{"id":14,"date":"2023-04-25T14:33:14","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T14:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/neh\/?post_type=gallery&p=14"},"modified":"2023-12-01T17:25:11","modified_gmt":"2023-12-01T17:25:11","slug":"arc-gallery","status":"publish","type":"gallery","link":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cagp\/gallery\/arc-gallery\/","title":{"rendered":"ARC Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Members pictured in New Work<\/em> catalog, 1977<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Photo of members, 1986<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cover of Women of Color <\/em>catalog<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Postcard for Against the Nightstick<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Flier for Personae: Self Portraits by ARC Members<\/em>, 2004<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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In 1973, fifteen women artists joined together to form ARC (Artists, Residents, Chicago), one of the longest-operating women\u2019s cooperative galleries in the country to date. Frustrated with the lack of professional support available to female artists and the disproportionate amount of representation men had in commercial galleries at the time, ARC\u2019s founders set out to create their own space for exhibition and continued education. The gallery\u2019s first location, in a building  across the street from the then relatively new Museum of Contemporary Art, situated it near the center of Chicago\u2019s growing art scene. In the decades that followed, ARC would go on to launch the careers of many women artists working outside of traditional mediums and themes. Gardner-Huggett 2017, 201, 38<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In 1979, ARC opened Raw Space, a bare-bones basement gallery dedicated exclusively to the exhibition of installation art. As one of the few alternative spaces that offered honorariums to participating installation artists, Raw Space attracted artists from across the country. Gardner-Huggett 2017, 47<\/a> Thus, what had begun as a hyper-local community, composed predominantly of students and alumni of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, quickly grew to include artists from different regions, backgrounds, and practices. This expansion\u2014along with ARC\u2019s diverse programming that included visiting artist lectures, international art exchanges, and educational workshops\u2014provided women artists with new opportunities for dialogue and exposure, distinguishing it as a model for alternative gallery operations and community-building. ARC Gallery Records<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In exchange for the opportunity to exhibit their work, members of ARC were expected to pay monthly dues, participate in democratic decision-making, and dedicate a regular number of hours to the gallery’s upkeep. Unlike the commercial galleries that took a significant cut from their artists\u2019 sales, ARC members kept 100% of their proceeds. In the absence of the profit-driven eye of a commercial gallery director\u2014who likely would have shied away from overtly political, personal, or off-trend work\u2014ARC artists had the freedom to create and exhibit experimental work that spoke directly to their experiences as women. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In many ways, ARC\u2019s membership model opened doors to women who might have otherwise been excluded from the art world. But it also imposed a financial threshold. Membership demanded time and money, of which many women artists, who were often also wives and mothers, were in short supply. Those who had trouble fulfilling their membership duties and expenses sometimes faced expulsion, a difficult decision for the women in leadership positions who valued inclusion yet had to ensure the gallery\u2019s rent got paid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But ARC\u2019s financial sustainability depended on more than just its members\u2019 contributions. A large portion of ARC\u2019s funding came from government grants and philanthropic sources, including the Illinois Arts Council, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the John D and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Midcon Corp., Sara Lee Foundation and the Polk Brothers Foundation. ARC Gallery Records<\/a>  However resourceful, these sources were hardly reliable, as their budgets ebbed and flowed with the politics and economy of the day. When the Reagan administration came to power in 1981, the National Endowment for the Arts budget shrunk by 12%. Knight 2011<\/a> Without this extra aid, ARC could no longer afford its then-home on Hubbard Street, where it had thrived for five years alongside fellow artist-run spaces Artemisia, N.A.M.E., Chicago Filmmakers, the Chicago Editing Center, and East Hubbard Gallery. ARC\u2019s subsequent move to 356 W. Huron would be just one of many relocations, as rising rents continued to hound the gallery from one neighborhood to the next. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Despite its transience, ARC has managed to sustain a steady schedule of innovative exhibitions and events since its founding. Touchy Subjects, <\/em>an exhibition mounted in 1990, featured art for and by people who were visually impaired. Visitors were invited to feel and interact with the sculptures, constructions, and wall pieces throughout the room. That same year, ARC opened Women of Color, <\/em>an exhibition of artwork by Black and Hispanic women artists curated by Ramon Price, then the Director of the Curatorial Department of the DuSable Museum of African-American History, and Deanna Bertoncini of the Latino Arts Gallery. An accompanying panel discussion \u201crevealed the mixed emotions felt by the artists about the contra\u00addictions between encouraging exhibi\u00adtion opportunities for minority artists and the fear of \u2018ghettoization\u2019 that occurs when such \u2018theme\u2019 exhibi\u00adtions are held,\u201d writes Ellen Roth Deutsch in the ARC 20th Anniversary Catalog. Throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s, ARC continued to use its exhibitions to explore pressing, sometimes contentious topics, such as abortion, AIDS, police brutality, and domestic violence. The gallery also worked to engage artists from beyond the local scene; in 1993, National Exposure<\/em> opened, the first in a series of annual exhibitions featuring the work of photographers from across the country. ARC Gallery Records<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Since its opening, ARC has belonged to a larger network of alternative galleries in Chicago, including N.A.M.E. Gallery, Randolph Street Gallery, and Artemisia Gallery, with whom ARC shared more than just a wall in its early years. Like ARC, Artemisia modeled its operations after A.I.R. in New York, whose democratic and separatist ideology informed both galleries\u2019 women-only membership structures. As two of the only art spaces in the city created specifically by and for women, ARC and Artemisia naturally supported one another, often collaborating on programming, such as 4\/4,<\/em> an annual exhibition of Illinois artists juried by four artist-run spaces in Chicago. However, though the two galleries aligned in many ways, they also had distinctive identities and influences. While Artemisia\u2019s members subscribed to a more ideological feminism, ARC was more practical in its approach to supporting women, and focused its educational efforts on professional development and networking opportunities rather than feminist theory. It is possible that this practical approach may in part have contributed to ARC\u2019s longevity, while Artemisia\u2019s feminist reputation may have alienated potential affiliates and donors. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Press release announcing the opening of Raw Space<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Exterior view of ARC gallery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Brian Dreith’s 1986 Raw Space installation, The Lifeboat<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Flier for Black Fusion<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Flier for 4\/4<\/em>, 1982<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Who knows what it\u2019s good for<\/em> Hamburg\/Chicago Exchange catalog, 2002<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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