Delivering Fliers for the Free Speech Artists Movement Rally
I went downtown to Michigan Avenue.
My purpose was to drop off Free Speech Artists Movement rally fliers to the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum at the base for the Tribune Tower on Michigan Avenue.
After visiting the Freedom Museum I hoped to deliver fliers to the faculty at the School of the Arts Institute of Chicago.
This sculpture by Stanley Smith caught my eye. I am always interested in the art that makes it into the mainstream. I am aware, also, that this work is not likely to be threatened by a policeman claiming it is blocking traffic or that it is a threat to public safety - a reception an artist reciting and selling his poetry might expect to receive in the same spot.
At the Freedom Museum my contact was in a meeting. I left fliers and immediately caught a bus to the School of the Arts Institute.
At the School of the Arts Institute I where I used to access the faculty mailboxes I was greeted by security personnel. I was advised me to go to 37 South Wabash to the Office of Student Affairs. When I persisted in asking if I would be able to access the faculty mailboxes there I was escorted down a long hall to a lady who had an administrative title. She said I should speak to the Dean.
I walked back down the hall thanking my escort. With my heavy leather bag on my shoulder I marched along Jackson Street. About 10 minutes later the security guard at 37 S Wabash after a phone call directed me across the street to 36 S Wabash. There they redirected me back to 37 S. Wabash. At that point I decided that the faculty at the School of the Arts Institute was simply too isolated from the public to be accessible. I had a job for cash money I was due at soon.
They will have to go uninformed, I decided. This is only the beginning. If they want to have input to our agenda they will have to become involved later. The Free Speech Artists Movement is - after all - a 5-15 year project to change Chicago. Friday, October 5th at 11am-2pm at the Picasso on the Daley Plaza is not a deadline. It is a first step - a beginning. Then, we grow from that moment on.