Friend of the Vet Art Project: VetCAT

Greetings everyone!

Vet Art Project Chicago Co-Lead Artist Suellen Semekoski has been working to launch a collaboration and opportunity more centered on Creative Art Therapy. The VetCAT Program is facilitated by a group of credentialed professional art, dance/movement and poetry therapists who are trained as mental health counselors, visual artists, dancers, poets and writers to help service members with a wide range of mental health issues and to promote wellness practices. 
They have started programming and you can find more information at this link herehttp://apccchgo.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/vetcat-a-new-approach/

You can also register  here: 

Call 773-433-3252 or Email VetCAT@apcc-chgo.org with your name and a  phone number where you may be reached.
Please indicate:

SAIC, Sunday group (1pm to 4 pm)

-or-

APCC, Wednesday  group (6 pm to 9pm)

They have two groups/meetings times and locations. The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Albany Park Community Center. 

Peace Through Art!

Call for Works: Vet Art Project Community Showcase: Intergenerational Trauma

Vet Art Project Chicago is gearing up for the November 2012 Community Showcase. Collaborating with the National Veteran Art Museum, and their third annual “IN WAR” event series, Vet Art Project Chicago is taking on this year’s IN WAR theme and conceptual lens: Intergenerational Trauma.
Traumatic events exact an enormous psychological and physical toll on survivors, and often have ramifications that must be endured for decades. This includes emotional scars, and in many cases standards of living are diminished, often never recovering to levels that existed prior to the trauma. These traumas can occur at a personal level or at a collective level, and the responses to such events are not identical. In the latter instance, there is now considerable evidence that the effects of trauma experiences are often transmitted across generations, affecting the children and grandchildren of those that were initially victimized. - Bombay 2009

Vet Art Project Chicago Showcases are an opportunity for veterans, family members, and artists from all disciplines to come together and share their story. This can happen through visual arts, theater, dance, poetry, spoken word, or any combination of media.  We are looking to exhibit two-dimensional and three dimensional work as space permits, as well as performances in either dance, music, song, spoken media or theater. In spite of the conceptual framework parameters, all work submitted will be considered for inclusion in the showcase.
If you are interested in participating in the November Showcase please contact Edgar Gonzalez at vetartprojectchicago@gmail.com  or call (815) 683-8278 with a short statement explaining either the performance, or submission, or an image file of the artwork you would like to exhibit along with dimensions, and any sort of specific requests. We will try our best to accommodate your work if it is selected to be shown at the showcase. 

Theater Production: A Piece of My Heart

At Vet Art Project Chicago, we try to keep an ear to the ground for interesting events and theater productions relating to experiences of veterans and of going to war. Chicago Park District's Hale Park Field House has a press release for their upcoming production of "A Piece of My Heart" by Shirley Lauro.
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The true stories of six courageous women sent to Vietnam and their struggle to make sense of a war that irrevocably changed them and a nation that shunned them. A work with the music and soul of a tumultuous era in our history.

The living memorial for stage, which debuted in New York in 1991, not only commemorates veterans of the Vietnam War, but it especially focuses on its quietest heroes -- the women who served there. Based on firsthand accounts of nurses, Red Cross workers and entertainers who volunteer

 ed to enter those distant jungles in the 1960s, the show has been praised by critics as “heart-wrenching,” “cathartic” and “a work with the music and soul of a tumultuous era.”

This kaleidoscope from Vietnam is not always reverential. It is, however, always real. A Piece of My Heart is a tumultuous look at the late ’60s, but also looks at the heartwarming comradarieof the group, with the nurses laughingly sharing memories of the escapism of drinking, drugs, lovemaking and delectable Coca-Cola from home.

Less delectable are the flashbacks of first days in surgery, their "baptism by fire" indoctrination into the hell that was a medical unit in Vietnam. The all too serious moments are lightened with songs from the period which help tell the tale of these unsung heroes.The indelible music of the 1960s is so essential to this show that it is often interspersed with lines. Everything in Lauro’s memorial – music, dialogue and monologues – are straight from the record books and record albums, and that, the cast says, makes this production special. These are actual accounts.

CAST
Meg Collins
Deborah McLaughlin
Michelle Ho
Dionne Hawkins
Jenny Hogan
Felicia Faizer
Michael J. Murphy

The production is directed by Lauren J. Polenske.

A PIECE OF MY HEART will be presented Thurs-Sat. evenings September 27th - 28th & 29th, 2012 at the Hale Park Fieldhouse, 6258 W. 62nd Street, Chicago, IL 60638. Tickets are just $8.00 for Adults and $4.00 for students & Seniors. Seating is limited and reservations are suggested. To reserve tickets, call Hale park @(773) 229-1032. Tickets will be held @ the Box Office until 15 mins. before curtain.

***A PIECE OF MY HEART contains MATURE LANGUAGE AND SUBJECT MATTER. Younger and more sensitive patrons are strongly cautioned.

Collaboration and networking is abound! Vet Art Project & Friends of the Vet Art Project

After a meeting with representatives of various Veteran Art Groups, and other organizations which could be grouped with the Warrior Arts Movement I have an array of upcoming events happening from now well into July.


Vet Art Project Chicago will be hosting a Community Showcase at the Chicago Cultural Center on July 25, 2012. We are looking for artwork from all manner of different disciplines, visual arts, writing, theater, music & dance relating to or about military experiences. The artwork can be made by veterans or non-veterans. Please contact vetartprojectchicago@gmail.com for details.

Friends of the Vet Art Project are hosting a series of workshops.
Warrior Arts Studio is hosting a Women’s Group,
The Knitting Basics:
Over the next few weeks instructor Alexis will teach us how to "cast on", knit hats, scarfs and more. All skill levels are encouraged to come. There is no cost to participate and supplies will be provided!

When:
7:00-9:00pm
Tuesday April 24th
Tuesday May 1st
Tuesday May 8th
Tuesday May15th

Where:
Warrior Arts Studio @ Fulton Street Collective
2000 West Fulton St
Chicago IL
(Northwest corner of Damen and Fulton intersection. The building is on the corner with a red door)

To RSVP or for more info contact:
jessa@warriorartsstudio.com
773.301.5366

Instructor Alexis Gabay started knitting four years ago, since then she has been selling her creations at local shops and teaching her friends and family the art of knitting.

and you can follow this link here for informationhttps://www.facebook.com/events/348991508492590/

From our friends at the National Veterans Art Museum, there is a new installation which will open May 26. Details will be forthcoming.
the National Veteran Art Museum will also screen the movies "On the Bridge", a film which seeks to break down the stereotypes and stigmas of PTSD in April, and “Where Soldiers Come From” a documentary about a group of National Guard Soldiers from Michigan who get called to active duty during the month of May. The screening will take place at the National Veterans Art Museum on the 3rd floor of 1801 S. Indiana. April 26 & 28 May 3 & 5. You can contact the museum for more information at info@nvam.org or calling 312-326-0270.

Another wonderful event which is happening at the Lincoln Park Campus of DePaul is “Speak Peace.”
Speak Peace: American Voices Respond to Vietnamese Children’s Paintings features original poems written by American children, veterans, and established poets in response to Vietnamese children’s paintings on peace and war collected over the last 10 years by the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. A collaborative, international project between Kent State’s Wick Poetry Center and School of Art Galleries, and Soldiers’ Heart, a veterans’ return and healing organization, Speak Peace will tour nationally from September 2010 to September 2013.
Showcasing the visions of Vietnamese children and the power of poetry to promote healing and reconciliation, Speak Peace offers a timely testament to the emotional truth of war and peace.

The Opening is May 7 at the Student Center room 301A from 5:30pm to 7:30pm.
Please contact vetartprojectchicago@gmail.com, care of Suellen for more information.

There are a multitude of events which you can participate in during May centered around the issues of Veterans and their loved ones. I will keep you posted about more events as the information becomes available.

Big Things Coming Up!

Greetings everybody! I apologize for the protracted radio silence. Life has happened, but we have still been working on several events and collaborations with various other organizations. I promise I will have the events posted soon.
I will however remind you of the next coming Vet Art Project Showcase at the Chicago Cultural Center, July 25.

Steppenwolf Theater & LiveWire

Greetings everyone,
Stepenwolf Theater & LiveWire are teaming up in a fundraiser to help produce a comedic play about a soldier's homecoming gone awry, "Oohrah!" by Bekah Brunsetter. They are trying to raise $8000 to help finance the production, pay for design materials, artist stipends, and additional expenses needed to bring the production to Chicago.
I have enclosed a link to their fundraising efforts on indiegoogo
http://www.indiegogo.com/LiveWires-Road-to-Steppenwolf
LiveWire & Steppenwolf are graciously donating a portion of their proceeds to Vet Art Project, so I am asking that you help contribute to the fundraiser for this wonderful production.