VGA's 2016 Annual Report -- What A Great Year!

Game Art VS Art Game Opening Night Sept 23, 2016 at Columbia College Chicago's The Arcade - 618 S. Michigan Ave, 2nd Floor (Left to Right: Chaz Evans, Jonathan Kinkley, Meg Duguid) 

Game Art VS Art Game Opening Night Sept 23, 2016 at Columbia College Chicago's The Arcade - 618 S. Michigan Ave, 2nd Floor (Left to Right: Chaz Evans, Jonathan Kinkley, Meg Duguid) 

REPORT FROM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR:

Looking back, VGA had a banner year in fiscal year 2016 (October 1 2015 - September 30, 2016) as we advanced our mission to draw public attention to games and new media of significance through exhibition and events. Our programming and partnerships were marked by innovation and high quality, our financial muscle became stronger and our Chicago footprint widened. VGA partnered with some of Chicago's greatest cultural and academic organizations such as Cards Against Humanity, Columbia College Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, the Chicago Design Museum, Mana Contemporary, the Rebuild Foundation, the Neofuturists, Bit Bash and the Neofuturists to mount programming all over the map of Chicago from north to south and east to west. What a year!

Hardcore Casual 2016 on September 8. 2016 at the Indie City Co-op (Left to Right: Jonathan Kinkley, John Teti, Chaz Evans, Jen Rhodes, Brice Puls and Ross Hersemann)

Hardcore Casual 2016 on September 8. 2016 at the Indie City Co-op (Left to Right: Jonathan Kinkley, John Teti, Chaz Evans, Jen Rhodes, Brice Puls and Ross Hersemann)

Financially, we far exceeded our goals.VGA raised $14,493 in revenues, far exceeding our expenses.  The esteemed Graham Foundation supported our incredible exhibition from the forthcoming title Manifold Garden by William Chyr. Columbia College Chicago provided critical support to realize the Art Game VS Game Art exhibit. VGA organized its first-ever annual fund and we are proud to build upon this loyal group of donors from within our board ranks and our expanded friends and family. Sales of editioned giclees and posters also enjoyed strong proceeds from our print sales of incredible art from games small and large. And finally, at the end of the fiscal year we mounted our most successful HARDCORE CASUAL Benefit for VGA Gallery to date, grossing over $4,000, raising awareness of VGA and honoring the contributions of AV Club Editor-in-Chief John Teti, who gave a speech about the importance of critique for gaming that none of us will ever forget.  The year ended with a net surplus  that we allocated to past debts and banked for future programming. I'm proud to report that VGA is now has zero debt and is well in the black and well positioned for future growth.

VGA staff lunch (Left to Right: Brice, Jonathan, Tom, Heather, Chaz, Kristine, George, Tiffany, Mick and Amanda joined shortly after)

VGA staff lunch (Left to Right: Brice, Jonathan, Tom, Heather, Chaz, Kristine, George, Tiffany, Mick and Amanda joined shortly after)

Speaking of growth, this year we grew our staff to ten deep and thanks are owed to our small, nimble group for their great work in making VGA shine. VGA co-founder and director of exhibitions and programs Chaz Evans' curatorial leadership sets the artistic direction of the organization and his ideas, exhibits and events are always nothing short of brilliant and inventive. Tom Caprel guides our communications strategy and keeps us up to date in trends in the marketplace and George Chen handles our growing load of print orders with an even, expert hand. The fact that they are all volunteer except for the occasional grant or contract compensation is all the more admirable. The largest addition to the staff was the wholesale new department of the VGA Reader. We are thrilled to welcome this crack team of Tiffany Funk, editor-in-chief, Michael (Mick) Reed, managing editor, and Amanda Coleman, VGA Reader intern, to help publish our first annual peer-reviewed journal slated to come off the press in 2017. It aims to be nothing less than a leader in the video game art scholarship.  While Kristine Strom, manager of finance, and Heather Robbins, manager of development, have been pulled away by other commitments, we are very grateful for their time and hard work spent with us and we are fortunate to count on Kristine's service for future 990 filings. On our board of directors, with the help of our amazing Executive Committee of President Ross Hersemann, Vice President Eric Mittereder, Treasurer Adam Wolek and Secretary Jen Rhodes, we welcomed Antar Jackson, Jon Krusell, and Teresa Silva as intrepid new VGA leaders. Thanks to the entire VGA board for their service and governance, we are lucky to draw from the collective wisdom of this incredible mix of artists, game developers, academics and creative professionals.

From a communications perspective, more than 24,900 people experienced VGA art in-person. Online we had web traffic of 76,800 unique visits, and 2,952,394 impressions and 90,368 clicks in free advertising courtesy of our Google Grant. We also reached 14,985 using targeted Facebook ads, and our programs were covered in two major stories in the Chicago Reader. We were also featured in a Touch Vision video interviewed by Beth Elderkin and received plenty of shoutouts on social media. Our email list is over 700, twitter followers grew to 627, Facebook fans jumped to 592, and we started an Instagram account and now have 249 followers and growing quickly!

It's fun to look back and take stock of our impact. I hope you will keep in touch as there is a great deal of excitement to come.

Jonathan Kinkley
VGA Co-Founder and Executive Director

REPORT FROM DIRECTOR OF EXHIBITIONS AND PROGRAMS:  

Psychedelic Tourism at Cards Against Humanity's Black Box Gallery in partnership with Chicago Design Museum (March 2016) Pictured left to Right: Chaz Evans, Paloma Dawkins, Greg Wohlwend, William Chyr

Psychedelic Tourism at Cards Against Humanity's Black Box Gallery in partnership with Chicago Design Museum (March 2016) Pictured left to Right: Chaz Evans, Paloma Dawkins, Greg Wohlwend, William Chyr

As we move into a transformational year for VGA, it’s a great privilege to reflect on the programming goals we accomplished in FY16. When I say we, I'm referring to the large group of people who have all made crucial contributions to the organization, including our artists, our staff, our volunteers, our board, and the incredibly cool community of people coming to and participating in our shows. 2016 was a year of expansion in all of the program structures that we use to support video games and related new media art: exhibitions, education, residency, collection, sales, and even the establishment of a new endeavor: publications.

Opening for William Chy'rs Manifold Garden in partnership with UIC Maker Space and Mana Contemporary (October 16, 2015) 

Opening for William Chy'rs Manifold Garden in partnership with UIC Maker Space and Mana Contemporary (October 16, 2015) 

In October, William Chyr became VGA’s first artist-in-residence and was awarded studio space and a solo exhibition through UIC’s Maker Space at Mana Contemporary to work on his debut game Manifold Garden. The resulting exhibition was a unique opportunity to understand and document the process behind Chyr’s work as both framed and interactive aesthetic glitches. It also allowed audiences to get to know Chyr and his game Manifold Garden before its release (coming very soon!).

Psychedelic Tourism at Cards Against Humanity's Black Box Gallery in partnership with Chicago Design Museum (March 2016)

Psychedelic Tourism at Cards Against Humanity's Black Box Gallery in partnership with Chicago Design Museum (March 2016)

The group exhibition Psychedelic Tourism at Cards Against Humanity’s Black Box Gallery in March brought other new prints by Chyr together with work from Gardenarium by Paloma Dawkins and imagery from Ridiculous Fishing by Greg Wohlwend. As three bodies of work, they function as a study on the mercurial but inhabitable cityscapes, seascapes, and landscapes that are offered to those who visit virtual spaces in contemporary games.

Game Art VS Art Game Opening Night Sept 23, 2016 at Columbia College Chicago's The Arcade 618 S. Michigan Ave, 2nd Floor

Game Art VS Art Game Opening Night Sept 23, 2016 at Columbia College Chicago's The Arcade 618 S. Michigan Ave, 2nd Floor

Game Art Vs. Art Game opened at Columbia’s College Chicago’s Arcade Gallery in August as VGA’s biggest and most ambitious exhibition to date. The international survey of artists’ experiments with video games spanned decades and over 60 artworks, and illustrated the complex and evolving relationships between video games and contemporary art. It has also become VGA’s first touring exhibition and will be mounted at the Christian Peterson Art Museum in Fall 2017.

VGA Booth at Bit Bash 2016

VGA Booth at Bit Bash 2016

It is always a blast exhibiting fine art prints at Bit Bash. For VGA’s third consecutive year collaborating with the mid-west’s biggest video game fest, we were invited to curate a special selection of glitch artists from the Chicagoland area, together with the games and other festivities. The glitch-themed exhibition featured work by Nick Briz, Jon Satrom, Jessica Fenlon, Benji Blessing Sayed, Paul Hertz, Sara Goodman, and Christine Janokowicz.

Philip Mallory Jones speaks to audiences at the opening of Dateline:Bronzeville at Dorchester Art and Housing Collaborative on September 30, 2016

Philip Mallory Jones speaks to audiences at the opening of Dateline:Bronzeville at Dorchester Art and Housing Collaborative on September 30, 2016

Dateline: Bronzeville enjoyed a long installation at the Dorchester Art and Housing Collaborative to bring artist Phillip Mallory Jones’ rich historical vision of the black metropolis, 1940’s Bronzeville, to Chicago audiences. The exhibition was accompanied with education programs and tours that connected Mallory Jones’ techniques and extensive historical knowledge to students and members of the Dorchester Art community.

Boxer by Ben Crooks and Vignettes by Pol Clarissou

Boxer by Ben Crooks and Vignettes by Pol Clarissou

On top of the special exhibitions above we continue to grow and exhibit the video game fine art print collection that we founded for our first exhibition in 2014. We made new exciting acquisitions by Benjamin Crooks from Boxer, Sylvain Tegroeg from Hidden Folks, Pol Clarissou from Vignettes, Jonathan Blow’s The Witness, and That Dragon Cancer by Numinous Games. Selections from the print collection were exhibited in a number of venues: The Neofuturist Theater, The Chicago Video Game Law Summit, Bit Bash, our HARDCORE/CASUAL benefit at the Indie-City Co-op, and ValorCon 2016.

Left to Right: Jonathan Kinkley, Philip Mallory Jones, Maureen Ryan, Chaz Evans, Demecina Beehn

Left to Right: Jonathan Kinkley, Philip Mallory Jones, Maureen Ryan, Chaz Evans, Demecina Beehn

It continues to be an incredible honor to act as custodians of the work of so many brilliant artists and share it with different audiences.­ It’s a thrill to be able to look back and describe what happened in 2016, but it will be even more exciting to share what is coming in the next year. As always, please stay tuned as we find more ways to support artists who make videogames and find meaningful contexts for their reception in a larger international conversation on contemporary art.

Chaz Evans
VGA Co-Founder and Director of Exhibitions and Programs

FY2016 (October 1, 2015 - September 30, 2016) Programs

  • William Chyr's Manifold Garden Exhibition in partnership with University of Illinois Chicago's Maker Space at Mana Contemporary (October 16-18, 2015) Attendance: 500
  • The Neocade Exhibition in partnership with the Neofuturists (November 12, 2015 - Current) Attendance: 10,000+
  • Psychedelic Tourism Exhibition of work by William Chyr, Paloma Dawkins, and Greg Wohlwend in partnership with Chicago Design Museum and Cards Against Humanity (March 25, 2015 - January 9, 2016) Attendance: 5,000+
  • VGA at Chicago Video Game Law Summit in partnership with John Marshall Law School (April 16, 2016) Attendance: 250
  • VGA Glitch Exhibition and Booth at Bit Bash August 13, 2016) Attendance: 2500
  • Game Art VS Art Game Exhibition in partnership with Columbia College Chicago's Arcade Gallery and Columbia's Department of Exhibitions, Performance and Student Spaces (August 18 - October 28, 2016) Attendance: 4,000
  • HARDCORE CASUAL Benefit Party at the Indie City Co-op (September 12, 2016) Attendance: 150
  • VGA Booth Exhibit at ValorCon at Macy's (September 30,2016) Attendance: 1500
  • Dateline: Bronzeville Exhibit of work by Philip Mallory Jones at the Dorchester + Art Housing Collaborative in partnership with the Rebuild Foundation (September 30, 2016 - March 31, 2017) Attendance: 2500

Partners
Amy Schachman
Cards Against Humanity
Carolyn Kelly
Chicago Design Museum
Demecina Beehn
Department of Exhibitions, Performance and Student Spaces
Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts
James Pike
Jesse Seay
Jon Veal
Julianna Cuevas
Justin Witte
Ken Stewart
Kendall Karg
Kevin Reader
Kurt Chiang
Lisa Yun Lee
Mana Contemporary
Mark Porter
Max Temkin
Meg Duguid
Molly Feingold
Neysa Page-Lieberman
Rebuild Foundation
Ronda Payne
Sabrina Raaf
Sarah Herda
Stephanie Whitlock
Tanner Woodford
The Neofuturists
Theaster Gates
Trevor Dawkins
UIC Maker Space
ValorCon / Thomas Glen



VGA Staff (October 2015 - September 2016)
Tom Caprel, Manager of Communications
George Chen (Zhi Quiao), Store Manager
Amanda Coleman, Publications Intern
Chaz Evans, Director of Exhibitions and Programs
Tiffany Funk, Editor-in-Chief, VGA Reader
Jonathan Kinkley, Executive Director
Brice Puls, Manager of Exhibitions
Michael Reed, Managing Editor, VGA Reader
Heather Robbins Manager of Development
Kristine Strom, Manager of Finance


VGA Volunteers (October 2015 - September 2016)
Ohn Ho
Caleb Foss


VGA Board (October 2015 - September 2016)
Eric Mittereder
Jon Cates
Adam Wolek
R.J. Inawat
Antar Jackson
Zissou Tasseff-Elenkoff
Laurie Poindexter
Jamie Sanchez
Rob Lach
Chaz Evans
Jonathan Kinkley
Ryan Wiemeyer
Sabrina Raaf
Ross Hersemann
Jen Rhodes
Brian Schrank
Teresa Silva
Chris Tourre
Phil Regan
Mike Velazquez
Kris Mendez
Jon Krusell
Alia Walston
Kristy Conway
Julia Santullano
Brice Puls


VGA Reader Editorial Board
Brian Schrank
Victoria Szabo
Joyce Rudinsky
Angus Forbes
William Ford
Bill Patterson
Maureen Ryan
Whitney Pow
Ian Hartman
Stephan Moore
Jon Cates
James Conley
Meredith Espino
Kelli Wood
Nate Zoba
Reem Hilu


Artist Partners
Adriaan de Jongh
Amanita Design
Andy Hoyos
Arnie Jorgensen
Atomhawk
B. Börkur Eiríksson
Beau Blyth
Ben Crooks
Ben Esposito
Benji Blessing Sayed
Cardboard Computer
Catherine Fox
Christine Janokowicz
Cook & Becker
Craig D. Adams
Cukia Kimani
David van Brink
Feng Mengbo
Gabriele Brombin
Greg Wohlwend
Hannah Leja Epstein (hanski)
Hollow Tree Games
Hunter Jonakin
Infinitap Games
Irrational Games
Jaromír Plachý
Jesse Tise
Jessica Fenlon
JODI
Jon Satrom
Jonathan Blow
Joseph Chiocchi
Josh Larson
Luke Whittaker
Matt Gilgenbach
Michaël Samyn & Auriea Harvey (Tale of Tales)
Naughty Dog
Netherrealm
Nick Briz
Nina Freeman & Joni Kittaka
Numinous Games
Paloma Dawkins
Paul Hertz
Philip Mallory Jones
Pippin Barr
Pol Clarissou
Porpentine Charity Heartscape
Richard Anderson
Ryan & Amy Green (Numinous Games)
Ryan Green
Sara Goodman
State of Play Games
Stoic
Superbrothers
Sylvain Tegroeg
Team OK
thatgamecompany
Thekla Inc
William Chyr


Donors and Sponsors
Adam Wolek
Alan Villanueva
Anthony Volodkin
Benn Marion
Bradley Weston
Brendan Parent
Charles Evans
Charles Evans
Christina Perez
Conor Bopp
David Pickett
David Smith
Diane Sowell
Emma Boast
Eric Kingery
Eric Mittereder
Eric Olson
Eric Wieber
Heather Decker
Helen Harmon
Ian Beckman
Jen Rhodes
Jennifer Rhodes
Jeremie Michaels Lim
Jon Cates
Jon Chambers
Jonathan Andrews
Jonathan Kinkley
Jonathan Krusell
Jonathan Lalonde
Josef Schönbäck
Justin Kwak
Kristin Cass
Kristopher Mendez
Kristy Conway
Lisa Amoruso
Lise Evans
Matt Young
Matthew Baker
Michael Bretzlaff
Michael Crowley
Michael Kinkley
Mike Carpenter
Pavlo Netrebko
Peter Balciunas
Peter Cridland
Peter Jurmu
Rafael Fajardo
Rebecca Hallstedt
Richard Palys
Ronald Inawat
Ross Hersemann
Ryan Smith
Ryan Wiemeyer
Sabrina Raaf
Samuel Davis
Seth Cooper
Stephen Glenn
Steven Saczkowski
Teresa Silva
Theresa Schaul
Thomas Gaubatz
Todd Bapton
Tom Caprel
Tracy Yednock
Wojtek Batko
Zachary Bruin

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