Art, Music, Community Find a Home at Colibri Gallery
Maureen Kelleher
Published: July 13, 2009
Walk an extra few blocks from 18th Street between Racine and Wood—the heart of Pilsen’s gallery/restaurant/shopping strip—and look for the clawfoot bathtub-turned-planter a few houses west of Damen Avenue. You’re standing in front of Colibri Gallery, the first floor of a brick two-flat that serves as one of the neighborhood’s many centers for Mexican arts and culture.
Artwork on display inside Colibri Gallery.
Colibri’s owners are a married couple, Mexican artist and musician Roberto Ferreyra and Venezuelan printmaker and performance artist Montserrat Alsina. Their passion for the arts and for the neighborhood shines through all the gallery’s activities, from art classes to a monthly Mexican jam session, the fandango, to Colibri’s role as a crossroads for international exchange with printmakers from across Mexico.
Colibri Gallery features a mix of artistic media. Though printmaking, paintings and drawings figure heavily in the mix, the gallery has also hosted photography and performance exhibits.
Dance Hall Days
On the fourth Saturday of each month, the fandango transforms the gallery into a music venue and dance hall. Ferreyra and at least half a dozen musical friends play drums, violin, and a variety of guitars, including small ones popular in the Mexican states of Jalisco and Veracruz.
As the evening goes on, traditional dancers in the audience come forward to show their stuff, even breaking out a wooden stand to dance on and amplify the percussive rhythm of their feet. Colibri’s fandango showcases traditional Mexican music but does not limit itself to that style. If you go, you’re also likely to hear Colombian folk music and Cuban Jose Marti's "Guantanamera," made famous by Pete Seeger here in the U.S.
Pilsen Open Studios
Colibri served as the official starting point last year for West Pilsen’s annual fall arts event, Pilsen Open Studios, which Alsina was instrumental in organizing, and as the point of departure for the tour’s first-ever bus circuit. Originally intended to encourage young people to attend, her brainstorm to give tour-goers a “passport” to collect artists’ signatures, which could be turned in at the end to enter a raffle, proved successful with adults, as well. “When I was going on the bus, I saw the grownups were getting really into it! They were going up to the artists and getting their signatures," she says.
Last year Alsina also achieved a goal much on the minds of Pilsen Open Studios’ artists: encouraging more community residents to participate. Local publicity efforts, such as event cards at neighborhood businesses and 300 passports distributed through local schools, helped make that possible.
Though often artists' communities are associated with a rise in property taxes and changing neighborhoods, Alsina and other West Pilsen artists see their role as based in the existing community. "We want to keep people here and the children here and the taxes down,” she says.
In recent years Pilsen has begun to draw more young, white residents and businesses. Escalating property values and apartment-to-condo conversions are beginning to force out longtime residents. It's tough to raise Pilsen's profile in a positive way without accelerating gentrification, but Alsina believes it can be done by building community from the inside out. "You take the risk that more people will want to move this way and it will change us,” she says. “If we stay together as artists and communicate more with the Latino community, I think we can encourage people to stay here.”
Colibri Gallery is located at 2032 W. 18th Street and open Tuesday-Sunday from 2-6 p.m. or by appointment.The fandango is generally held on the fourth Saturday of each month, with an $8 suggested donation. For more information, call 312-733-8431.
This article is based on items previously published on Community Beat, a group blog about neighborhood development in Chicago.
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