About post-ART...

WHY POST-ART?

 
      Post-ART was initiated because of a set of circumstances that led to the untimely demise of a great institution for artists on the northside of Chicago, (in Evanston).  The Art Department at Good's of Evanston was a pillar of the art community for Evanston and Chicago, as well.   Artists who have been there know, that the employees that worked there were real artists.  They used the products they were selling you themselves and could tell you facts about what the product was going to do when you used it.  They were knowledgeable, helpful, and you would get used to hearing reliable advice about the art supplies and their function.  Which makes it really hard to accept that something that has been such a valuable resource to the community for over 40 years be phased out. 
          
 When customers who have been coming for a longtime would find out the store was closing their art department they'd say,
"Where am I supposed to go now for art supplies?  I've never gone anywhere else." 
It really made me feel like it was not only the end the art department, but it made me wonder for how many people that it would be the end of art for them.  Some may just go to the bigger art supply chains like Blick, Pearl, Utrecht, or even Micheal's (blech!) but those places suck because the people that work there hate their jobs or don't know about the products or don't care, but at any rate aren't helpful. 

So where we go from here, I don't know.  One of the things I liked the best about the Art Department at Good's of Evanston (which by the was the heart of that store, I don't care what any sales report says) was the networking and camaradarie of the artists there.  We all posted cards for our shows and would talk about what we were working on.  SO, this site and the BLOG that goes with it is designed to give us the chance to post information about shows we have coming up or about opportunities that we can apply for to get our work shown.  Its intent is foster that camaraderie and try to keep us connected as a community of artists and friends.

WHERE DOES THE INFORMATION COME FROM?

        The listings come from a variety of sources that are all available for free on the web.  You just have to know where to look.  Sure it would be easy to list the links to all the sites, but it's a lot harder to scan all those websites for something that relates to the work that you do.  The resource of a site this is that its all in one place. And its updated regularly.
        The bulk of the information about comes from the College Art Association, Chicago Artist's Resource, Chicago Artist Coalition Magazine, TransArtists Online Resource, from galleries, art centers and occasionally from Craigslist. Also, I accept individual contributions brought to my attention either in person, emailed to me or posted on post-ART theBLOG.   To all the sources where the information flows from thank you, thank you, thank you for posting it for others to see and making it available for us to tell people about it.  If you haven't already done so, it is 100% worth signing up, registering, and becoming a lifetime member on all of the websites I mentioned above.