The Bridge Program

2023 SPRING BRIDGE PROGRAM APPLICATION IS HERE!

The Bridge Program fosters generative dialogue among a select group of artists (10 artists max), in a seminar-style course designed to push your art practice into new realms. You’ll work in an intensive, small-group setting to refine project ideas, better articulate the central concerns of your practice, deepen the conceptual grounding of your work, and situate your practice within a wider art world context. You’ll participate in critiques, writing sessions, essay discussions, online readings, and peer to peer visits.

As an Open Arts Program, there is no minimum required tuition to participate in Bridge Program. Artists who are accepted into this program can contribute what they can. Your contributions help support program costs such as facilitators, visitors, supplies, and space. We thank you for contributing as generously as you can to this creative community!

Spring 2023 Bridge Program will meet in-person, and will hold online meetings as needed for sessions. The program will meet on Wednesday evenings, starting on Wednesday February 8th and going for 10 weeks, finishing on Wednesday April 12th. The public/showcase component for this program will be determined by the group and our program curators.

WINTER/SPRING 2023 BRIDGE PROGRAM WILL BE LED BY PROGRAM CURATOR JONATHAN CASTILLO

Jonathan Michael Castillo is a visual artist, photographer and educator based in Chicago. He was the 2019-2021 recipient of the Diane Dammeyer Fellowship in Photographic Arts and Social Issues. Jonathan was included in the 2021 Hyde Park Art Center’s Ground Floor Biennial in Chicago and was a finalist for the WMA Commission in Hong Kong. His work has been featured with The New Yorker, Wired, The Chicago Tribune, CBS: Los Angeles, and Brazil’s G1 Globo. He has appeared on the radio to discuss his photography on the BBC’s “World Update” and local Los Angeles public radio programs KPCC and KCRW. Jonathan was recently commissioned to create a large-scale permanent installation of his work at O’Hare International Airport as part of the new Terminal 5 expansion project. Exhibitions include those at the Art Institute Chicago, Photo LA 2020, the Center for Creative Photography, Aperture Gallery, House of Lucie, Filter Photo Gallery, Ralph Arnold Gallery and the California Museum of Art Thousand Oaks. Jonathan is represented by Samuel Maenhoudt Gallery in Belgium. His education includes a BFA from California State University Long Beach and MFA from Columbia College Chicago.

Bridge Program applicants will be notified by Friday January 20th if they have been accepted. Suggested tuition for Bridge Program is $305 and as an Open Arts Program, artists who are accepted into Bridge Program will be able to choose an amount to contribute toward the costs of the Bridge Program. Please contact Director of Education Mike Nourse at mnourse@hydeparkart.org with any questions.

To learn about Bridge Program alumni and past facilitators, click here.

Professional Pathways is supported by the Kanter Family Foundation.