Photo courtesy of Tommy Carroll.
Inspired by the experiences of the visually impaired, percussionist Tommy Carroll leads a gallery tour using music and sound to create an aural art performance. This tour invites visitors to interpret the galleries in unexpected ways, expanding our conception of what it means to connect with art.Â
about the artist
Tommy Carroll is a Chicago-based drummer, bandleader, and composer working in the lineages of jazz, improvised music, folkloric percussion, and experimental rock. He leads both the cinematically grooving band Calculated Discomfort and Prosthetic, a futuristic dance band inspired by R&B and avant-garde jazz fusion. As a sideman, Tommy performs and records with dozens of bands and artists in the Midwest region. A totally blind artist, Tommy has celebrated disability culture with his albums Not Amazing and Dances for Different Bodies, and he has produced disability culture events as a member of Cuerpos Justificados (Justified Bodies). Tommy is currently in the process of producing The Harmony of Rhythm, a three-volume composition focused on the communicative and compositional powers of percussion, timbre, and space.
This program is hosted by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Art Institute of Chicago in close collaboration with Bodies of Work: A Network of Disability Art and Culture.Â
Bodies of Work is a consortium of four groups from three Chicago organizations that share a commitment to programming distinguished by its integration of disability artistry, academics, and activism. Together with partnering artists, it serves as a catalyst for the development of disability art and culture that illuminates the disability experience in new and unexpected ways. It comprises the Program on Disability Art, Culture, and Humanities and the Disability Cultural Center at the University of Illinois Chicago; the Disability Culture Activism Lab at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; and the Art and Culture Project at Access Living.
accessibility information
Sound Activation: Cripping the Galleries will meet in the Ando Gallery, gallery 109, on the Michigan Avenue side of the museum. The program will involve musicians leading a group through several museum galleries. Some galleries will only be accessible by stairs or elevator. Galleries vary in size, and the group may be large. Expect crowded spaces and moderately loud sounds from percussion, string, and other instruments. Staff will be on hand to assist visitors as needed.
The tour will visit the following galleries: Gallery 109, Gallery 133, and Gallery 265.
Additional access offerings include:
- Portable stools
- ASL Interpretation
- Stim toys, fidgets, headphones, and other access supplies available at the Griffin Court information desk
- Multiple staff on hand for assistance with wayfinding and other questions
