Mission Statement
Around the Coyote, a 501(c)3 non-profit, supports, promotes and makes accessible Chicago's multidisciplinary arts community. Our activities enhance public discourse and provide creative outlets for emerging artists. Year-round programming includes multi-media arts festivals featuring visual art, theater, dance, film, music, video and poetry in the spring and fall; art exhibitions in the Around the Coyote gallery; an artist-in-residence program; membership opportunities for artists and art aficionados; educational outreach for all ages through multi-media art workshops, lectures, collaborations with local schools and agencies, and career development workshops for artists. Programming is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and the CityArts Program 2 grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs.


History of Around the Coyote
ATC was founded by Cameroon-born Parisian gallery owner Jim Happy-Delpech in 1989. When Happy-Delpech first arrived in Chicago in 1989, he discovered a contemporary and experimental art community that was extremely rich, diverse and innovative, but also largely unknown, even to the people of Chicago. While Chicago was an internationally recognized center for the arts, there was no developed, local forum for emerging or experimental artists. Paradoxically, Chicago's old factories and warehouse lofts housed hundreds of artists who were busy creating art. Delpech decided to create an organization which would form a bridge between these artists and the greater Chicago public.

In 1990 he joined forces with writer Elizabeth Burke and gallery directors Sam Johnson and Kevin Freitas to establish an annual festival modeled after the bohemian art fairs held in Paris, combining an artists' studio walk, art exhibition and performing arts festival, to showcase the work of Chicago's emerging artists of all disciplines. This festival, the first of its kind in Chicago, was held in the historic Bucktown/Wicker Park neighborhoods and was centered around the landmark 1930s skyscraper, The Northwest Tower, nicknamed the Coyote Tower by local artists.

Today the organization has become an established part of Chicago's cultural landscape and has expanded its programming to include two multi-media art festivals each year, as well as educational programs for children and adults, a membership program for artists, and an emerging art gallery holding monthly exhibitons of visual art, theatre, music and film.


Around the Coyote Timeline
1989 - Around the Coyote is formed by Jim Happy-Delpech. The purpose of the organization is "to bring to the art community a professional organization that will help artists network and exhibit their art". It is decided that the first event should be an artists' studio walk in Wicker Park/Bucktown, due to the large concentration of artists in that neighborhood. Original board consists of Jim Happy-Delpech (President), Elizabeth Burke (Vice President), Christian Hansen (Secretary), Samuel Johnson, Kevin Frietas.

September 20-23, 1990 – 1st Around the Coyote Fall Arts Festival, called "Around the Coyote 90". Over 10,000 people attended to view the work of over 250 artists. The artists all exhibited in their own studios and in the 6 local galleries. Theatre performances were held in local theatres.

March 20, 1990 – Around the Coyote is incorporated.

1991 - Board of Directors: Sandra Dawson, Alan Gugel, Jillian Miles, Mary Marre (Secretary), Douglas Philips (Vice President), Joe Crump, Jillian Luncar, Barbara Bates, Bob Markey, Alice Joseph, Julie Reid, Jean-Brice Wallon, Alice Hargrave, Tom Handley, Elizabeth Clinton Peterson, Wes Andrews, D. McDonell (Treasurer), S. Sajid, V. Mrak, P. Gray, Jim Happy-Delpech (President), Richard Goldman. A Fundraising/Development Committee, Marketing/Communications Committee, Curating Committee, Events/Programs Committee, Finance Committee and Artist Relations Committee is started. Discussion of founding an emerging art gallery is begun. It is decided that the Around the Coyote mission needs to focus on emerging and progressive artists.

September 12-15, 1991 - 2nd Around the Coyote Fall Arts Festival. Attendance increases and over 300 artists are exhibited.

May 1991 - The first annual Catch the Coyote gala fundraiser is held featuring music, visual arts, poetry, dance and performance art. A silent auction and raffle helps to raise almost $10,000 for ATC.

1992 - ATC significantly expands its activities beyond its annual arts festivals. A variety of temporary exhibitions by ATC visual artists are held throughout the city; a summer arts education program for Chicago school children ages 8-14 is started at a local public school with classes in puppet making, dance, poetry, environmental sculpture, textile design and painting; a thursday night cable television show featuring interviews of artists and art professionals is hosted by ATC; the first issue of Howl, a quarterly magazine highlighting the work of visual artists, is published. Internal efforts to improve the quality and quantity of artists exhibited at the festivals is begun. Special curators are brought on to assist the exhibition co-chairs Fitz Gerald, Kim Nikolaev and Jim Happy-Delpech. Curators include: Sliced Bread Productions Director Bill Bullion (theatre); Anchor Graphics' co-director David Jones (graphics); Artist Sho Kawakita (Japanese exhibition); Ballet Chicago Marketing Director Mary Marre (music and dance); Film Producer Julie Reid (experimental film); Guild Complex Chairman Michael Warr (poetry and fiction); Tripp Entzminger (robotics); and the Art Institute's Maurice Blanks (architecture).

ATC is an all-volunteer organization, with no paid staff. Board of Directors: Wes Andrews(Urban Intersections), Barbara Bates (Women in Film), Suzie Bettinger (Bloomingdales' Chicago), Tom Buffa (Freeborn and Peters), Sandra Dawson (artist), Sandra Frank-Mosensen (Earth Day Chicago), Fitz Gerald (Space Gallery), Richard Goldman (Genesis Creative Oasis), Alan Gugel (artist), Lindsay Hahn (Terry Dowd Associates), Jim Happy-Delpech (JHD Gallery), Kathy Hough (United Airlines), Sho Kawakita (artist), Sherly Kosovski (Evanston Arts Center), Jillian Loncar-Brade (artist representative), Dan McDonell (teacher), Jillian Miles (artist), Kim Nikolaev (Helene Curtis), Doug Philips (artist), Julie Reid (independent film producer), Sy Sajid (Backdrop Solution), Valerie Shields (Sheilds Communications), Adam Siegel (artist), Meg Troester.

September 17-20, 1992 - 3rd Around the Coyote Arts Festival attracts more than 30,000 patrons and exhibits over 600 artist. 64 venues including rooftops, loft spaces, theaters and businesses as well as studios and galleries throughout the Wicker Park/Bucktown neighborhood participate in the festival. Along with painting, sculpture, installation, architecture, film, theater, dance, music, poetry and fiction the festival featured robotics, printmaking, and a kinetic outdoor sculpture display. Artists from Japan, England and Korea participated alongside the best of Chicago's emerging artists.

January 12, 1993 – Around the Coyote becomes a non-profit organization. (made retroactive to March 18, 1992). Any donation given to ATC after March 1992 is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

September 1993 - The 2003 Fall Arts Festival exhibited more than 700 artists including 450 visual artists, twenty theater companies, forty fashion designers, a dozen musical acts, four dance troupes and more than one hundred other artists representing poetry, fiction, film, video, computer arts and robotics.

1994 - Around the Coyote festivals suffer on the brink of extinction due to debt and administrative turmoil. Long-time Around the Coyote supporter and donor, Gavriel Mairone, an attorney and owner of the building housing the Paulina Arts Center, takes the helm in the hopes of turning the organization around. It is hoped that the next festival, and attempts to create year-round programming and workshops, will generate a surplus so that a paid Executive Director can be hired.

Spring, 1994 - Around the Coyote partners with the Brent Council of the Brent Borough of London, England to do an artist exchange. Three Chicagoartists are sent to Brent.

September 7-10, 1995 - The 6th Annual Fall Arts Festival features 850 artists, including 100 artists from foreign countries. 30 neighborhood galleries participated. The festival is considered the largest emerging arts festival in the world. Herbie Hancock donated his performance at Park West on September 7th to Around the Coyote to kick-off the festival, raising almost $35,000. Theatre (7 different venues featuring over 115 performances curated by Jonathan Pitts), fashion (Coyote Couture featured 49 Chicago designers. $5), film (2 features and 16 shorts. $3), dance (12 performances by over 40 dancers makes dance a central part of the festival, whereas in years past it was more of a sidelight), poetry and fiction at Estelle's Pub, furniture (over 30 designers display their work at Willow Square), music (20 bands on the main stage located on the Wicker Park grounds. $3), and visual art are exhibited. An International Exchange exhibition at the Paulina Arts Center features 97 visual artists from 20 countries including Bulgaria, Russia, Germany, Japan, Africa and many South American countries. Featured international artists include David Alfaro Siqueiros, Wilfredo Lam, Francisco Toledo, Edna Schey and Daniel Lucero.

1996 - The Around the Coyote Fall Festival, along with the performing arts and visual arts, includes a 10 foot sculpture carved into a tree stump in Wicker Park created by French sculptor Olivier Ledoux along with 20 community members. This project is part of Around the Coyote's initiative to integrate more international artists into the Chicago emerging art scene.

1997 - Executive Board: Jim Happy-Delpech (Honorary Chairman), Mary Beth Cregier (President), Gretchen Steininger (Vice President), Jim Holcomb (Treasurer), Beth Fulscher (Secretary). Board of Directors: Frank Crowley, Leonard J. Doinguez, John Duda, Julia Friedman, Dr. Jerome Hausman, Cyril Landise, Gabriel Malrone, Robert Markey, Jason Sachs, Joan Schenk, Morlen Sinoway, Joan Welch.

1999 - Founder, Jim Happy-Delpech, dies. (He left the organization due to illness in 1995.)

September 9-12, 1999 - The 10th Annual Around the Coyote Fall Arts Festival debuts as a curated festival. All artists with studios in the neighborhood are automatically accepted into the festival, but for the first time all artists from outside of Wicker Park/Bucktown applying for space in the festival must go through a selection process. It is decided that no more than 75 artists from outside the neighborhood will be accepted. For the first time, six art workshops for children sponsored by Around the Coyote are included in the festival. More than 130 local children enjoyed making art at our 6 partner institutions: The Polish Museum, The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center, The Wicker Park Fieldhouse, Thomas Drummond Elementary School and Genesis Artist Village. A workshop for adult artists entitled "How to Market Your Art" was presented by Paul Klein. Guest curators for the festival included Staci Boris, Associate Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art; Ann Wiens, art critic and artist; Jackie Terrassa, Education Director at the Smart Museum of Art; Jerry Housman, Director of the Minneapolis Institute of Art and Design; Ed Maldonado, Associate Curator at the Chicago Cultural Center; and Nyame Brown, artist. Jim Holcomb takes over as the first full-time, paid Executive Director.


2000 Education - Around the Coyote begins its neighborhood education programs, including a mural project, workshops, lectures, and collaborations with local parks and schools. Olga Stefan becomes Executive Director.

February 4-6, 2000 – 1st Around the Coyote Winter Arts Festival includes over 75 visual and performing artists exhibiting sculptures and installations in the Northwest Tower Building and sculptures and paintings in the Flatiron Arts Building hallways and studios. Highlighted artists include George Colvin, Salvator Ingrassia, Steven Kowalkowski, Robert McGuire and Philin Phlash. In addition to traditional fine art media, digital arts, metal design, furniture deign, and textiles were exhibited. The dance program, curated by Michael Sherman, included Irreverence, AVID DVD, Anatomical Theater and MAD SHAK. Poetry readings, film screenings in the Flatiron Arts Building and music performances were also presented in venues throughout Wicker Park. A panel discussion with art critics Fred Camper and Michael Bulka and gallery director Natalie Domchenko on current issues facing emerging artists was included.

April 14-16, 2000 - Around the Coyote holds its first performance art festival at The Note in an effort to expand its year-round programming. Video shorts by Robert Zellner; dance by AVID DVD Society, Irreverence Dance + Theatre, Matthew Hollis and Eric Etherly, Jyl Fehrenkamp, Karen Hoses and Bryon Wise; and poetry from "Women Out Loud".

June 2000 Opening of ATC Space - this small gallery on the third floor of the Flatiron Arts Building (1579 N. Milwaukee) was available to rent throughout the year. The gallery was closed when Around the Coyote moved to it's new, much larger, curated space at 1935-1/2 W. North Ave. in early 2004.

September 7-10, 2000 - Over 50 neighborhood galleries participated along with theater (curated by Jonathan Pitts), poets (curated by Michael Watson), dancers (curated by Michael Sherman and David Watson), filmmakers (curated by James Gustin) and visual artists. An Outdoor Mural Gallery Project is added to the festival pairing local elementary school students with professional muralists. The mural is located at Churchill Park and is debuted at the Fall Festival Opening. Romanian artists Matei Bejenaru, the 2000 Fall Artist-in-Residence exhibits his photo installation "Being on the Periphery". Curator's Choice artists included: Patti Abraham, Barbara Bell, Janet Bloch, Lorell Butler, Cat Chow, Mike Cramer, Peter Demma, Rosemary A. DiNardo, Sheri Flynn, Juan Caralos Frias, Byron Gin, Cynthia Greig, Pat Hertel, Jeanette Hoffower, Laura Lee Junge, Mariko Tamaki Tokiko Kajimoto, Marie Kennedy, Mat Barber Kennedy, Kathleen King, Conrad Lawrence, Joe Mcllhany, Mira Modly, James Monroe, Bridget Montgomery, James Morton, Jesus Eduardo Rocha, Marci Rubin, Nicholas Sistler, Steve Skinner, Susan Spies, Gina Srebro,Julie Sulzen, Shari Swartz, Rachel Weaver, and David Wiggins. Guest visual art curators are: Hamza Walker of the Renaissance Society, Dominic Molon or the MCA, Julie Charmelo of NIU Gallery and Marty Lazer freelance curator.

February 2004 - Opening of Around the Coyote Gallery - 1935-1/2 W. North Ave. - a 2400 sq. foot, new gallery with street access, dedicated to giving exhibition opportunities to independent curators and emerging artists.

September 2004 - Around the Coyote's 15th anniversary as an organization.

March 2005 - Allison Stites becomes new Executive Director.

2006 – Around the Coyote hires its first music curator, Jill Katona, who triples the music offerings at our festivals. The Reading Series - a chance for playwrights and directors to workshop new plays in front of an audience - begins its monthly performances. The Muralist-in-Residence program is started to create yearly indoor murals at the Around the Coyote Gallery. Around the Coyote becomes a founding member of the Wicker Park Bucktown Gallery Association. An initiative to create an Emerging Art Center is begun.