Talkin’ Back 2: Chicago Youth Respond

About the Exhibition

Based on the smashing success of the museum’s spring 2004 exhibition Talkin’ Back: Chicago Youth Respond for which teens from six schools created work combining text and image in workshops led by photographers and writers drawn from Columbia College’s faculty, the museum has made this exhibition an annual event. This year’s Talkin’ Back exhibition will be held from May 10-13, 2005. An artists’ reception with spoken-word performances will be held on May 10 from 4-7pm.

Talkin’ Back features works made by Chicago youth who combined words and pictures to express their creative voices in workshops led by photographers and writers in programs sponsored by the Museum of Contemporary Photography, After School Matters and the Office of Community Arts Partnerships Columbia College Chicago.

Featuring work by students at the Academy of Arts and Technology Charter School, Beethoven Elementary School, Curie Metropolitan High School; Herzl Elementary School; Juarez Community Academy; Providence St. Mel School; Pulaski Community Academy and Sabin Magnet School.

Participating programs were sponsored in part by Chicago Community Schools for the Fund of the Chicago Community Trust and Affiliates; CPS Improving Academic Achievement through the Arts IAAA grant; City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, the Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE); Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP); the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency; Kraft Foods; Learn and Serve America with the Corporation of National and Community Service; the Polk Bros. Foundation; the Surdna Foundation; and the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program.

The Talkin’ Back exhibition was made possible by generous donations from the MoCP Museum Council, whose gift is in honor of the Museum’s founders, and GE Corporate Financial Services.