The 2011 Fest Map has been published! Click on the map for a larger version:  |
The 2011 Fest Map has been published! Click on the map for a larger version: |
The 2011 Glenwood Ave Arts Fest was listed this week as one of Time Out Chicago's Critics' Picks of five best events in Chicago this week. The print edition lists the top 5 events with GAAF coming in at #2 above the Air and Water Show! Time Out says, "The Far North Side fest is a mash-up of family-friendly music, theater performances, and art." TOC's Critics' picks for the week of August 18-24, 2011: 1 - Chicago Symphony Orchestra: The Lord of the Rings at Ravina 2 - Glenwood Ave Arts Fest 3 - Chicago Air and Water Show 4 - Family Adventures: Chinatown 5 - Oktoberfest in August |
The Rogers Park ARTery exhibition (ARTery), in coordination with Glenwood Avenue Arts Fest (GAAF) is seeking artists to participate in a curated artwalk exhibition to be held during the Glenwood Avenue Arts Fest utilizing windows of businesses within the festival footprint from Saturday, August 20, 2011 and continuing through Sunday, august 21, 2011 along Glenwood Ave and Morse Ave in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood. Find the application at www.glenwoodave.org/downloads |
The Jeff Awards committee has published the 2011 nominees for Chicago's non-union theatre awards. Local venues Theo Ubique and Lifeline Theatre have again taken a lion's share of the nominations. From jeffawards.org: "The Glenwood
Avenue Arts District in Chicago’s far north Rogers Park neighborhood
continued its recent streak of garnering a large percentage of
nominations. Among producing organizations, Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre
in Association with Michael James received 12 and Lifeline Theatre
received 9. Top-nominated productions for Theo Ubique included “Cats,”
with 8, staged on a platform in a storefront and 2 each for their 2
long-running revues, “Some Enchanted Evening: The Songs of Rodgers and
Hammerstein” and “Sweet and Hot: The Songs of Harold Arlen.” Lifeline’s
new adaptation of “Neverwhere,” based on the acclaimed BBC TV series
“London Below,” earned 7 nominations." |
The 10th anniversary Fest takes place the weekend of August 19-21, 2011. The opening night jam is on Friday night from 6 to 10pm and the
artists' market on Saturday and Sunday afternoons from noon to 9pm.
The Glenwood Avenue Arts Fest (GAAF) is a free, weekend-long arts festival that features 100+ artists, open studios, and live entertainment on three outdoor stages. Experience art of all disciplines, music, theater, food and drink on the cobblestone streets of the Glenwood Avenue Arts District in Chicago’s historic Rogers Park neighborhood. |
The 9th Annual Glenwood Ave Arts Fest in Rogers Park's Glenwood Ave Arts District was a fantastic Fest. It was the largest yet; with 110 artist, 12 sponsor, and 10 food & drink booths. The three stages featured a total of 51 acts in what was one of the best lineups we can recall. The ARTery exhibit featured the work of another 12 artists installed in business' windows throughout the Fest area. Clear sunny skies and a gentle breeze provided the most perfect weekend weather one could order. Artist load-in and load-out went quite smoothly. Crowds this year were larger than in years past; but the expanded layout, increased audience space, and additional toilets accommodated them effortlessly. Our countdown ticker has been updated. Only 361 days remain until next year's Fest! |
 We're excited to announce a new addition to the Glenwood Ave Arts Fest! Curated by local artist Lewis Lain, and with the support of the businesses in the Fest area that have so graciously donated their windows for the weekend, ARTery features window after window of paintings from a number of amazing Chicago artists including: Angela Fegan Ben Laskov Caroline Keem Cesar Pardo Joan Shapiro Lewis Lain Marvin Tate Matthew Shelton Nicholas Kadish Shane Treacy Terri Horning Zsofia Otvos The Fest day-of-event booklet contains a map of the participating locations. The home base for the ARTery exhibition is 1409 W. Morse Ave. Make sure you visit. Enjoy your walking tour of the Glenwood Ave Arts District. |
 They were overwhelmed by the response from the artistic community, both local and citywide – over 200 entries were submitted exhibiting a wide range of artistic styles, from realistic to abstract. A three-person panel of professional artists and administrators from Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and the School of the Art Institute, who have extensive experience judging public art projects in general and murals in particular, reviewed the submissions and selected 24 finalists, of whom 9 are from Rogers Park or Edgewater. Their designs will now go before a community vote during the Glenwood Ave Arts Fest on Saturday, August 21st and Sunday, August 22nd. To be eligible to vote you must be 16 years of age and have proof of residence in the 49th Ward. No Exit Cafe has kindly donated their space for both Saturday and Sunday. The winners will be announced at the end of the Festival.  Mass Underpass Murals Voting Day No Exit Cafe 6970 N Glenwood Ave Saturday, August 21st, 12:00 PM – 9:00 PM Sunday, August 22nd, 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM There are two neighborhood "Viewing Locations" (in storefront windows) that have been set up by the "Arts & Other Committee" where neighborhood residents can spend some time contemplating which of the 24 mural design submissions they would most like to live alongside, perhaps in discussion with each other, before the community vote: 1643 Howard St. (Howard @ Paulina) 1505 Morse Ave. (between Greenview and Ashland) |
The 2010 entertainment schedule has been updated and posted. We're looking forward to some really fantastic music this year! The Fest kicks off Friday night with a performance from the New Iberians at the Artists' Launch Party on the Lifeline Theatre/Duke's Bar South Stage. Saturday features performances from returning Fest favorites The Polkaholics and The Shuffle Kings. Sunday continues the jam all day long with The Dimestore String Band, Sarah Potenza, Micki Croissant, and Ifficial Reggae. Greg Ginn of Black Flag hits the Heartland/Red Line Tap North Stage on Sunday with his band, Greg Ginn and the Texas Corrugators. See the full entertainment schedule here. |
Lifeline Theatre, the Bohemian Theatre Ensemble and Theo Ubique Theatre
Company scored the most nominations in the non-Equity branch of
Chicago's venerable Joseph Jefferson Awards, announced early Thursday
morning. Musicals dominate the slate of 105 nominations. Shows with
multiple mentions include Theo Ubique's “Chess,” BoHo's “The Glorious
Ones” and the Circle Theatre production of “The Who's Tommy.” The awards
will be handed out June 7 at the Park West, 322 W. Armitage Ave. The
Jeff committee judged 116 shows, produced by 55 Chicago companies. Read the Chicago Tribune's full article here. |
Applications to display at the 2010 Glenwood Ave Arts Fest are now available for download. Read and complete the application. Send it in with your fee as soon as possible. All available spaces were filled by June 1 last year and we expect this year to fill up even faster! |
Your favorite local restaurant should participate as a food & drink vendor at the 9th annual Glenwood Avenue Arts Fest. Applications are now available for download. A limited number of openings for new participant exist. Acceptance notifications will be made in the first week of June. |
The long-awaited streetscape project along Morse and Glenwood is finally happening. Construction is scheduled to begin this Spring and should be finished by the end of Fall! Although the project has scaled back from its once grand scale, it brings a welcome facelift to the infrastructure in the Glenwood Ave Arts District. The Fest Committee was fortunate to meet with the project director, project manager, and the CDOT construction engineer. Their willingness to meet with the committee and their ensuing knowledge of the Fest and its use of the streets was impressive. Their phased construction schedule can be easily adjusted to avoid the street festival boundaries in late August. We get to have our Fest and street it too. Some of the features of the street scape include:
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Bands seeking the opportunity to play at the 2010 Glenwood Ave Arts Fest should visit the Fest's SonicBids page as soon as possible. Submissions are open through April 1, 2010. Each of the three stages is booked by its sponsoring music venue: Heartland/Red Line, Morseland, or Duke's. http://www.sonicbids.com/GlenwoodAvenueArtsFestival2010 |
The New York Times recently ran an article on Rogers Park in its Travel section. The Glenwood Ave Arts District and the Glenwood Ave Arts Fest received mention. Read the article here: http://nyti.ms/8YlcEj "HOW does Rogers Park, a neighborhood on the northern edge of Chicago, stay funky? The secret is geography. The area lies beyond the end of Lake Shore Drive; most east-west streets dead-end into beaches, and there’s no quick way to get downtown."... more. |
The Glenwood Avenue Arts Fest is made possible by thousands of hours of
volunteer effort. This being the 8th year, there have literally been
tens of thousands of hours invested in this grassroots artists' fest. See the Volunteers page for more details. |
The 9th annual Glenwood Ave Arts Fest will be held the third weekend of August, Friday the 20th through Sunday the 22nd, 2010. Artists applications for participation in the 2010 fest will be published in the Spring. Applications will be mailed to returning artists in late April, a few weeks before they are released to the public. All available spaces were full by May 31 in 2009. Persons interested in volunteering should see the volunteer page. |
As always, last minute cancellations and additions happen after schedules are printed and listings published. We have updated the online version of the entertainment schedule and the artist lineup. On the Morse Ave. Main Stage, Room 11 has moved to Saturday in place of Zutano. On the Glenwood Ave. North Stage, The Reunion fills in on Sunday. |
The layout for the 2009 Glenwood Ave Arts Fest has been finalized. Artist and merchant spaces have been assigned. The day-of-event map is available online now. Check out the 3D scale map to see where your favorite artists are located this year. See the directory of 100+ artists and merchants participating in this 8th annual arts festival.  |
A draft of this year's fest layout has been released. It certainly doesn't have all the finishing touches, but this to-scale rendering illustrates the tent and stage layout exactly. The rendering was made using free programs from Google: Google Earth & Google Sketchup. It will be incorporated into the day-of-fest guide. Artist locations will be posted next week. |
This year's Friday Night Opening Jam promises to be the best kickoff party yet. Starting at 6pm until 10pm on Friday the 23rd, the cobblestone streets of Glenwood Avenue north of Morse come alive. Featuring on the Heartland Cafe / Red Line Tap North Stage: Devil in a Woodpile - live acoustic blues and ragtime
Read My Hips - exotic bellydancing
and fire dancing with Pyrotechniq
Accompanied by tasty food and drink from the Heartland grill and beer trailer. |
An early release of this year's entertainment schedule is now online, and what an amazing lineup it is! The 8th annual festival brings the return of some of Glenwood Ave's favorites and brings some great new talent to the three stages. Local venues such as the Red Line Tap, Duke's, and Morseland will feature after-fest entertainment late into the night. |
The deadline for artists is fast approaching. If you or someone you know is considering participation in the Fest this year, the application must be submitted immediately. As of May 1st, 75% of the available artist spaces are full. A waiting list will be established for those applications received after the deadline or exceeding capacity. Artists whose applications are accepted will receive a written confirmation before June 15. |
We've been working with Google Sketchup to create a scale virtual model of this year's Fest layout. It's still a bit rough around the edges, but we've posted the second beta of the model. Make sure to activate the HQ button in the player for high quality viewing. |
Community First Bank Chicago has confirmed it will return in 2009 as the Fest's KidFest Activity Tent sponsor. The KidFest tent offers children the opportunity to get their hands dirty at the Fest and create some art of their own. Community First's sponsorship enables the Glenwood Ave Arts Fest to provide these arts & crafts activities free-of-charge. |
It's only been a week since applications were made available and already over 50 spaces have been assigned. Returning artists have one more week before applications from new participants will be accepted. Get your application and payment in the mail today! |