Inaugural issue: Portable Gray

The Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry at the University of Chicago  is pleased to announce the launch of a new journal that draws on the work of the Gray Center, a research center for experimental collaborations between artists and scholars.

The Portable Gray launch party will be held on Thursday, November 29, from 5:30 to 7pm at the Gray Center Lab, 929 East 60th Street on the University of Chicago campus. Join us to meet contributors and take away a complimentary copy of the inaugural issue.

Published twice annually (fall/spring) by the University of Chicago Press, Portable Gray is a forum for experimenting with two genres of publication, the scholarly journal and the art magazine. Each issue constellates  around a theme, which it treats elastically and through myriad forms: artworks, essays, interviews, reflections, photography, poetry among others.

The  first issues looks at the coupling of art & politics and includes the  following contributions:

“Making Things Public: Art Magazines, Art Worlds, and the #MeToo Movement”
by Gwen Allen

“Money, Land, Film, Future: in conversation”
by Jacqueline Stewart and Ben Caldwell

“Imagining Futures (IF): A Survey”
by Thenmozhi Soundararajan and Patrick Jagoda

Feature: What is an Artistic Practice of Human Rights?

Perspective
by Mike Schuh

Response
by Tania Bruguera

Perspective
by Leigh Fagin

Response
by Sandi Hilal (Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency)

Response
by Alessandro Petti (Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency)

Perspective
by Susan Gzesh

“The Virtues of Ignorance: Interview with Dieter Roelstraete and Pope.L”
by Zachary Cahill

“Maps of Englishness”
by Yesomi Umolu

“Fake Fate”
by Jan Verwoert

“horror movie pitch and horror movie pitch 2”
by Eve L. Ewing

Subscription information

Portable Gray
Executive editors: Jacqueline Stewart and Seth Brodsky
Editor-in-chief: Zachary Cahill 
Managing editor: Naomi Blumberg 
Design: David Khan-Giordano 
Contributing editor: Mike Schuh
ISSN 2637-8361

About the Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry
The Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry is a forum at the University of Chicago for experimental collaborations between artists and scholars. Gray Center activities take place all over campus (encompassing various divisions, departments, and programs), across the community, throughout the city, and beyond. Through its various programs—including the Mellon Residential Fellowships for Arts Practice and Scholarship, exploratory research initiatives, the monthly Sidebar conversation series, Cinema 53, a monthly screening series, a beinnial free summer school program, international conferences, and institutional collaborations—the Gray Center seeks to foster a culture of innovation and experimentation at the intersection of arts practice and scholarship.

About UChicago Arts
UChicago Arts encompasses the University’s robust cultural scene where scholars, students, artists and audiences converge, explore, and create. UChicago Arts maintains an ambitious suite of initiatives and programs to enhance the cultural landscape at the University of Chicago and on Chicago’s South Side, including Arts + Public Life and its flagship project, the Arts Incubator, the Arts, Science & Culture Initiative, the Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry, and the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts. Joining academic departments and programs in the Division of the Humanities and the College, as well as professional organizations including the Court Theatre, Oriental Institute Museum, Smart Museum of Art, Renaissance Society, and University of Chicago Presents, and more than 60 student arts organizations, UChicago Arts is forging an integrative model for practice, presentation, and scholarship.

Press contact
Ronia Holmes, Associate Director of Communications for UChicago Arts and the Logan Center
roniamh [​at​] uchicago.edu / T 773 834 0481