Political Zines, Voting & Empowerment /Flag Books
About the Workshop
In the midst of the current election cycle, artists and activists are finding creative ways to share the importance of voting with their communities. Bringing the energy from our previous workshop, Activist Zines, in this session we will introduce Artists Books as a way to communicate and share the importance of exercising your voice.
Artists books have been transformed and reimagined as a means for sharing knowledge and information in different and unusual forms. Participants will look at a variety of artists, educators, organizers and creative agents of change in their methods of producing an Artist Book. In addition, we’ll learn the technique of creating a Flag Book using a simple accordion fold and begin our own book of voting and empowerment.
Join us Thursday, October 8 from 6-7PM EST to express the importance of voting and contributing your voice to the cause. Show up with your passion, paper, pencil or pen, scissors, glue, and an object with a flat edge like a butter knife. This workshop is designed for people with all abilities and all ages.
About the Instructors
Mel Cook is a visual artist currently living and working in Chicago, Illinois. Her work explores the relationship between language and femme bodies being pushed up against systems of (re)production.
Charting the ever expanding constellation of misogyny her work seeks to create new trajectories for thinking and making within the field of painting. She attended Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture (2016), received her MFA from Illinois State University (2012), and BFA from Bowling Green State University (2009). Her work has been exhibited at a variety of institutions within Chicago including Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Roots and Culture, Heaven Gallery, and LVL3. Nationally her work has been featured at Hathaway Gallery, Atlanta, GA, Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, Wausau, WI, Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst, IL, The Chicago Show at 56 Downing, Brooklyn, NY, Vital Signs MKE, Milwaukee, WI, Yeah Maybe, Minneapolis, MN, and Demo Projects, Springfield, IL. She has been an artist in residence at ACRE, Lazuli Residency, Ace Hotel Chicago, and The Center Program at Hyde Park Arts Center. She has taught at a range of institutions including Northwestern University and Illinois State University. She is currently a teaching artist at Marwen.
Sarita Garcia is a multidisciplinary artist and educator based in Chicago, IL and born and raised in South Texas. Garcia received her Bachelors of Fine Arts with a major in Fiber & Material Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work is informed by architectural spaces of her vernacular culture using an image archive of markets to talk about consumerism, identity and cultural hubs. These “Fantasyscapes” showcase a vocabulary of iconography as a means to empower and remix the reality of these spaces. Garcia has exhibited her work in multiple institutions in Chicago such as the National Museum of Mexican Art, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago Art Department, ACRE and Sullivan Galleries. Nationally, Garcia has shown in Laband Art Gallery Los Angeles, CA, City Gallery San Diego, CA, and Blue Star Contemporary San Antonio, Texas. Garcia’s pedagogy is also practiced through facilitating and maintaining an open printmaking studio for young people in the heart of Pilsen named Yollo Lab.
About the Location
This workshop will meet online via Zoom. See link at top of page.