CHICAGO — On a current Saturday night time, I sat in a tiny storefront with a dozen or so others. Three dancers moved with glacial slowness not 10 ft in entrance of us, illuminated by the streetlights exterior. Eerie sounds buzzed all through the area. “Nether,” by Zachary Nicol, was half-hour of dystopia till, on the final minute, it was not, by the grace of the trio lastly linking their our bodies collectively.
This was not my first expertise at Roman Susan, a gallery of simply 280 sq. ft positioned in a wedge-shaped area on the bottom flooring of an almost 100-year-old flatiron constructing — however it will likely be one in all my final. The artist-run nonprofit, which Nathan and Kristin Abhalter Smith opened in 2012, will shut on September 30 as a result of the constructing through which it resides, 1224–1234 West Loyola Avenue in Rogers Park, has been emptied out and slated for demolition by Loyola College Chicago, its new proprietor.
One of many closing performances at Roman Susan was “nether” by Zachary Nicol, carried out with Jasmine Lupe Mendoza Carrasco and Isabelle Taylor, sound by ciro monoarfa goudsmit. (picture by Ricardo Adame)
That is taking place regardless of a set of information that, in a extra simply universe, would have ensured a distinct final result: The property housed 30 residences stuffed with tenants, many on social safety, loads of whom had lived there for over a decade. Downstairs have been three beloved, artistic, intergenerational group areas: Archie’s Café, Edge Artwork, and Roman Susan. A protest was held by residents, neighbors, supporters, and elected officers, together with Illinois state senator Mike Simmons and forty ninth Ward alderwoman Maria Hadden. Roman Susan, with the longest lease, advocated for its neighbors to have the ability to keep a minimum of till they themselves have been compelled to filter out. The college can not even develop the positioning anytime quickly, on account of future renovations of the adjoining Crimson Line El station.
The kicker is that Loyola, as a Jesuit establishment, professes a deep accountability to the encompassing group and to the setting. Neither is served by the displacement of residents and small companies, or by the failure to reuse viable historic property moderately than dump it right into a landfill. That’s progress and revenue on the expense of a various and sustainable neighborhood, a sample the college has repeated all through the Rogers Park and Edgewater neighborhoods. On this one block of Loyola Avenue alone stand three vacant heaps, fenced off and unused for years, besides as worker parking. The streets south of campus are lined with limitless mint-green fencing that demarcates as non-public college property what have been as soon as multi-family residence buildings. Locals can’t swim within the Loyola pool both anymore.
Pink Moon, in April 2023, featured ceramics by Peter Ronan and work by Cassie Tompkins.
However this isn’t an opinion piece a few supposedly moral non secular academy performing like a grasping company. Loads of native media retailers have offered that kind of protection already, from WBEZ and Block Membership Chicago, to Crain’s Chicago Enterprise, the Chicago Reader, and particularly the Loyola Phoenix. That is an arts story previewing the ultimate programming at a soon-to-close cultural venue, with some point out of previous tasks and a nod towards the longer term. Right here goes:
Open Hours is what Roman Susan is looking its final 13 days of programming, to mark 13 years in its Loyola Avenue dwelling. One thing will probably be taking place each night, beginning kind of at 5pm and ending when it ends. Every part will probably be free, as every little thing has all the time been at this venue. The collection begins September 18 with a tribute to the bodily area itself, led by Siobhan Leonard and founder-director Kristin Abhalter Smith. They’ll solid the storefront’s distinctively dotty columns in papier-mâché and adorn the partitions with drawings. The undertaking is paying homage to one Leonard did on the finish of the gallery’s first yr, a stop-motion animation created from an accumulation of doodles by anybody — skilled artists, curious neighbors, handsy kids — who popped within the gallery. September 22 will function ritual celebrations of the Autumnal Equinox, probably involving meals, and undoubtedly adorned with appropriate artist-designed flags from a collection that Roman Susan flew on the flagpole exterior the previous Rogers Park Girl’s Membership in 2018–20. On September 28, self-publishers are invited to arrange their zines, books, and different supplies indoors and out, hosted by one of many nice champions of such endeavors, Marc Fischer of Public Collectors. Fingers crossed that Madeleine Aguilar will take part, in honor of her spring 2024 present, when she constructed a modular, ever-changeable sidewalk platform and a public library for the charming output of bench press, her risographic imprint.
In July 2021, as a part of Research for Simultaneous Listening, Christa Donner projected subject recordings in and across the gallery at nightfall. An off-site element, “Dear Human,” allowed guests to the close by West Ridge Nature Protect to take heed to monologues by the park’s non-human residents; it stays accessible.
The total program, nonetheless a piece in progress, is obtainable on the gallery web site. Festive, impromptu, open hearted, and experimental, it presents a minuscule however becoming acknowledgement of the 185 tasks by 917 artists that Roman Susan has offered in its time on Loyola Avenue. That’s a heck of a whole lot of art work for one wee place. I’ve seen a lot of their exhibits, although by no means sufficient, simply by being a neighbor who, like every other, glances by way of the floor-to-ceiling home windows every time I go by. Attending to view artwork by happenstance is likely one of the nice pleasures of dwelling in a neighborhood with a community-minded artistic area. Rogers Park is shedding a lot multiple previous constructing on a quiet road by the El.
Fortunately, Chicago isn’t shedding Roman Susan totally — simply this location. Through the years, the Abhalter Smiths have added quite a few offsite packages to their roster, as a result of a decent triangular shopfront isn’t the suitable place for every little thing. The positioning-responsive “ANNEX” tasks are achieved with native nonprofits, like a current “Land Acknowledgement” in collaboration with the American Indian Heart and Fortunate Pierre’s “In the Future Something Will Have Happened,” a tenderly speculative efficiency for one individual at a time; I underwent it at Berger Park Cultural Heart and have by no means forgotten. “Navigations” contemplate public area. These have included Christa Donner’s “Dear Human,” whereby guests to West Ridge Nature Protect can take heed to monologues by a tick, a tree, and different nonhuman residents, and JeeYeun Lee’s “Shore Land,” audio walks considering the extremely engineered, hyper-settled land of the Chicago shoreline.
One way or the other Roman Susan runs much more offsite packages than these, all ongoing. Given the extraordinary power, creativity, generosity, and functionality of the Abhalter Smiths and their prolonged group, these endeavors will little question proceed, with extra to return. It’s wonderful what some of us can do, even when a strong, rich native establishment is intent on dismissing them and their efforts. It provides one hope, kind of.
Burst, in April 2014, was an early solo present by Mia Capodilupo.
Open Hours at Roman Susan (1224 West Loyola Avenue, Chicago, Illinois) runs from September 18–30. The collection was organized by the gallery.
