They were also looking to fill a 1-4am slot with something fun, conceptually interesting, and above all, interactive.
The location was to be the parking ramp under Millennium Park. I quickly suggested the Round Robin art warm-up that we have done for the first day of many CAD classes, (5-10 stations with different art media to experience looking at the same still life or model). We evolved the idea to include wearable and competitive art forms.
After months of meetings, budgets, footprints and relocations, we ended up with an art school in one of the most elegant ballrooms in Chicago. The art stations were designed to be cumulative, the Cut & Paste ‘Zine station lead to the T-Shirt Station which lead to the Photo Fashion Show Station.
The entire event was free and open to the public. Participants left having experimented with a dozen art forms, wearing a t-shirt they either silk-screened or image-pressed, a mask they designed, and a collage on their new metal water bottle. They also contributed to a stop-motion version of Exquisite Corpse, and got their photo and collage in our magazine. Our event was the last one to shut down and collected the largest sustained population of any of the late night events. Hundreds of images and videos appeared the next day on youtube and facebook. Our event was also featured heavily on the official Looptopia site.
I directed this event. I worked with the city’s largest production company (Jack Morton: they do the Olympics), one of the most elegant historical hotels in the city (everyone knows the Palmer House), and was given a budget for one evening that matched my annual salary (and I came in $5 under budget). Approximately one thousand people came to the art school and made something that night. I had the pleasure of hiring close to one hundred artists, performers and musicians to make the event happen, (this included a dozen Saint Xavier University students).