Warm(er) Weather Beckones, 'Engage Chicago' and Internship

March 16th, 8:30 PM (Central Time, USA) 

Well, long hiatuses just seem to be the norm when it comes to my blogging habits, don't they? I have been up to a lot in the last few weeks.

The weather is getting more and more beautiful in Chicago now and today was a beautiful, sunny day with temperatures in the 50s! Not that I got to appreciate the weather really because I was home all day, sick, and with a case of the 'blues.' Oh, well ... It's supposed to be quite beautiful tomorrow, as well, and we - the Arts program folks - have a full day of fun activities, collaborating with students from Valparaiso University and making zines and seeing the Joan Flasch Artist Book Collection! How fun! This is probably the reason I am loving the Arts program as much as I am - the unique opportunities we get to meet new and fun people, visit amazing exhibits and programs, go to rather interesting venues - it's all just so neat!

Other than that, my internship has been progressing at quite an amazing and intriguing speed. Currently, I am working on a batch of painted wooden panels from an installation at a Wisconsin bank. I shall definitely get back with more details on the bank in concern and the artist, and also some pictures, very soon. This is the third batch of a four-batch (I think) conservation process. And get this, each batch consists of roughly two dozen panels and each of these panels are either the size of or slightly larger than a standard door to a house/room. Yes. So, can you estimate the size of the entire installation?! HUGE is a gross understatement, in my opinion. Well, I am assisting my wonderful colleague, Nicole, on this project, and presently we just finished the initial cleaning of the panels. Next we are going to move on to in-painting missing paint or chips on the colored surface of the panels and I feel like there needs to be a complete blog post on just the various techniques we are using/will be using on this project. It is fascinating, and I consider myself extremely lucky because this is a kind of project that Parma Conservation hardly ever takes on (because they specialize mostly in murals and paintings). So, yes, very interesting that one! I am also helping out with some other projects - more general tasks like preparing linen strips for strip-lining paintings, cleaning other paintings and murals, etc. But that's mostly it about my internship for now. More to follow very soon!

Other fun stuff that I have been up to recently and am looking forward to ...

-- Recently, I purchased drinks with my own ID for the very first time in the United States! How cool is that?! Perks of being 21, eh? Well, I drink extremely seldom, so this is a bit of a deal ... Anyway, moving on ...

-- Some great restaurants I tried out recently (and not-so-recently) include Chief O'Neill's Pub and Restaurant in Wrigleyville, Pan Hellenic Pastry Shop in Greektown, Tank Noodles (Viatnamese Cuisine!) in Uptown, and a few others! And of course, add to that the regular jaunts to the Corner Bakery, Starbucks, and all of that good stuff!

-- Some cool places I have visited recently are - The Chicago Cultural Center, the Flat Iron Building and the galleries in the Arts Building (we also saw an amazing collection of short plays at the Collaboraction Theater at the Flat Iron Arts Building), The Jane Addams Hull House Museum on the UIC campus, neighborhoods of Wicker Park, Bronzeville, South Loop, and so much more!

Students in the Arts program are required to do an 'Engage Chicago' project (for our Seminar class), which I am very excited about. For my project, I am considering focusing on the food and dining scene in the city by visiting a handful of really interesting, uncommon and rather special restaurants and/or stores in different neighborhoods and making detailed reviews and blogs about them. Considering how much of a food lover/traveler I am, this would be such a great project both for the assignment and on a personal level! I look forward to getting started on that soon! 

Well, that's mostly it for now. Lots more interesting stuff coming up and hopefully, I shall stick to my promise of posting pictures on here soon!

Best!

The first couple weeks ...

February 20, 4:20 PM (Central Time, USA)

Well, it's been a long hiatus - I am aware of that. The last couple of weeks - almost three weeks now - have literally just left me rather tired, exhausted, and yet excited for more! There are so many interesting things we did in the program already that part of me feels like I've been here for months already! Well, I'll be good and briefly state some of the things we did ..

One of the most interesting experiences I've had - and am still having everyday - was familiarizing myself with the way the city of Chicago is set up. The neighborhoods are so unique, they are like little cultural subsets of the much larger cultural milieu that is Chicago. So far I've visited Andersonville - with it's amazing small businesses, galleries, studios and thrift stores, and of course the delicious-looking Thai and Vietnamese restaurants and markets, Hyde Park - with the charm of a university campus and beautiful houses (although my first brush with this neighborhood wasn't very welcoming, as I almost lost my feet to a frostbite during a scavenger hunt excursion, but more on that later!), and Pilsen - where my internship is! The neighborhoods of Chicago really intrigue me and hopefully, by the end of my stay here, I will have explored into as many of them as I possibly can ...

Going back to my internship - I must say I have literally landed my dream internship! I am interning twice a week with a conservatory, called Parma Conservation, Inc. and they are situated on West Cermak, in the Pilsen neighborhood. So far, I have only been there once, but tomorrow is my second day and I can hardly wait. The process of art conservation has fascinated me for the longest time and I can hardly believe my luck at having an internship with such a well-known and respected conservationist, Elizabeth Kendal. Parma mostly works on paintings and murals and on my first day itself there was so much to absorb and I also got to do a bit of hands-on work! I can't wait to see how the next 14 weeks shape up in terms of my internship experience!

Probably the best experiences I have had, though, are the interesting workshops and film screenings and theater shows that we are attending as a group. Some of them are for the entire 'Chicago Programs' group, while most are for the 'Chicago Arts' program students only. So far we've had an 'Improve Workshop' and a film screening for 'Louder Than A Bomb' as the whole group. With the six of us who are in the 'Arts' program, we did a 'Poetry Workshop' with local poet cin salach (and no, it's not a typo, she does go by that name in all lower case letters!) which absolutely blew my mind it was so good, a theater show at the Art Institute of Chicago Museum, in collaboration with the Goodman Theater (which was a part of their current "Seeing Things" exhibit) and a performance art show at the Museum of Contemporary Art. I know it's a lot of information, but I didn't want to leave any of it out! Oh, and we also had a rather cool film screening at a small, independent theater/studio called 'Prop Thtr' in Wriggleyville and an interview with the co-owner of 'Transistor' - the most awesome store/studio I have ever set foot in - Rani Woolpert.

(And, umm, I will try and blog more regularly so I don't throw a barrage of information your way - what can I say? I am super-excited!)

Other than that, I am a complete food traveler, and I have already started my food traveling in Chicago. I've visited some unique and rather amazing restaurants - out of which one was an Irish pub and restaurant called Chief O'Neill's in Wriggleyville. The food was so good, and I remembered after a long time what a traditional and proper serving of the old English-style Fish n' Chips tastes like! I've also eaten at the cult favorite - Wow Bao - multiple times, and am very much addicted to it. It does not help that it's right across the street from the ACM Office where most of my classes are! Add to the above some excellent Chinese and Thai take-outs, some great food shopping from Trader Joe's and yes, I am absolutely enjoying my gastronomical experience in Chicago!

I do like the fact that both the ACM office and the apartment building I live at (along with the 5 other 'Arts' program students) are so centrally located. It literally takes me 15 minutes or less from door-to-door from the apartment to morning classes. And that is including a three-stop train ride on the Red Line. Pretty amazing!

Well, I have to get back to an assignment I need to finish. Quite an interesting assignment, too .. I am re-designing the book cover for my favorite book (or one of my favorite books in my case, for I have a few) as a part of a class activity in our Seminar class. The only part of the program that I haven't yet dived into yet is the Independent Study Project .. although, I have definitely started thinking about it. More on that soon, hopefully ..

Till then, Adios!

Flying into Chicago

February 2nd, 6:30 am (Central Time, USA)

I am so excited to start my journey from Kolkata, India to Chicago, Illinois in a few hours! The bittersweet memories I am leaving behind at home, the excitement of starting such an exciting exploration in one of my favorite cities - Chicago ... it's all mixed up into this one feeling of anxiety and curiosity ... But all in all, I cannot wait for this semester to begin!

This is going to be my blog about my experience in the Associated Colleges of the Midwest - 'Chicago Arts' program during the Spring 2011 semester. It's an off-campus program where students from several colleges in the midwest live in the exciting and culturally rich city of Chicago for about three and a half months and explore art and art production in the city.

I am a junior and a Biology and Art History double major at Knox College, in Galesburg, Illinois. As an international student at Knox (I hail from Kolkata, India), the past two and a half years have been really exciting, overwhelming and extremely educative for me. As an international student, too, I'd thought an off-campus program was not exactly on my list of things to do while at college because I was already having a rather big cross-cultural and study-abroad experience! But after a look at the 'Chicago Arts' program brochure and factoring in my love for the city (I've visited it over a dozen times already!), there was simply no looking back ... =D

Anyhow, I shall end this post here for now as I am running really late and my flight leaves in less than 9 hours from Kolkata! I shall post in a few days about moving into my apartment, meeting my roommate and other fun stuff!

Till then .. adios!