work is valued, forge productive spaces for critical reflection and concrete skill-sharing, and become tenacious advocates for sustainable working conditions. Learn more at cornerchicago.com/art–value-conference.html.

About the venue:
Hume Chicago is an artist-led project space focused on serving the Humboldt Park and Logan Square communities through dynamic, accessible arts programming. Hume’s mission is to foster an inclusive, creative environment in which emerging Chicago artists and their neighbors can commune and engage. Learn more at humechicago.org.

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Tags: 2nd Floor Rear, Chicago, Logan Square, Oliver Herring, Task Party a fundraiser benefiting 2nd floor rear and the Art Value Conference