Homeroom presents “Procreativity 101,” a one-night lecture show about art and family relationships. Topics include play, practice, agency, domesticity, gender roles, “mothernism,” and preconceived notions. Join Homeroom 101 hosts Fred Sasaki and Seth Vanek for an evening of art and conversation with visual artists Alberto Aguilar and Lise Haller Baggesen, curator Allison Grant, poet Jennifer Steele, and maker Tselanie Townsend as they investigate ways to imagine motherhood, imitate art, and live and die with art and one another.
“We Can Smell Like Teen Spirit, Just For One Day (Detail),” 2011 by Lise Haller Baggesen
Alberto Aguilar was born in Chicago to parents of Mexican descent. He has three brothers and one sister. Upon receiving his BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) he married Sonia Leticia Guillen. Together they have four children, half of which are girls. Aguilar also received his MFA from SAIC. Currently he is a tenured instructor of studio art at Harold Washington College—one of the City Colleges of Chicago—and co-coordinator of Pedestrian Project. Pedestrian Project is an initiative dedicated to making art accessible to people from all walks of life. Aguilar's current practice merges his various roles in an attempt to capture fleeting moments, personal discoveries, and his interaction with others in tangible form.
Lise Haller Baggesen left her native Denmark in 1992 to study painting in the Netherlands and relocated to Chicago with her family in 2008. In the meantime, her work evolved from a traditional painting practice toward a hybrid practice including curating, writing, and multimedia installation work.
She has shown internationally in galleries and museums including Overgaden in Copenhagen, the Municipal Museum in the Hague, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Her first book Mothernism will be published in August 2014 by The Poor Farm press and Green Lantern Press, Chicago .
Allison Grant is a Chicago based curator, writer, and artist. Currently, she serves as assistant curator at the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago, where she has worked since 2008. Grant holds an MFA in photography from Columbia College Chicago and a BFA from the Columbus College of Art and Design in Media Studies. She currently teaches as an Adjunct Faculty member in the Photography and Art & Design departments at Columbia College Chicago.
Jennifer Steele received her MFA in Poetry from Columbia College Chicago in 2008, and her BM in music business from Howard University in 2006. While at Columbia she served as co-editor of Columbia Poetry Review #21. Currently she teaches digital media literacy for Digital Youth Network and YOUmedia, working extensively to create and develop workshops and curriculum for media arts programming catered toward middle and high school students. In addition to working with Digital Youth Network, she has taught poetry and creative writing for Chicago based arts and youth organizations including Camp of Dreams, Young Chicago Authors, and Hands on Stanzas. She has also served as managing editor for Polyphony H.S., a national high school literary magazine.
Tselanie Townsend was born in Eugene, Oregon, “A Great City for the Arts & Outdoors,” and spent some developmental years in the Baltimore/D.C. Metropolitan area before moving to Chicago, where she continued to grow, until she stopped at 5'2''. Tselanie has developed many things, including Ilford negative film, a love of graph paper and fine tipped pens, and a taste for hot tea with milk and honey. Tselanie earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Film & Video editing from Columbia. She’s a lot of fun—ask anyone.