WHO WE ARE:

ACRE (Artists’ Cooperative Residency and Exhibitions) is a volunteer-run nonprofit based in Chicago devoted to employing various systems of support for emerging artists and to creating a generative community of cultural producers. ACRE investigates and institutes models designed to help artists develop, present, and discuss their practices by providing forums for idea exchange, interdisciplinary collaboration, and experimental projects.

ACRE's main program is its Annual Summer Residency. The residency takes place each July and August in rural southwest Wisconsin. Application for ACRE’s residency program is open nationally to emerging and mid-career visual, performing, and sound artists. Residents have the opportunity to expand upon their individual practices and take part in optional programming within a collaborative community. Additionally, visiting artists are invited to conduct studio visits and present lectures, discussions, and workshops. The residency will support up to 25-30 residents at a given time. Facilities provide for communal work-spaces, a screen-printing studio, an outdoor wood shop, and access to both digital and analog recording equipment. Facilities and accommodations are all recently built from salvaged timbers. All meals are provided, and will be prepared daily using ingredients grown in the surrounding area, which is renowned for its organic and sustainable agriculture and dairy farms. Throughout the rest of the year we operate programming in Chicago designed to further support the artists who attend the residency. For more information please visit ACREresidency.org

WHAT WE ARE RAISING FUNDS FOR: 

Help us raise funds to keep our artists fed and happy, while also contributing to the sustainability of the local economy.  Our goal for Kickstarter is to raise $4,800 to go specifically toward our food and kitchen budget, purchasing locally grown ingredients and kitchen equipment such as a food processor. Our experienced chef, Melissa Damasauskus did a fantastic job last year creating menus to feed 35-40 people for a length of 36 days, while connecting with local farmers, producers and the Amish community. This year we will continue to provide our residents with nutritious meals prepared from scratch using organic and locally grown produce, dairy, meat and grains. 

Any funds raised beyond the $4,800 goal will be contributed to ACRE’s scholarship fund.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!

REWARDS!!!!!!!

$300 level:

PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTS

Printed at approx. 11x14" Special Kickstarter edition (you will be contacted for your choice of print shortly after pledging your donation)

 

Scott Fortino, Montrose, 2006, archival inkjet print

Irena Knezevic, Vapor Cone 3 (From Djinn & Tonic), 2011, archival inkjet print

Anna Shteynshleyger, City of Destiny (Girl with Apple), 2003, archival inkjet print

______________________________________________________________

$120 level:

PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTS 

Printed at approx. 11x14" Special Kickstarter edition (you will be contacted for your choice of print shortly after pledging your donation)

Ben Driggs, Syzygy, 2011, archival inkjet print

Jennifer Ray, Installation, 2010, archival inkjet print

Daniel Shea, Up, 2010, Ladders

Victor Yanez-Lazcano, Untitled (from the ongoing project De), archival inkjet print, 2011

_____________________________________________________________

$100 level:

A night where Matt Austin, Jeff Austin, and EJ Hill (known as The Mountain was a Gift, pictured above) will come to your house to cook you dinner, perform an acoustic set in your home, and the rest of the night goes undecided from there. 

_____________________________________________________________

$80 level:

REPRODUCTION PRINTS

Printed at approx. 11x14" Special Kickstarter edition (you will be contacted for your choice of print shortly after pledging your donation)

Alex Chitty, Untitled, 2011, cut archival inkjet print (originally manipulated digital print) 

Jenny Kendler, The Parakeet Nebula, 2010, archival inkjet print (originally watercolor and gouache on paper)

Kyla Rafert, My Romance, 2009, archival inkjet print (originally ink and screen-print on paper)

R. Scott Whipkey, Untitled (Men Praying), 2008, archival inkjet print (originally pencil on paper)

_____________________________________________________________

$50 level:

Vinculum is a growing archive of sonic artifacts by Coppice (Noé Cuéllar & Joseph Kramer), available in this special edition as a 6 CD set enveloped and sealed within handmade felt packaging by artist Alex Miller. The listener is encouraged to play the discs simultaneously on repeat from multiple players when possible.

_____________________________________________________________

$50 level:

SOUND/VIDEO PACKAGE contains the following:

a MIXTAPE by Bryan Lear who raids thrift stores and rummage sales for forgotten and discarded casette tapes to add to his unending collection of esoteric and amateur recordings and garbled found sounds. 

Brand new TAPE split, between Coppice and N.N.N. Cook.

The ALBUM, A Guide to Revelations by Matt Austin, Jeff Austin and EJ Hill (aka The Mountain Was a Gift) recorded at a recent performance they did as part of the HomeSchool programming, a project in conjunction with the newly opened Storefront.

Nightmare City's DVD Pixie Troll Witch Hour: Into the 3 AM Void, takes its cue from Jon Moritsugu's short, "Mommy, Mommy Where's My Brain?", "Wayne's World", "The Uncle Floyd Show", and Glenn O'Brien's "TV Party", but veers toward the silently incoherent.

A COMPILATION DVD featuring work by 2010 residents Claire Arctander: Everything She Wants; Ben Bigelow & Maxfield Hegedus: Easy Does It #2, I Want to Start a Riot; EJ Hill: Blow, Gray, Girl; Jessye McDowell: Horror Piece; Thomas Macker: Territory Ahead; Nightmare City: excerpt Pixie Troll Witch Hour: Into The 3am Void.

_____________________________________________________________

$40, $80 levels:

KITCHEN TEA TOWEL designed and screen-printed by Alex Chitty and Jessica Taylor Caponigro, features the ACRE 2010-11 exhibition calendar!

_____________________________________________________________

$10, $15, $25, $40 levels:

 

This 4 page standard NEWSPRINT by Matt Austin functions as a flyer that was used for his ACRE solo exhibition. Inside is an excerpt from his corresponding book Talking with Fear about Dying Tomorrow, a photograph from the series, an altered map representing the route of his road trip from the project, and a 22x33 motivational poster. 

_____________________________________________________________

$25 and $40 levels

Choose one of these new ACRE T-SHIRT designs printed in a variety of colors on American Apparel cotton shirts. (You will be contacted for size and color requests once  we have reached our goal.)

_____________________________________________________________

$10, $15, $25, $40 levels:

 

 STICKER and TOTE BAG design by Josh Minkus.

_____________________________________________________________

$5, $40, $80 levels:

KADABRA: Recipes and Miscellany From ACRE 2010 was created with love by Melissa Damasauskus and Rachel Ettling, who command the kitchen at ACRE's summer residency program. This handmade book is documentation of the first ACRE residency kitchen, highlighting favorite recipes and featuring notes, anecdotes, photographs and reflections on learning to cook creatively and resourcefully for a large group of varied eaters.