Documentation is a key component of the Sixty Inches From Center mission to capture the words of Chicago artists, curators and arts organizers, and support the visual arts as they happen outside of the iconic institutions of the city.  The group has partnered with the Chicago Public Library to gather art documentation for the Chicago Artists’ Archive, housed at the Harold Washington Library Center. Chicago Public Media is pleased to work with Sixty Inches From Center to use our community bureaus - located in Englewood, Rogers Park, and Little Village - to set up space for meeting with area artists and documenting their work.

As part of Sixty Inches From Center’s partnership with the Chicago Public Library, artists from across the city are invited to bring images, ephemera, an artist biography and anything else that tells your artist story, to be documented and formally processed for submission to this historic archive. Materials will be archivally preserved and permanently housed at the Harold Washington Library Center.

Recognizing the importance of capturing the innovative work of artists and communities that might otherwise be missed by traditional art historical narratives, Sixty Inches From Center uses a combination of analog and digital technology to document and archive art in all corners of Chicago. This series brings Sixty’s online archive to life.

This summer Chicago artists are invited to bring their exhibition postcards, catalogues, artist statements, CV’s, images and all other tokens from their careers to one of several community locations and take ownership of their place in our city’s cultural history by building (or adding to) their files for the archives. In addition to adding work to the archive, artists will have the opportunity to get their portfolios reviewed by established writers, curators and others from the city’s various arts communities.

Join us and get archived! Saturdays: May 25 at South Side Community Art Center in Bronzeville, June 1 at WBEZ’s South Side Community Bureau in Englewood, June 8 at WBEZ’s North Side Community Bureau in Rogers Park, or June 15 at WBEZ’s new West Side Community Bureau in Little Village.

Just Announced: Portfolio Reviews on June 8 will be conducted by JC Steinbrunner, Artist, Editor of Chicago Artists Resource and founder of The Salon Series.

Click here to RSVP for this event.

Please note: The materials brought should be ones which artists can donate to the archive. Do you have materials that you want to include in your file but aren’t willing to part with it? Digital scans and files are welcome. Email your digital files to archive@sixtyinchesfromcenter.org.

This event is a co-production of Chicago Public Media (WBEZ-Chicago) and Sixty Inches From Center, an essential portal to the contemporary art periphery in Chicago which acts as a testament to this work’s deserved place at the global art table.

Support for Chicago Public Media’s Community Bureaus is provided in part by Polk Brothers Foundation, Met Life Foundation, and Crown Family Philanthropies.