Public Media Institute’s How to Make a Scene series concludes it’s in-person season with a panel discussion featuring a compelling intergenerational mix of founders of prominent Chicago independent art spaces from the 90s to the present. The panel is curated and moderated by artist Ben Foch (New Capital) in conversation with Iain Muirhead (NFA SPACE) and Taylor Payton (Grunts Rare Books/Sulk Chicago).
Ben Foch (b. 1977) is an artist living and working in Chicago, IL. Recent solo exhibitions include “PROOF OF WERQ” (2024) and “Hood Ornament” (2021) at M. LeBlanc, Chicago, IL, and inclusion in the group exhibition “Tricky Passage” (2022) curated by Ben Gill at Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago IL. In March of 2022 he launched “Cult of Cheetah” an NFT project. He co-founded and directed New Capital (2010-2017) an artist-run exhibition space in Chicago’s East Garfield Park neighborhood.
Iain Muirhead co-founded the artist-run gallery NFA SPACE (1996-2002) in Chicago. NFA SPACE (1996-2002) was a youthful and aggressive program of curated exhibitions challenging artists to work in site-specific environments produced at museum quality standards. NFA SPACE presented more than 30 shows in just over 5 years. The program was recognized critically in Art Forum, Art Papers, Sculpture Magazine, Contemporary Visual Arts, Zing Magazine and New Art Examiner.
Taylor Payton is a researcher and curator based in Chicago, IL. Payton co-founded Grunts Rare Books in October 2024. Grunts Rare Books is a programmatic bookstore and project space in Douglass Park specializing in uncommon publications of modern and contemporary art as well as rotating exhibitions by emerging artists. From 2021 to 2024, Payton operated Sulk Chicago, an apartment gallery in Printers Row supporting young artists through ambitious and considered modes of exhibition centering approaches to new media. Payton received her baccalaureate in Art History, Theory and Criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2023. She has presented her research at the University of Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and she has discussed her work with artists on numerous panels. Payton is currently curating a Hans Bellmer exhibition that will open at Grunts Rare Books in November 2024.
How to Make a Scene: Artist Run Chicago in the 80s and 90s is a conversation series about artist-run cultural ecosystems of the 1980s and 1990s in Chicago. The series launched June 20th on Lumpen Radio, and continues through October with more radio broadcasts and live conversations. A collaborative effort between Public Media Institute and MdW, the project aims to connect veteran artist organizers with those working today through a combination of intimate events at Co-Prosperity, broadcasts on Lumpen Radio, and live streams on LumpenTV. The series offers audiences trailheads for further exploration of Chicago’s storied history of alternative gallery spaces, independent publications, and socially engaged collectives.
All panels are archived on Mixcloud, Vimeo, and in the 2024 MdW Atlas, which will be published as a book in 2026.
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An initiative of the Terra Foundation for American Art in partnership with artists and organizations across the city, Art Design Chicago is a series of events and exhibitions that highlight the city’s artistic heritage and creative communities.
