Mash Tun Fest, Community Supported Supper Club, SMALL Showroom, Astro Space Party, Third Fridays, what else do you want? A week of Version 12
A complicated and epic week of activities is featured during this weeks Version Festival 12. A short-as-possible synopsis follows:
On Wednesday, May 16, there is a prerelease reading of the Mash Tun Journal at Paratext Books.
On Thursday, May 17, there is the Community Supported Super Club at Benton House, Astro Space Party at Co-Prosperity Sphere and an opening for Ian Ferguson at Paratext Books. It is also the debut of Chicago Craft Beer Week and we are throwing down hard for ten days straight at Maria’s.
That night a concert at First Trinity includes live music by Windbreaker / Broers / Songs for Gods / Ken Zawacki.
Saturday, May 19th, features a classical music salon at First Trinity. And from 1pm to 5pm please enjoy our first annual Mash Tun Festival at the Bridgeport Art Center. You can also enjoy Maria’s After Mash Tun Festival Party, and live performances at First Trinity featuring the artists of Pig Slop. Plus there will be food trucks at Maria’s from 6-9pm.
On Sunday May 20 enjoy our Community Brewing beer tasting with Master Cicerone, Dave Kahle, at the Co-Prosperity Sphere.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Version Fest 12's Friday, May 11 Action
Friday, May 11, 5pm - 11pm
http://www.versionfest.org/may11.html
Join us at the SMALL Showroom for our Friday Night openings in Bridgeport.
We are featuring tastings and samplings by these local manufacturers:
Bee’s Knees, Great American Cheese, Baby Cakes, Hot Temper Sauce, Sampling of Bridgeport Coffee, Katherine Anne Confections, Bridgeport Pasty.
These other spaces will be open for business too:
Paratext Books, Bridgepop Springpop, Ray Emerick's Studio, Research House for Asian Art, Enoch's Donuts and Quimbys!
Join us afterwards at First Trinity for live music by Onyou and J+J+J as well as a screening of Kick, by Clara Alcott.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Version Festival is Gentrifying Bridgeport
Today we discovered a new activist art campaign in Bridgeport. The East Bridgeport Commies have asked "Artists Students and Working People of Bridgeport" to boycott Version Festival because the people behind it are gentrifying the neighborhood. We hate to admit it, but it's true. We are ruining Bridgeport. We hope you will support this campaign. DO NOT COME TO BRIDGEPORT. Unless you are a capitalist stooge. If you are a capitalist stooge then on Thursday night you should stop by The Art Bowl Benefit . Or hang out with weirdos at the Astro Space Station or The Paratext Bookstore art opening. On May 11, Friday night, you should check out all the Artist, Student, and Working People - run spaces and check out the live music that night at the brainwashing church called First Trinity. And if you like parades, like all god fearing Americans do, then please join us Saturday for the ALL DAY LONG Bridgeport Day Celebration which takes place at the evil, gentrifying-agent-run community center, The Benton House. If you know whats best for you, do not participate or support any of these activities in the Comm-unity of the Fu-Ture.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
This Week During Version Festival
Woah. What a weekend. Thanks for joining us! Bridgeport was swarming with activity as we launched all of our projects and pop up spaces without a hitch. We are resetting our clocks right now and getting prepared for this week's programs. Here are some highlights: On Monday May 7 you can join us at Maria's for some Korean Polish BBQ. Private Feast begins Tuesday May 8th at Co-Prosperity Sphere. On Wednesday May 9 join us for a Bookbinding Workshop with with Nicole Coffineau at Paratext. Then on Thursday check out Community Supported Supper Club (rsvp please), Astro Space Station and a zine/book and art show at Paratext Books. Friday is also a HUGE day of openings and events, and mark Saturday 12, 2012 down in your calendar. Bridgeport Day is Coming...
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Saturday May 5th in Bridgeport Community of the Future!
Highlights:
960 W 31st Street
Act of God @ The First Trinity Community Center • 7-11pm
643 W 31st St • free
Floods, seismic activity and all varieties of natural destruction have inspired awe in the human race for centuries. We respond to these uncontrollable forces with artwork, community and the hope to rebuild what was lost. Come see artwork that deals with natural disasters and other Acts of God.
Musical Acts: Joe Sepka & Allison Trumbo, Maribelle, Volcano!, Odd Obsession
Visual Artists: Jenny Kendler, Sam Sieger, Jeriah Hildwine, Stephanie Burke, Theodore Darst, Robin Kang Aaron Orsini, Adam Rux, Luke Bradley, Kent Bamberger
Curated by Jake Myers & The Octagon Gallery
Music at the First Trinity Sanctuary • 7-11pm
643 W 31st St • free
A very special series of live performances in the sanctuary of the church by the electronic bands: Axis: Sova, Golden Birthday and The Hecks.
Also these Version Pop Up shops will be open today: Bridgepop, Enoch's Donuts, the SMALL Showroom at the Co-Prosperity Sphere, & Paratext Books.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Welcome to Version Festival 12: The Bridgeport Community of the Future!
Although we are opening Version Festival 12 this Tuesday, May 1 at Maria's, with a bookstore opening on May 2, and some other jams on May 3, we think you should come to the first big weekend of events on Friday, May 4. Eight new pop up and remixed spaces will open their doors for an evening of action. This will be a good introduction of some of what we have planned for the month of May.
Highlights:
SMALL Showroom Opening Party • 5-10 pm
3219 S. Morgan Street • free
Our big project for 2012 is the Small Manufacturing Alliance (SMALL). This is a showroom that will display over one hundred vendors’ wares. Stop in for some tastings and samplings. Featuring Half Acre, Virtue Cider, Koval Distillery and Few Distillery with tastings by Urban Belly and Zaytune and other food vendors.
Dusty Groove Records Party • 7-9 pm
755 W 32nd Street • free
Chicago’s premier record store for all things groovy — making a pop-up weekend appearance in Bridgeport! They’re having a Preview Night on Friday, May 4th, from 7pm to 9pm — open to the public, and with refreshments and music too!
Enoch's Donuts + Kevin Heisner's Tool Party
755 W 32nd Street • free • 6-9pm
Enoch's Donuts opens with Kevin Heisner's Tool Works exhibition.
Paratext Bookstore
755 W 32nd Street • free • 6-9pm
The new bookstore is hosting a book swap from 6-9pm.
Bridgepop SpringPop • 6-9 pm
3143 S Morgan Street • free
BridgePop is a group of resident Bridgeport artists and entrepreneurs who have banded together in a collaborative Pop-up Shop on Morgan Street. Stop over.
Ray Emerick Studios Opening • 6-10 pm
3149 S. Morgan Street, #1 • free
Artist Ray Emerick is a veteran Morgan Street artist. He joins Version festival by reopening his studio to the public.
Research House for Asian Art • 6-9 pm
3217 S Morgan Street • free
The Research House for Asian Art (RHAA) is a non-for profit organization whose goal is to promote art that is becoming more global and to provide a platform for the ongoing cultural exchange between East and West, in particular with China.
Maria’s Community Bar • 3pm -2 am
960 W 31st Street • free
Join us for the big after party after the shops close down.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Version Fest 12
What happens when you invite cultural workers, community developers, urban entrepreneurs, artists, designers, foodies, public space hackers, urban planners, cultural geographers, and dreamers to swarm a neighborhood and transform it for one month? Version 12: Bridgeport: The Community of the Future.
This May 2012, we're inviting you to come visit us in Bridgeport, a Chicago neighborhood, and join in on our month-long urban experiment. During the Eleventh Annual Version Festival, we will be opening and remixing twelve temporary spaces, businesses, enterprises and projects, all to celebrate the neighborhood we love and call home. And then we're going to use these places as home bases, networks, and maps, all to energize our local environs for long-term change.
See the calendar or view the version 12 guide to the festival.
The festival is co-produced by Public Media Institute (PMI) and dozens of our neighbors, community groups, friends, and business owners here in Bridgeport. PMI is a non-profit 501(c) 3, community based, arts & culture organization located in Chicago, Illinois. Our mission is to create and incubate innovative arts programming and cultural infrastructures to transform people - socially and intellectually – through the production of festivals, art spaces, events, exhibitions, community projects, artifacts and media. Public Media Institute is committed to the region's cultural ecology and is evident through our series of programs, spaces and projects.