Date: Tuesday, September 28

Time: 6 pm CST (Doors open at 5:30)

Where: 21c Chicago, Main Gallery

How: Free event, RSVP at our Eventbrite link to get reminders for the event

Our next Curator Conversations at 21c Chicago will feature Olivia Junell with local artist A.Martinez!

Curator Conversations is a bimonthly series that asks a local art curator to chat with an artist of their choice with ties to the Chicago arts community. We’ll switch up those pairings to give you a look into the rich arts community that we have here in the city.

Light refreshments will be provided and guests are welcome to stay after the talk and enjoy our current exhibition, This We Believe.

This event will also be live-streamed on our Facebook page.

About our Speakers:

Olivia Junell is Director of Development & Outreach at Experimental Sound Studio. She has over 15 years of experience working in development at small to mid-sized arts non-profits, where she has gained extensive, diverse experience in fundraising, project management, project development, budgeting, production, strategic planning, and marketing. Along the way, both independently and in the context of organization-based projects, she has worked with dozens of artists to secure funding for their visions.

A native Texan, Olivia moved to Chicago in 2013 to earn a dual Masters in Arts Administration and Public Policy and Modern Art History and Critical Writing at the School of the Art Institute Chicago (2016). She has held various roles at a number of contemporary arts and music organizations including significant development and leadership roles at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival (Chicago), the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, High Concept Labs (Chicago), and Women & Their Work (Austin), among others.

Olivia serves on the board of Honey Pot Performance, where she is also Chair of the Development Committee. She is also the Program Director for Back Alley Jazz, a project of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival and South Shore Works.

A.Martinez is a poet, visual artist, mother, and community and arts organizer living in Chicago. She received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Writing Program, and has been published in LVNG Magazine, Contratiempo, Poiesis, and will release a limited edition artist book of poetry and drawings, Turn, in 2022. Her work explores identity, memory, spirituality, and the body.

In addition to her creative practice, A.Martinez produces community and cultural events. She most notably helps produce Chicago’s Pitchfork Music Festival and is production and development coordinator for Grammy-nominated, Spektral Quartet. She also curates her own independent events that center on and for mothers of color in the arts, and is an organizer and member of the Wild Yams cohort of black artist mothers. A.Martinez is a proud recipient of the 2019 3Arts Make a Wave Award.

You can find out more about her work and projects at https://www.alyssahydemartinez.com/