Fear No Art Chicago Continues To Branch Out
By Betsy Mikel in Arts & Entertainment on Dec 15, 2010 8:20PM
The launch of the Fear No Art Podcast earlier this month reinforced the world’s constant ask for info on-the-go. We’re busy people, Chicagoans are, with places to go and buses to catch. And although podcasts are nothing new (P.S. check out ours!), we’re intrigued by the idea of an art podcast. Because a lot of art is visual, right?
Well, yeah, says Elysabeth Alfano, the executive producer and host for Fear No Art Chicago, the only television show about the Chicago arts community. But her mission of “discovering the artists behind the arts” is definitely digestible in podcast form. Although she hopes and encourages people to watch her TV show, Alfano started bi-weekly videos webisodes because she wants the behind-the-scenes information about artists to be as easy and as accessible as possible for people. She's in the process of turning those videos into podcasts. So now, we all can take Fear No Art Chicago on the CTA with us or on our snow-slowed traffic commutes. Alfano hopes that with better access to the arts community in a format that works for their individual schedules, people will get a better insight on the artists and their community here; maybe even the “art” and “non-art” community could become one.
And of course, Fear No Art features more than visual artists on its shows, and the podcast will do the same. In fact, the featured artist for the inaugural podcast was way-with-words artist, David Sedaris. Not many people know that Sedaris has ties to our humble city, having attended and taught at the Art Institute of Chicago. The podcast will continue to feature artists, both Chicago-based and those with a strong Chicago connection, in all forms: painters, sculptors, dancers, musicians, writers, chefs, glassblowers, actors, directors, performance artists and more.
Who would you like to be featured on the Fear No Art podcast? Where is there art in your everyday Chicago life that you’d like to learn more about?