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KIRSTEN LEENAARS

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De Oversteek podcast: being a Dutch artist in Chicago



Let the Real World in, 2024, production still




S4E2 The Midwest & Canada: Chicago

Sep 12 2024 | 00:23:47

The Windy City, de grootste stad in The Midwest. Chicago is zelfs de derde stad in de VS, na New York en LA. Er wonen meer dan 2,5 miljoen mensen. Voor ondernemers in healthcare, tech en landbouw een walhalla. Je hoort Willemijn Scheyder van Swipeguide, die software levert voor de maakindustrie. Ze haalt inmiddels al 80 procent van haar omzet uit de VS. Ook hoor je Kirsten Leenaars, die al 20 jaar in Chicago woont en als documentairemaker en kunstdocent werkt. Van Deputy Consul General Jeroen Beekman krijg je het grotere plaatje: hoe ziet de zakelijke markt eruit in Chicago en omstreken? Als kers op de taart neemt komiek Greg Shapiro je mee naar Boom Chicago in Amsterdam. Niet zonder reden, Chicago is dé stad van stand-up comedy. Lache!



Opening: Practices in Proximity, September 27



Re(Housing) the American Dream 2020, video still


Opening reception Friday, September 27, 5-8 PM

Exhibition on view from September 10, 2024 – January 17, 2025.

Gallery hours 10 AM-4 PM Tuesday-Thursday or by appointment.

Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education

1010 W 35th Street, Suite 697

Chicago, IL 60609-1401

312.870.6140



About the exhibition

The Practices in Proximity: Learning and Unlearning from Pedagogical Experiences exhibition brings CAPE teaching artists and invited creative practitioners into a dialogue about their pedagogical experiences. The sites, scenes, and social engagement of learning—whether formal, informal, institutional, or autonomous—impact how the artists negotiate collective spaces and their personal creativity. Manifesting in various ways, artistic concern toward teaching and learning is a nuanced experience defined by proximity to others in improvisation and uncertainty. 


Participating artists: Alberto Aguilar, Kayla Anderson, Molly Cranch, Design Studio for Social Intervention, Eseosa Ekiawowo Edebiri, Flor Flores, Katie Giritlian, Kimi Hanauer, Andres Hernandez, Niema Qureshi + Betsy Zacsek, Kirsten Leenaars, Jennifer Mannebach, Jessica Mueller, Timothy David Rey, Emilie Robinson, Greg Ruffing + Brandon Alvendia, Laura Sáenz, Public Collectors, and Gwendolyn Terry.

Curated by media artist, writer and educator Josh Rios.


Exhibition on view from September 10, 2024 – January 17, 2025. Gallery hours 10 AM-4 PM Tuesday-Thursday or by appointment.


Meet the artists and join the exhibition’s exploration of the layered influences of pedagogical environments. Opening reception Friday, September 27, 5-8 PM, RSVP here. 

Read the exhibition’s press release here.

Stay tuned for monthly public programs!


Online Panel Discussion: Documentary as Social Practice



Above: Artists L to R: Kirsten Leenaars, Marie-Kristine Petiquay


Saturday, January 27, 2024

2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Register for event here

Richmond Art Gallery


Curator Zoë Chan moderates a panel discussion with featured artists Kirsten Leenaars and Marie-Kristine Petiquay of Wapikoni Mobile to discuss their use of documentary video to present personal, political and social concerns of a community. The panel will focus on issues that documentary raises about the politics of representation and opportunities it provides for new forms of social practice.

This event will include time for Q+A by participants to join in the live-streamed conversation.

Session Format:

  • Live-streamed on the Zoom platform. Registration is required to participate.

  • Live automated English captions provided by the Zoom app.

  • Q+A feature open for participants to send their questions and comments to panelists.

About the Artists:

Kirsten Leenaars is an interdisciplinary video artist based in Chicago. Various forms of performance, theater, and documentary strategies make up the threads that run through her work. Her work oscillates between fiction and documentation, reinterprets personal stories and reimagines everyday realities through shared authorship, staging, and improvisation. Leenaars’ work has been shown internationally at venues including The Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City; The Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Printed Matter, Inc., New York; the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam; and Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin. She currently is a Professor in the Department of Contemporary Practices at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Marie-Kristine Petiquay is an Atikamekw from the community of Manawan. A multidisciplinary artist, she also participated in the writing, composition and recording of a song for the album “Nos Forêts Chantées”, in addition to performing it twice at the Présences Autochtones festival and the Kwe! Encountering Indigenous Peoples in the summer of 2017. Her photographs have also been exhibited in several group shows. She is co-writer of the feature documentary The Invisible Wall (2020), for which she received a nomination at the 36th Gemini Awards in the category of Best Screenplay: Documentary – Broadcast. She also won the Francophone development grant awarded by the NFB, as part of the Talent Lab of the Rencontres internationales du documentaire à Montréal, for the production of her first feature film Aniskenamakewin.

Wapikoni Mobile’s mission is to promote the expression of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people through film and music creation and the dissemination of these works. By offering Indigenous talent one-on-one support and mentoring, our organization contributes to their personal, professional, and creative development while respecting their narrative sovereignty. Wapikoni provides these artists with a distribution service to disseminate their works across Canada and the world, promoting knowledge and building awareness about First Peoples’ realities. Since 2004, Wapikoni has collected more than 1400 short films and 900 musical pieces, visited 45 communities and 36 nations in Canada and abroad, won more than 220 awards and mentions, and demonstrated a strong presence at hundreds of festivals and events.


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