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This week, we'll conclude our inaugural Artist-in-Residency Program with a performance by Chicago-based artist Allen Moore. Moore, our regional Artist-in-Residence, has been working in partnership with pt.fwd and the McLean County Museum of History to create a new concert-length performance that draws upon materials from the Museum’s Black History Project. This project will be presented in a streaming concert on Saturday, April 24th, broadcast live from the McLean County Museum of History. Prior to his performance, Moore led a "DIY Music Making Workshop" for local youth. More than twenty of us met on Zoom to learn about free music tools, create sonic experiments, and build our own record players out of household materials. Allen Moore is a Black American Interdisciplinary Painter, Experimental Sound Artist, Educator, Youth Mentor and Curator born and raised in the Historic Village of Robbins, IL. Moore holds a Bachelors of Arts from Chicago State University, a Masters in Arts from Governors State University and a Masters of Fine Arts from Northern Illinois University in 2016. His work examines both visual and experimental music, emphasizing the importance of nurturing the Black Imagination with social representation. His educational and curatorial practices focus on building spaces for advocacy, creative representation and healing. His work converses with the signifiers of African American and popular culture, bringing to view the underlying themes of racial, emotional and socio-economic conditions. Moore has exhibited and performed across Chicago and the greater midwest, including exhibitions at Heaven Gallery, Compound Yellow, Experimental Sound Studio, Elastic Arts, Threewalls, The Museum of Contemporary Art, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago , Roots & Culture Gallery, Lula Cafe, The Star Media Group, Union Street Gallery, The Museum of Science and Industry Chicago, etc. He is a volunteer staff member for A.C.R.E. Artist Residency and Comfort Station. His recent curatorial projects include GATHER and the P.O.W.E.R. Project. His work has been featured in publications including Sixty Inches From the Center, (Gather), Movement Matters, Bad at Sports Contemporary Art Talk (ANX 2015 Roots and Culture) and featured work in the Netflix Original Series “Easy” Seasons 1 and 2. The pt.fwd Artist-in-Residency Program is is supported by the Mirza Arts & Culture Grant and the Illinois Prairie Community Foundation. Event details can be found on our Facebook event page. The concert will be streamed via our Twitch channel.

Allen Moore

2020-2021 Artist-in-Residence
Allen Moore is a Black American Interdisciplinary Painter, Experimental Sound Artist, Educator, Youth Mentor and Curator.

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Remember dancing to loud music with a bunch of real people? Us, too - and we miss it! Join us on Saturday for a streaming DJ set by Bodyman, one of our 2020-2021 Artists-in-Residence! Bodyman (AKA Zachary Leachman), our local Artist-in-Residence, has used his residency to explore new techniques and equipment that will advance his work as a DJ. Leachman created a new DJ set for his streaming concert on Saturday. Additionally, pt.fwd will produce a Q&A video for public viewing in April. Bodyman is a Peoria, IL-based sound artist and silversmith. Bodyman says, "I treat sound and silver like sculpture. Rhythm, dance, & being bodily are very important to me. Rhythmic music has kept me from falling into the stagnancy of United States grind culture, & helped me stay in touch with the parts of me that are truly human, not a machine to be used to generate capital. My only goal when I make a song or DJ is to get someone moving, to re-arrange the building blocks familiar in the canon of dance music in a new way." You can learn more about Bodyman’s residency by watching his interview with Josh Rios. The pt.fwd Artist-in-Residency Program is is supported by the Mirza Arts & Culture Grant and the Illinois Prairie Community Foundation. Event details can be found on our Facebook event page. The concert will be streamed via our Twitch channel.

Bodyman (Zachary Leachman)

2020-2021 Artist-in-Residence
Bodyman is a Peoria, IL-based sound artist and silversmith.

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Jamie Monck (he/him/his) is a classical guitarist based in Louisville, Kentucky. His practice primarily concerns pieces written for him, and underloved works of the guitar repertoire. Monck will perform newly-commissioned works by Icelandic composer Gulli Björnsson and Bloomington-Normal, IL-native Cassie Wieland. These works are from Monck's "dark is a way" project for electric guitar.

Jamie Monck

Jamie Monck (he/him/his) is a classical guitarist based in Louisville, Kentucky.

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Molly Jones is an improviser, composer, and lover of sounds based in Chicago. Her compositions range from chamber works to graphic scores to electroacoustic environments for improvisation. In 2019, she premiered a multimedia opera with her new baby company, Untoward Co. Jones is increasingly interested in making art that incorporates multiple senses and multiple media, though sound is typically her starting point. She hopes to achieve art that meditates, encouraging openness and receptivity for the audience as well as during the process.

Molly Jones

Molly Jones is an improviser, composer, and lover of sounds based in Chicago.

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Back by popular demand following their pt.fwd performance in April 2020, j a r s + Ryan will be exhibiting textural guitar musings in conjunction with video that features bold costumage and provocative performance. j a r s is a hairy creature born in the northern outpost of Winnipeg, and resides in the industrial metropolis of what is currently known as Hamilton, Ontario. j a r s enjoys making queer and weird thing-objects, performances, and videos, and is currently working on several video game projects with their partner Resni. Ryan Paluczak is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, craftsman, and musician from the woods of Missouri. They currently reside in St. Louis where they practice woodworking. Ryan enjoys hiking, natural light, cnc machines, power tools, mushroom hunting, horticulture, and manual labor.

Ryan Paluczak + Jars Hooch

Ryan Paluczak is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, craftsman, and musician from the woods of Missouri.

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Sonic Insurgency Research Group (SIRG) is Josh Rios + Matt Joynt + Anthony Romero. Their critical performance and exhibition practices have been featured and presented at The Luminary (St. Louis), The Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), The School of Visual Art (New York), DiverseWorks (Houston), The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (Omaha), and through the the Mountain Standard Time Performative Art Biennial (Calgary, Canada), among others. Ground Unsettle Surround, initially made for the Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA (Portland, ME), assembles a mix of experimental sonic performance, archival political speech, field recordings, and dialogue engaging various ecologies of history, thought, and theory around #Landback, Decolonize Zhigaagoong (Chicago), All the Monuments Must Fall, #Defundthepolice, and #Policefreeschools.

Sonic Insurgency Research Group (Josh Rios + Matt Joynt + Anthony Romero)

Sonic Insurgency Research Group (SIRG) is Josh Rios + Matt Joynt + Anthony Romero.

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Yea Big is Stefen Robinson, sometimes solo, sometimes in collaboration. Stefen is a father, partner, teacher, multi-instrumentalist music-maker, Buddhist pacifist-anarchist, tree-admirer, who resides in Bloomington, IL. The sounds of Yea Big run the gamut from hip-hop to electro-acoustic compositions to free-improvisation, with recent work focusing on the latter.

Yea Big (Stefen Robinson)

Yea Big is Stefen Robinson, sometimes solo, sometimes in collaboration.

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