This will be our last resources post until further notice as Chicago Publishes is going on hiatus. Please do check into our archive for ongoing opportunities.

In an economic climate that is in need of the arts more than ever, Chicago Publishes set out to find grants and funding support for both individual writers and literary-related arts organizations in the Chicagoland area. We hope this list of Grants Resources will help you fund your next publishing venture!

Awesome Foundation

The Awesome Foundation is, well, awesome! The Chicago Chapter is notable for funding projects like the Poetry + QL Codes and the Neighborhood Little Free Library. Awesome “micro” grants are awarded up to $1,000 for projects that meet the criteria of “micro” brilliance. The grants are awarded with no strings attached and the Awesome Foundation claims no ownership of the projects funded. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and distributed monthly. For more information or apply for an Awesome grant, visit: http://www.awesomefoundation.org/

Sunday Soup

Sunday Soup is curated by InCUBATE, the Institute for Community Understanding Between Art and the Everyday. Grants are unrestricted and support small and medium-sized projects. Funds for Sunday Soup are generated through community engagement, according to the following guidelines: “collect grant proposals, cook a meal, invite people to pay and eat, and have the diners democratically allocate the meal’s profits.”

The 15^th annual National Museum Publishing Seminar, set to take place on June 21 through June 24 here in Chicago, will rally expertise from museums, designers, and publishers from all across the country in order to address the latest and most important issues in museum publishing. As it has done in the past, the event promises to address the state of publishing as it is reshaped by technological advances almost constantly. Registration is open to the public, but closes on June 15, so organizers encourage everyone—professionals and students alike—with a keen interest in publishing or museums to register as soon as possible.

The weekend conference, sponsored by The Art Institute of Chicago, the Chicago History Museum, the Office of Tourism and Culture, the University of Chicago’s Graham School, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, includes time to peruse the MCA, as well as a keynote speech to be delivered by Dan Sinker.

Panels on Friday June 22 include The Voice of the Museum, which will offer direct design-related insight from museum insiders like Paul Schmelzer from the Walker Art Center and Studio Blue partner Maggie Smith in a panel moderated by the MCA’s design director, James Goggin. That Goggin’s panel is meant to kick the conference off says much about crucial developments in the industry according to Program Coordinator at the Graham School Sarah Pesin.

“In the history of the conference there hasn’t been much of a design emphasis, and since James Goggin is a graphic designer it’s representative of a shift,” Pesin said. “In general, the fact that people are realizing that publishing is beyond a printed piece of paper or book—it’s things that go online, it’s apps—museums are trying to think of it as a cohesive thing as opposed to disparately.”

“I’m sure that Chicago has completely seeped into everything I do,” says Ivan Brunetti, our featured June banner artist, “but I’m not consciously aware of it when I’m working. I can’t even imagine living anywhere else at this point. I’m always drawing Chicago, because that’s the air that I breathe.” Brunetti, who has brought his satirical, doom-and-gloom aesthetic to cartooning, illustrating, writing, anthologizing, and teaching, talked with Chicago Publishes about his past projects and current work.

This week’s podcast: hear how Marcus Sakey plans his books, and why he doesn’t agree with the complaints over the “death” of books. Sakey’s most recent publication, The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes, is now in paperback.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Comic Books weren’t always recognized as an art form, let alone something literary. Now, the medium has established itself, and there’s an onslaught of comic book programming in Chicago recognizing the special role the work plays across mediums. Here’s a round up of June programming:

On June 12, attend a screening of the documentary film Comic Book Independents: A Documentary Guide for the Creative Spirit  followed by a panel discussion at the Cultural Center put on by the DCA Theatre and Chicago Dance Crash. If dance is your bag, Dance Crash will be performing a graphic novel, Gotham City, on stage from June 8 to July 15.  Plus, the Chicago Alternative Comic Expo (CAKE), a weekend of comic book panels and sales, will take place on June 16 and 17. We know—it’s difficult to keep up!

Chicago Dance Crash will be performing Gotham City, a graphic novel brought to the stage, for five weeks. The show depicts a single Chicago night during which the metropolis is taken hostage by a criminal underworld. Thirty dancers, combining break dancing and ballet, bring the classic comic scene to life.  As a special bonus, Dance Crash will present a screening of  Chris Brandt’s Comic Book Independents: A Documentary Guide for the Creative Spirit, as part of its comics-inspired programming.

The film details the long history of comic-book-style sequential imaging to tell stories, dating as far back as the days of cave paintings. Today, the coupling of imagery and narration enlivens the work of film makers, visuals artists, and writers alike. The movie asks why comic book haven’t always been considered art. The evening runs from 6:30pm until approximately 8:30pm in the Claudia Cassidy Theater.