Support Cabinet’s mission.

Cabinet’s work is created through the courage and ambition of our unique and diverse team.

Cabinet pays every artist high above minimum wage for rehearsal and performance as to upset the model of how artists are commonly treated.

This commitment demands rigorous fundraising and endless resourcefulness.

The mission of Cabinet is unique and as we grow, we see increased interest from the city, universities, community and the public for our special work.

With all the challenges the arts community has faced throughout the pandemic, Cabinet of Curiosity was nonetheless able to adjust and continue to develop new work, hire artists, and create safe opportunities for people to engage. 

In 2021, Cabinet resourcefully and strategically hired two new part-time positions: a Managing Director and a Community Artistic Associate. The Managing Director has focused on creating systems for sustainability and efficiency as well as supporting grant writing and other operations. The Community Artistic Associate is working in the Lawndale community to foster long-term collaborative relationships with the first co-authored ritual being performed this fall at Boler Park. Both these new positions work closely with each other and the Artistic Director to ensure the continued momentum of the organization. As Cabinet evolves and grows, we continue to develop roles and responsibilities and it is this adaptability that allows us to be agile. 

In this period where many theatres were forced into isolation and shuttered, Cabinet had the team and skills to practice safe, thrilling, necessary outdoor work, which platformed diversity and hope. 

SPRING FORWARD

As the pandemic continued and opportunities to gather diminished, Cabinet was commissioned by the University of Chicago to create an outdoor event to engage the student body and work with 20 paid students for six months. The result was Spring Forward — an evening of hope and release. Cabinet worked with students across departments to create the experience. Their work culminated in an event sparking wonder in a time of uncertainty. The audience saw a “spectacle of redemption and healing” where circus, song, fire, and mask performance filled the campus. While devising the event, Cabinet engaged students by facilitating virtual dialogues with staff of The Field Museum, The Art Institute of Chicago, and faculty from New York University. The University hopes this will be an annual event celebrating the transitioning of school years while amplifying the skills of their students. 

SONIC BLOOM

Cabinet was commissioned by Indiana University Northwest to work with 12 students and create a site-specific sound and projection installation for the Gary Indiana community.

SEA CHANGE

Our outdoor 2021 spectacle in the Pilsen neighborhood, Sea Change, was written by a team of female authors, who made a work investigating the feminine divine. This production allowed us to build relationships with local businesses, neighbors, churches, artists, and community leaders and welcome them as guests to the show. We closed with 3 sold out weekends and in invitation to remount the production as a part of the International Puppetry Festival. 

Sundays on State

Cabinet was commissioned to perform at five Sundays on State. This new event was created by the city of Chicago to welcome people back to the loop, celebrate the creativity of the city, and to visit the stores along State Street as a way of boosting a COVID injured economy. Cabinet was able to hire over 35 artists to create fabulous and mesmerizing interruptions and live musical events.

Fields of Fire: A School of Celebration Project

Fields of Fire was our most ambitious event of the year. 

We created multiple relationships in Lawndale and Homan Square and collaborated with over 200 local artists and community members to make a new ceremony, paying close to 60 authors. 

We built relationships with Sheila McNary, President, North Lawndale Coordinating Counci, Alexie Young of Art West, Jay Simon, Chi Buck, and the North Lawndale Community Center. 

There were numerous features to the project success. 

Hands of Homan Square was a project where Jay Simon, a community photographer, captured the hands of community members, which were then printed and placed on sculptures throughout the public event. 

We worked with the Chi Buck dance team for over six weeks developing a performance representation of a story written by Honey Crawford, a University of Chicago professor, inspired by interviews with local community members. 

Sydney Lynn Thomas, created the ritual landscape and atmosphere. Brandon Boler worked with Frank Maugeri to co-direct his first outdoor ritual, in a park named after his grandfather, who was an influential political activist in the neighborhood.

Phonophobia

Phonophobia was created during Covid as a way to made audio plays that people could enjoy from the safety of their homes. 

The second project of Phonophobia was creating a recorded soundtrack of Fields of Fire, so individuals unable to visit Lawndale for the community performance, still had an excellent visceral recording of the production.

2021 Illumination

Frank Maugeri returned to his role as the Art Director of illumination, a massive annual event created by the Clayco Foundation to raise money to cure RVCL. This event hired over 130 actors, designers, painters, dancers, and singers and successfully raised $1 million for further research.

Arts in the Dark

The recently retiring Mark Kelly, commissioner of The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, personally requested that Cabinet be present at this year’s Halloween party, as a celebration of his departure. Frank created a relationship with a young group of teenagers from a team called T.A.C.O. (Teen Artists’ Creative Oasis) and paid each of them to author and participate in a punk rock celebratory parade down State Street.

OTHER

Additionally, Frank searched for a young artist of color to author a mural in Fort Worth Texas, which represented the community’s personality and identity. After months of interviews and research, the artist Drigo was commissioned, and this mural was completed transforming the facade of a parking garage.

Cabinet of Curiosity is a diverse collective of performers, artists, educators, engineers, craftspeople, and community leaders united by our shared belief that the act of celebration is a social imperative.

Together, we use the art of celebration to tackle isolation, inspire hope and humor, facilitate relevant dialogue, and create experiences of beauty. We do this by collaboratively devising new gatherings, modern ceremonies, and interactive rituals. We define “ritual” as a process of community engagement, community authorship, and public expression, culminating in creative social engagements, both grand and intimate. These events investigate and embrace universal questions orbiting the mystery of the divine — birth, purpose, service, faith, union, loss, death — from which we develop uncanny landscapes made for reflection and festivity. We mindfully run our year-round School of Celebration, a model that trains Apprentices to become the future creators of new, meaningful rituals.

Cabinet is SUPPORTED by: