This year Version Festival is working and playing primarily on the south side of Chicago to stage our events, make public art, and interact with our communities. We open the festival with a Dis_orientation night featuring programs in Hyde Park and Bridgeport. Enjoy a south side dinner, check out a group exhibition and see an awesome installation by Paul Sargent.

Freed: Maquette for an American River (link)
by Paul Sargent
This site-specific multimedia installation is an allegorical model for waterway management policies and practices by the Army Corps of Engineers, the St. Lawrence Seaway Corporation, and other institutions artificially regulating major American rivers.

Bridgeport WPA (link)
The Bridgeport WPA is a cultural program that the federal government could instigate as part of their latest economic stimulus package. Inspired by Roosevelt’s New Deal cultural programs under the WPA (WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION) The Bridgeport WPA underscores the necessity for the support of artists and the idea of civic responsibility to the greater society. The projects unfold on the streets and on the walls of buildings in Bridgeport, the Community of the Future.

The accompanying exhibition, Bridgeport WPA Poster Project, examines work by artists who responded toour call for works! Silk-screened posters and maps to public works created for this project will be unveiled at the opening. Posters will be available for purchase and you can also find them throughout the neighbohood. Exhibition runs through May 2, 2009.

Bridgeport WPA Projects include:

WPA Poster Project
Sonnenzimmer, Gregory Calvert, Derek Dietrich-Muller, Katie McCauley, Mark McGinnis / Country Club, Chris Roberson, Steve Walters / Screwball Press, Liz Tapp, Angee Lennard / Spudnik Press, Rebecca Rakstad / No Coast, Emily Clayton, Dan Grzeca, Ezra Claytan Daniels, Jen Farrell / Starshaped Press, Daniel MacAdam / Crosshair, Rod Hunting / Post Family , Chad Kouri / Post family, Ryan Duggan, Superkonduktor, Christa Donner, Mike Renaud and others…

Project Treehouse
Kathleen Tieri and Wade Tillet

Let Us Know and Praise Famous Bridgeport
A photography book project will be created during the festival by: Shannon Benine, Stephanie Burke, Jonathan Gitelson, Mayumi Lake, Kathleen Belew, Jeremiah Chiu, Renata Graw

WPA Photographer
Our official WPA photographer is Paul Rizzuto.

WPA Murals and Street Works
Public Murals, street interventions and sculptures by Bill Mackey, Emily Clayton, Ed Marszewski, Michael Genovese, Gabriel Villa, Dominic Fortunato, Theodore Boggs and others.

The Bridgeport Travel Bureau Kiosk will contain programs, guides, leaflets, pamphlets and zines that are contributed by festival participants including the Immodest Proposals manifesto zine, and Canon a new art zine with contributions by Brian Wallace, Amanda Brinkman, Susan Morelock, Lucy Parker, Joel Kuennen, Benjamin Pearson Jared Ray, Maureen Burns, Jorge Mujica

Supper Club with Guest Chefs Abby Satinsky, Roman Petruniak, and Bryce Dwyer of The Institute for Community Understanding Between Art and the Everyday (InCUBATE)

Make your reservation today to join us for a family style meal and conversation.

Supper Club is $15.00 per person for a fixed menu created by our guest chef and usually includes starters, entree, dessert, tea/coffee.

Seating is limited, RSVP to This email is hidden - JavaScript is required for viewing. or 773-324-9987 or stop by the cafe to sign up.