Weekend Arts Roundup

By Amy Mikel in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 13, 2008 8:42PM

There IS a lot going on this weekend. Marcus take music, Jacy take comedy, and I take art, O.K.? Here we go:

Tonight, the Chicago Arts District is hosting their “2nd Fridays Gallery Night,” which includes monthly receptions at art galleries up and down Halsted Ave. in Pilsen. Over 35 galleries and artists’ studios will be opening their doors. Events map available for pickup at 1821 S Halsted.
S. Halsted and 18th street, tonight, 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., Free

The Art Institute is churning along with construction of the mighty Modern Wing, but small renovations and improvements inside the museum are also being made as well. This weekend, the new Richard and Mary L. Gray Wing, housing the museum's collection of prints and drawings, is being inaugurated with an exhibition called Collecting for Chicago: Prints, Drawings, and Patronage, a survey of five families’ contributions to the department over the past 40 years.
Art Institute, Galleries 124–127, June 14–September 14, 2008

The Artists of the Wall Festival has been an annual event now for fifteen years. Every father’s day weekend a 500-foot concrete bench up in Rogers Park, along the lake, is transformed into a canvas. Artists descend upon the wall, painting separate mini-murals, which blend into a lovely (legal) display of street art that pedestrians can enjoy the entire year. Theme: “Winds of Change”
Lake Michigan shoreline, between Pratt Boulevard and Morse Avenue, June 14th & 15th, Free

Annnnd it’s street festival season! The Old Town Art Fair is happening this weekend, starting tonight at 7:00 p.m. (Although this is becoming less and less of an “art” fair and more of a “pack onto Wells Street and get drunk while vendors nervously hover in front of their expensive art" fair, amiright?)
North and Wells, June 14th & 15th, Free

Image courtesy the Art Institute of Chicago