C Drew - Street Artist Adventures

*Artists Rally for 1st Amendment Rights*
August 2, 2006
For Immediate Release

Contact: Chris Drew at e-mail umcac@art-teez.org

It’s official, The “Free Speech Art Movement” is on. Led by t-shirt artists who accuse the City of Chicago of enforcing illegal Municipal Codes that deny artists and citizens their complete free speech rights.

A rally is planned for at the Daley Center Plaza under the Picasso from 11-2 on Friday, October 5th 2007.Artists and concerned citizens are urging Chris Drew, the host of the cable TV show - “Printing T-shirt Art” (Mondays 6:30-7:00pm on cable Channel 21), to lead artists to the next step. Mr. Drew has promoted a basic understanding of artists’ First Amendment rights on this show. He has contrasted the 1st Amendment rights of newspapers to sell their speech on the public sidewalks and parks, with the rights of artists in Chicago.

One need only look for the artists in Chicago to realize they are unseen in most of the city on a daily basis. He compares the bleak reality for artists in Chicago with the rights of New York City artists to sell in parks and on streets.It is not an accident that Chicago artists are absent from Chicago streets and parks. Chicago Municipal Code has denied artists significant 1st Amendment rights. Even after losing two Federal court cases (see c-drew.com/blog for links to cases), the city persists in demanding that artists must obtain a Peddler’s License, which classifies them as “Itinerant Merchants, to sell their speech in Chicago.” In both lawsuits the city lost, Chicago’s policy of requiring a Peddlers License for speech sales was shown to be unconstitutional.

Presently, with a $165 Peddlers License in hand the artist must submit the art they intend to sell a month in advance to have its political content confirmed as worthy of a “Speech Permit.” Once this has been done the artist is provided a letter-label sticker to put on the back of their Peddlers License which restricts the artist to a single corner of the Loop for the entire month applied for. The artist is still restricted from selling speech anywhere else in the vast banned areas of Chicago. When people gather in other places for events in many of the banned zones the artist is rooted to a corner unable to reach those audiences. This is the nature of “free speech” in Chicago.

The actual “Speech Permit” regime the Municipal Code sets up is a bureaucratic nightmare. Almost no one uses it. It is not even followed by those who administer it. The artists and political activists on the street have accommodated themselves to several locations around Grant Park where police are informed to leave most people claiming “political” 1st Amendment rights alone. Others take their chances selling where they will, bending with the mood of police and the moment. Only the most ardent artists/citizens are ever seen.

Emerging artists are banned from most commercial areas, the Loop and any open activity in the city parks. This ban has acted to prevent artists from finding the public and each other and eliminates the logical opportunities for artists to create art scenes around Chicago. This leaves only the art fairs and neighborhood festivals in which artists can sell their art. These fares & festivals are too expensive for emerging artists who do not yet have a large enough following to afford the $150-500 festival fees to which the City adds an additional $25 tax as a final insult. Art scenes need free sales spaces for emerging artists to flourish. It is the emerging artists who have the energy and mission to create art scenes. It is the emerging artists toward whom Chicago is heartless. It is the citizens who lose the art scene possibilities this policy suppresses.

Artists are demanding their 1st Amendment rights to free speech. On Friday, October 5th under the Picasso they will begin to change Chicago - to make Chicago friendly to emerging artists. This is the same day the T-shirt Art Harvest Festival opens in Chicago at the American Indian Center at 1630 W. Wilson Avenue. Produced by the Uptown Multi-Cultural Art Center – the T-shirt Art Harvest Festival displays art by Chicago area artists from 18 years of exhibits with new t-shirt art added every year. Musicians play all weekend at the festival in a union of popular culture. Bands will exhibit their t-shirt art but only visual artist, Robert Wapahi, will sing. The festival’s theme is “Human Rights in Chicago.” Visit art-teez.org for details.

On Saturday there will be a speak-out on artists 1st Amendment Rights at the T-shirt Art Harvest Festival from 1-2pm Saturday. Artists are requested to send their statements in support of their 1st Amendment rights to umcac@art-teez.org. Artist statements will be collected into a testimonial booklet and read from at the speak-out. Artists and citizens of Chicago are invited to speak to the topic. On Sunday October 7th a meeting of activists in support of the Chicago Free Speech Art Movement (Free SAM) will plan strategy from 1-2pm surrounded by t-shirt art.

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