nk + collaborators // Glad For The Rain Film + Outreach

We want to connect young people in Chicago to local art and local history through a work, originally commissioned and performed by Chicago Dance in the Parks, inspired by the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, told through the lens of gender and class.

Through the generous support of the Chicago Individual Artists Program grant I have sufficient funds for artists wages to turn Glad for the Rain into a dance film that will be available throughout Chicago Public Parks this summer as well as online to further account for accessibility needs.

But I have a larger vision for this work that I want to see through, and I need your help!

A foundational aspect of my process is the time I spend in research, and I want to share that part of my process to help young people connect with the dance film and history it’s inspired by on a deeper level. So I am creating a Digital Educational Pamphlet (or, if we raise enough money, an interactive webpage). At the end of the summer, I will be sharing the film and educational materials with Chicago Public Schools for free and Charter schools at a moderate cost.

How much time, effort, and resources we can devote to these supplemental creations is entirely up to how much we can raise with this T-shirt fundraiser. I have worked with a local illustrator Chris Wellems and graphic designer Tim Sullivan to create the art that will also become the movie poster complete with QR codes to access the film and pamphlet (or cool website?).

This is a deeply Chicago-centric project hiring local artists to tell local history; support our work and get a really cool T-shirt in the process!

Thank you and see you outside this summer!

Glad for the Rain, Dance in the Parks 2025
PC Joerg Metzner