Laurie Jo Reynolds is the new assistant professor of public arts, social justice and culture at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Art and Art History. This is a new position within the school that is part of the recently created Social Justice and Human Rights Cluster, an initiative of UIC’s Chancellor. Reynolds’ art practice extends into advocacy, political research and activism. For eight years, she has been producing projects that focused on the now closed Tamms Correctional Center, the supermax prison in southern Illinois designed for sensory deprivation. Reynolds’ projects that involved collaborations with Tamms inmates, their families and other artists are credited with contributing to the facility’s closure earlier this year. In her new position at UIC, Reynolds hopes to launch a Center for Legislative Art, which will no doubt build on the Socially Engaged Art coursework that has been developed within the art department there. While there have been ongoing shifts in art academia to accommodate art that is used as a platform for social action (such as Theaster Gates at the University of Chicago and Michael Rakowitz at Northwestern University), this new hire signals another level of sanction and support for these burgeoning areas of creative production at a public university. (Matt Morris)
Complicating the Narrative: A Review of Them at Roots & Culture Featuring a cohesive body of works by Flor, Manal Kara and Caleb Yono, the exhibition is a stunning display of the magic that can happen when fixed ideas about artmaking and identity are thrown out the window.
