THE SCHOOL OF CELEBRATION

This project is the result of collaborative discussions with Cabinets Board of Directors, Jessica Thebus, Jillian Gryzlak, Milam Smith, Sydney Lynn Thomas and our summer apprentice team. All authors in this civic endeavor of celebration and representation.

When I was in Mexico city, some 25 years ago, I would see the strangest “boxes” around the city. Cigar boxes and discarded drawers filled with detritus- like mannequin hands, flowers, whiskey bottles, stuffed animals, and more. Rough Joseph Cornell like, inspired “boxes”. They were scary, odd, dirty, and unsophisticated yet inviting and strapped/bound/wired to poles.  I inquired about them, and a local, said, “Yes, those… they (the boxes) are made by artists so the business man remember to look up, dream, remember, and hope”.  I was moved. 

One of the dramatic effects of the COVID-19 crisis has been the sudden shutting down of gathering spaces and community engagement — parks, coffee shop, libraries, museums.  In a city like Chicago, where authentic community making is critical, this is crushing for artists, organizations and citizens. Community making was especially interrupted, as was the act and necessity of collective celebration. Digital storytelling, digital camps, and digital classes are far from satisfying. They are acts of (understandable) desperation and “good enough” gestures. They are neither supplemental nor innovative though. Asking our fans to pay for these activities is, in my opinion, offensive and short sighted. Now is a time of survival, yes, but more urgently, it is a time of service. As artists, we can and must force one another to be more creative and innovative. Upon accepting her Humanities award yesterday, Eve Ewing read from Alexander Chee’s brilliant ‘On Becoming an American Writer’,

I have new lessons in not stopping, after the election. If you are reading this, and you’re a writer, and you, like me, are gripped with despair, when you think you might stop: Speak to your dead. Write for your dead. Tell them a story. What are you doing with this life? Let them hold you accountable. Let them make you bolder or more modest or louder or more loving, whatever it is, but ask them in, listen, and then write. And when war comes—and make no mistake, it is already here—be sure you write for the living too. The ones you love and the ones who are coming for your life. What will you give them when they get there?

Cabinet of Curiosity is composed of diverse project-by-project collectives who authentically collaborate on original celebrations and productions. Cabinet uses sophisticated art to develop unique interactive experiences, productions and events. We focus on creating new types of gatherings, ceremonies, and rituals which promote community and interactivity amongst people who may not normally mix. Our intention is to support multi-cultural professionals in the field of theatre, visual arts, dance, sculpture and music, while mindfully training college age apprentices to become the future creators of new meaningful rituals. We are committed to social engagement — both grand and intimate. Our purpose is to promote curiosity, community and culture. We had just announced our “School of Celebration” when Covid attacked. All our income streams were broken. Our plans set on fire, as is the case for most, if not many. Therefore, in the reality Cabinet may cease to exist, I want to focus my time on our central mission — create art which galvanizes authentic community and spreads hope and surprise throughout our city. I don’t want to sustain the old, but develop the new and behave with integrity,  innovation and optimism. In this moment of understandable and necessary distance, we are committed to a new initiative. 

• Cabinet will provide constructed boxes to esteemed artists, emerging artists, the general public and our summer apprentice squad to adorn.

• We will deliver and retrieve the completed boxes, strap them to telephone poles across the city (in neighborhoods that reflect your person and addresses chosen by you) and develop a scavenger hunt for audience, intentionally drawing people in cars or on bike, to unfamiliar locations with a destination of art, humanity, and expression.

• Inspired by traditional cabinets of curiosity, altars, temples, shrines, tramp art, and grottos, we hope to generate momentary locations of respite and reflection. 

• They are likely no larger than 12 x 12 inches and 4 inches deep.  A couple shelves, or pockets.

•  These boxes will be offered to the general public at a small cost as well, to assist with paying select artists to create finished professional boxes. 

Art and community in unexpected places continues my long tradition of transforming building facades through shadow puppetry and film, collaborating with mural artists to transform spaces, developing processions and parade which interrupt the normal and ordinary, and accomplishing mobile images in public spaces to ignite joy and surprise.

Box samples and inspirations by KASS COPELAND

CURRENT PARTICIPATING ARTISTS