Started in 2024 with support from the Cook County Small Business Bureau’s Source Fund, TIN CAN offers dancemakers at all career stages a low-stakes on ramp for presenting new ideas. Three artists are selected for each showing, where they present 15 minutes of work at any stage of its development. After the showing, artists receive active, participatory and supportive feedback from the community through a facilitated conversation led in the style of Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process. This process is a supportive conversational structure with four core steps; combining the power of questions with the focus and challenge of informed dialogue. These conversations offer dancemakers an active role in the critique of their own work, and offers audiences new touchpoints for experiencing art.

This series was named after our historic facade, installed by Polish artist Miroslav Chudy in the 90’s. It’s a mottled wave of metal, simultaneously akin to both a theater curtain and a crumpled up can. Chudy’s installation was inspired by “Bim Bom”, a student theater group in Gdansk. The monument stands today as a glittering spectacle, a curiosity on Belmont Avenue. The lineage of this space, and of art in general can be summed up by the old adage, “kicking the can down the road”. This image of kids kicking the can around - seemingly wasting time, but nonetheless progressing toward that indescribable “something”. This is a game that artists know very well - play as a fundamental element of progress.

For the performance community at large, we exist in a space where resources are disappearing. Competition among artists can feel fierce and discouraging. TIN CAN combats these feelings of horizontal jealousy toward fellow makers by creating a communal support system.
We know that the best performances are made together - not alone.