Elastic Arts

Elastic Arts The Elastic Arts Foundation (EAF) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization focusing on music - art

It is once again Giving Tuesday, and we’d like to reflect on how the arts have affected our lives this year. Through the...
12/02/2025

It is once again Giving Tuesday, and we’d like to reflect on how the arts have affected our lives this year. Through the good times and challenges, the arts are there for you to heal and dream of the world you’d like to see.

Elastic Arts provides space for our community to create that world, through adventurous programming, inspiring workshops, and warmth through togetherness.

Please consider supporting us for the first time, or increasing your support with a donation today. Your support means the world to so many, and a whole new year to create is right around the corner.

Link below to donate!

This Thursday’s Improvised Music Series features groups lead by young improvisers in Chicago’s free music scene. Don’t c...
12/01/2025

This Thursday’s Improvised Music Series features groups lead by young improvisers in Chicago’s free music scene. Don’t call them up-and-coming as they’ve already more than arrived, and have the sound to prove it. We’ll kick off with Amos Egleston Quartet, followed by Banana Acid. Music at 8:30PM!

8:30 - Amos Egleston Quartet
Amos Egleston - trumpet
Garret Frees - tenor Sax
John Sutton - bass
Andy Danstrom - drums

9:30 - Banana Acid
Erez Dessel - piano
Garrett Frees - saxophones
Caroline Jesalva - violin, voice
Aaron Kaufman-Levine - saxophones
Tyler Wager - bass

12/01/2025

Winter is here, but Elastic is warm and the show goes on. We want to see you here in December! This week we have a couple of Chicago legends on the CLEAT, a heavy Improv Series show, Shake Shook Shaken, and the last Freedom From and Freedom To of the year. Come through!

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 3 | 8:00 PM
CLEAT Series: Macie Stewart, Sen Morimoto

THURSDAY DECEMBER 4 | 8:30 PM
Improvised Music Series: Amos Egleston Quartet, Banana Acid

SATURDAY DECEMBER 6 | 12:00 PM
Shake Shook Shaken: COLLAGES w/ Margaret McCarthy

SATURDAY DECEMBER 6 | 7:00 PM
Freedom From and Freedom To

TONIGHT! AACM at Elastic Arts! Streets are clear, and our space is warm. Join us! 7pmIn honor of The Association for the...
11/30/2025

TONIGHT! AACM at Elastic Arts! Streets are clear, and our space is warm. Join us! 7pm

In honor of The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) 60th Anniversary, legendary percussionist and Rhythm Testament founder, Carlos Pride, has curated an unforgettable performance here at Elastic this upcoming Sunday 11/30. The AACM Percussion Ensemble, featuring world-class talents like Paul Cotton (Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago, Don Moye’s Sun Percussion Summit & The Chicago Immigrant Orchestra under the direction of Fareed Haque), & Felix “D-Kat” Pollard (Lionel Richie, Sheila E, & Chaka Khan). These three masters span four continents including Africa, Asia, North America & South America, to create a groundbreaking fusion of rhythms and sounds. Instruments such as The African Talking Drum, Mbira, Djembe, Himalayan Singing Bowls, Cajon, Diddley Bow, Lap Steel Guitar & Roland Handsonic will weave together the vibrant traditions of the past and the innovative spirit of the present, all under the banner of Great Black Music, Ancient to the Future.

We’re pleased to host two very special CLEAT Series events in December, starting with an epic evening with Chicago artis...
11/26/2025

We’re pleased to host two very special CLEAT Series events in December, starting with an epic evening with Chicago artists Macie Stewart and Sen Morimoto on Wednesday December 3rd! In 2024 Macie Stewart was commissioned by Experimental Sound Studio to create a piece/installation for Florasonic at the Lincoln Park Conservatory. Following a summer spent in Chicago, “The World Doubles in Size” is a piece compiled of field recordings taken all around the city- documenting a summer spent at home. The sounds of the Chicago river, summer storms, conversations, cicadas, violin, and voice, are all featured throughout the piece in varying levels of processing. This bed of recordings creates a soundscape in which nature and the sounds of the city can be improvised alongside- a collaborator that is always present. Loosely inspired by the Mary Oliver poem, “Hurricane”, from the compilation, “A Thousand Mornings”, the piece plays with comparing the shifting of the seasons with the ever evolving nature of the self. Macie is revisiting this piece and remixing it for the CLEAT system, alongside a limited tape release.
Sen Morimoto is a songwriter / saxophonist based in Chicago. For this evening he will be exploring the system with a piece for electronics and saxophone.

It’ll be an incredible night. Join us 12/3!

In honor of The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) 60th Anniversary, legendary percussionist a...
11/25/2025

In honor of The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) 60th Anniversary, legendary percussionist and Rhythm Testament founder, Carlos Pride, has curated an unforgettable performance here at Elastic this upcoming Sunday 11/30. The AACM Percussion Ensemble, featuring world-class talents like Paul Cotton (Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago, Don Moye’s Sun Percussion Summit & The Chicago Immigrant Orchestra under the direction of Fareed Haque), & Felix “D-Kat” Pollard (Lionel Richie, Sheila E, & Chaka Khan). These three masters span four continents including Africa, Asia, North America & South America, to create a groundbreaking fusion of rhythms and sounds. Instruments such as The African Talking Drum, Mbira, Djembe, Himalayan Singing Bowls, Cajon, Diddley Bow, Lap Steel Guitar & Roland Handsonic will weave together the vibrant traditions of the past and the innovative spirit of the present, all under the banner of Great Black Music, Ancient to the Future.

Join us to celebrate the Black Friday Record Store Day release of ‘Power to Consume’, a double-album tribute to Lou Reed...
11/24/2025

Join us to celebrate the Black Friday Record Store Day release of ‘Power to Consume’, a double-album tribute to Lou Reed’s seminal ‘Metal Machine Music’. Headlining the evening is Mark Solotroff, performing in support of his contribution to this landmark release from Sony Music/Legacy Recordings. Solotroff’s decades-long journey through underground music explores the depths of sound with analog synthesizers and voice, as the founder of projects like Anatomy of Habit and BLOODYMINDED. His solo work is a sonic landscape of bass-heavy synth compositions that reflect on modern themes of grief and isolation.

Supporting Solotroff are three compelling Chicago-based artists. Exhumed Co**se, the solo project of Sam Dour, takes you on a slow-motion descent into subsonic dread with bleak, dark industrial soundscapes built from decaying tape loops and salvaged audio equipment. Black Triangle Badge, the solo work of audio engineer Kenny Rasmussen, crafts unpredictable soundtracks of unease that reflect a world plagued by fascism and hate. Finally, Starvation Cage will deliver a violent, percussive, and unrelenting performance, drawing from the primal brutality of combat sports and the chaos of everyday existence. Prepare for an evening of powerful, uncompromising sound. Music at 8:30PM this Friday!

11/24/2025

We’re hitting the holiday week, but there’s still some big energy here at Elastic Arts! Come hang with us this weekend for some brooding electronics on Friday, and a celebratory AACM Percussion Ensemble on Sunday! Bring the whole family!

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 28 | 8:00 PM
Mark Solotroff, Exhumed Co**se, Black Triangle Badge, Starvation Cage

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 30 | 7:00 PM
AACM Percussion Ensemble

11/22/2025

TODAY! It’s time to play! Join us this afternoon 12pm-4pm for Re-reunion(s), an audience lead interpretation of John Cage and Marcel Duchamp’s performance ‘reunion’. ‘Reunion’ was a multichannel performance where Cage and Duchamp played/performed chess matches with a chess board that was designed to operate like a sound mixer. Whenever a chess piece was moved on the board, a series of prepared sounds were remixed and rearranged within a multi-speaker system.

‘Re-reunion(s)’ invites the audience to participate, and play/perform chess matches on a reproduction of the chess board used in the original performance. Live sounds to feed into the chess will be provided by Anthony Janas and Sam Robinsion. When games are played on the chess board the sounds will be rearranged and will be sent into the C.L.E.A.T. system here at Elastic Arts.

Audience can arrive at any time between 12-4pm to play/perform with the chess board. We’ll see you today! Let’s play!

We gather during the holidays once again December 10th to celebrate Elastic Arts, our community, and the great things th...
11/21/2025

We gather during the holidays once again December 10th to celebrate Elastic Arts, our community, and the great things that have happened with the organization over the past year.

We’ll have a few nibbles and sips, fellowship and music, warmth, comfort, joy, and a chance to become an Elastic Arts Member!

Bring anyone you love and anything you’d love to share.

This event is free and open to our community, but we encourage all attendees to donate in order to become an Elastic Arts Member!

We’ll start gathering around 7. Come celebrate with us! Party time.

Pianist and a Partner (Perhaps) is back this Sunday! Hosted by composer Sharon Udoh, a pianist of 40 years, the series h...
11/20/2025

Pianist and a Partner (Perhaps) is back this Sunday! Hosted by composer Sharon Udoh, a pianist of 40 years, the series highlights 3 or 4 genre-spanning musicians for whom the piano has been a long-time love. Each pianist can choose to bring one additional musician in a duo offering, if they wish (thus, “a partner perhaps”), or, they can go at it solo. Piano players and lovers everywhere, come join us as we celebrate this magnificent instrument!

At this fourth edition, we have Jim Baker w/ Vincent Davis, Erez Dessel w/ Kim Alpert, Mabel Kwan w/ Ayako Kato, Nolan Chin (solo), and Sharon Udoh hosting + in duo with Chris Corsano to kick of the night.

Join us this Sunday 11/23 at 8pm!!!

Join us this Saturday afternoon for Re-reunion(s), an audience lead interpretation of John Cage and Marcel Duchamp’s per...
11/19/2025

Join us this Saturday afternoon for Re-reunion(s), an audience lead interpretation of John Cage and Marcel Duchamp’s performance ‘reunion’. ‘Reunion’ was a multichannel performance where Cage and Duchamp played/performed chess matches with a chess board that was designed to operate like a sound mixer. Whenever a chess piece was moved on the board, a series of prepared sounds were remixed and rearranged within a multi-speaker system.

‘Re-reunion(s)’ invites the audience to participate, and play/perform chess matches on a reproduction of the chess board used in the original performance. Live sounds to feed into the chess will be provided by Anthony Janas and Sam Robinsion. When games are played on the chess board the sounds will be rearranged and will be sent into the C.L.E.A.T. system here at Elastic Arts.

Audience can arrive at any time between 12-4pm to play/perform with the chess board. We’ll see you this Saturday! Let’s play!

Address

3429 W Diversey #208
Chicago, IL
60647

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