Join us on Sunday, January 14, 2018 from 3–5 PM at the Stony Island Arts Bank for a workshop led by Romi Crawford on the Edward J. Williams Collection.

This program is the second of a four-part collections immersion series, “Objects of Care: Material Memorial for Tamir Rice.” This workshop will explore ways to interpret and examine the historical, social, and emotional function of toys (or objects of play). How these objects register as intimate as well as social objects is a key concern, as is how they help to produce effects of race, class, and gender. Participants will be asked to design, minimally fabricate, and imagine new objects of affection that help to reduce, or at least address, the impact of social/political/economic violence that Tamir Rice experienced, as do all of us on some level.

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Romi Crawford (Ph.D.) is Associate Professor in the Visual and Critical Studies and Liberal Arts Departments at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is co-author (with Abdul Alkalimat and Rebecca Zorach) of The Wall of Respect: Public Art and Black Liberation in 1960s Chicago (Northwestern University Press, 2017). In 2016 She founded the Museum of Vernacular Arts, a project based platform that highlights the significance of vernacular art and knowledge forms, or those that are not within the purview of art museums and galleries because they are out of sync with dominant aesthetic, formal, and institutional values. Crawford was co-curator (with Lisa Lee) of the 2017 Open Engagement Conference, themed “Justice.”

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About Objects of Care:
In the Fall of 2016, Rebuild Foundation received the Gazebo from the Cudell Recreation Center in Cleveland, Ohio, where twelve-year-old Tamir Rice was murdered by the Cleveland Police. As part of her activism for social justice, Samaria Rice, Tamir’s mother, intends to preserve the structure as a place for care, public interaction and engagement.

The deconstructed Gazebo is in the care of Rebuild Foundation at the Stony Island Arts Bank from Fall 2017 through Winter 2018. While the material is on display indoors, guest archivists, public historians, scholars and artists will deeply consider material objects across the Frankie Knuckles Records, Johnson Publishing Archive, Glass Lantern Slides and Edward J. Williams Collections. Guest participants are encouraged to use resource material shared in these sessions to create public engagements for the planned installation of the Gazebo on the North Lawn of the Stony Island Arts Bank in 2018.

»» The Gazebo materials will be on display to the public by appointment. To schedule a visit, contact us at info@rebuild-foundation.org.

»» For more information on this series, please visit https://rebuild-foundation.org/objects-of-care.

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Upcoming programs in the Objects of Care series:
– Part 3:
Adam Green on the Johnson Publishing Archive + Collections
Sunday, February 11, 2018 | 3-5PM | Stony Island Arts Bank

– Part 4:
Rebecca Zorach on the Glass Lantern Slides Collection
Sunday, March 11, 2018 | 3-5PM | Stony Island Arts Bank

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Rebuild Foundation is a platform for art, cultural development, and neighborhood transformation. Our projects support artists and strengthen communities by providing free arts programming, creating new cultural amenities, and developing affordable housing, studio, and live-work space. Our mission is to demonstrate the impact of innovative, ambitious and entrepreneurial arts and cultural initiatives. Our work is informed by three core values: black people matter, black spaces matter, and black objects matter.

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Tags: Chicago, Edward J. Williams Collection, Rebuild Foundation, Romi Crawford, Samaria Rice, South Shore, Stony Island Arts Bank, Tamir Rice