I celebrate Christmas, and I enjoy much of the preparation and anticipation that goes with it. I love driving through neighborhoods and seeing the outside of homes glittering with lights, the insides lit up by sparkling Christmas trees in the front windows, and — I’ll say it — I always hope for snow on Christmas. Can you pass the egg nog please?
What I don’t love is the stress that goes along with making all that happen, especially the gift shopping. There’s the pressure of deciding on the “perfect” gifts, the hassle of shopping for said gifts, and the frantic gift wrapping at the last possible second because I always put it off. Okay, so in re-reading that paragraph, some of that may be entirely avoidable on my part. But I digress…
If you can relate, or if the general consumerism of the holidays is getting you down, it might be time for some art therapy at SHoP during their Fenn Fair, “an exhibition and sale of multiples, prints, series, and groupings.” Buy handcrafted, one-of-a-kind gifts, experience some poety and film, or even make your own snow globe. And after you fill your soul with art, you can fill your stomach with a potluck supper. There….don’t you feel better?
Below are some of the deets about the event. If you go, leave me a comment and tell me what you thought.
Fenn Fair at SHoP
December 2-4
5638 S. Woodlawn Ave.
Chicago, IL 60637
info.southsidehub@gmail.com
Fenn Fair is a weekend exhibition and art/craft sale of multiples and reproducible objects, that will kick off the one month exhibition, REPRODUCE+ABILITY. The exhibition will include printmakers, mixtape artists, self-publishers, photocopy artists, object and image-makers, and others. We dedicate this most commercial month of the year to small-scale arts production, workshops, roundtable discussions, films, and performance, emphasizing process and skill-sharing. If you make crafty art or artsy crafts and you want to sell your stuff, please contact us!
Friday = Fenn Fair Opening Preview
Buy interesting handmade gifts instead of spending your money on plastic junk at a big-box retailer.
DJ Curt Spins @ 6, Fire Escape Films @ 8, DJ Curt Spins @ 9
Saturday = Fenn Fair, Poetry, Film
Spend all day looking at interesting handmade gifts, then all evening celebrating reproducible art.
Fenn Fair 11-5, Doggerel & Poetry Show @ 6, “Typeface” screening @ 7, roundtable on letterpress @ 8, DJ Curt Spins @ 9
Sunday = Fenn Fair, Raffle & Auction, Potluck
Buy more art for relatives and friends, then have a chance to win some amazing stuff, then eat.
Fenn Fair 12-5, Art Raffle & Silent Auction @ 5, Potluck @ 6
It’s all part of…
Reproduce+Ability
{An exhibition and workshop series emphasizing reproducible art
and the techniques used to make it.}
December will be packed with a series of artist run workshops:
- make a short drawn animation film with animator Vicky Yen
- bake the world’s best cookies with Lizzy Szwaya
- make silkscreen prints with a Gocco with Clare Fentress
- perfect the art of the mix-tape with Curtis Spins
- make snow globes from old jars and found objects with Marvin Tate
- “repair” a piece of old furniture with John Preus
- felting with Suzanne Arata
- knitting with Lindsay Obermeyer
- more
