break :: the :: box

challenge assumptions
defy convention
reject the norm

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February 18, 2010

Anthony Alofsin :: Frank Lloyd Wright: A Golden Anniversary?

March 11, 2010

Warren Trezevant :: Creativity and Innovation at Pixar

April 22, 2010

Third Coast Percussion :: The Architecture of Music

June 3, 2010

S.L. Natof :: Reading Wright: Furniture as Compositional Object

July 16, 2010

City Garden :: Garden in a City

September 10, 2010

Peter Sagal :: Smuggling Monkeys

October 7, 2010

David Patterson :: The Five Influences: Music and Mr. Wright

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Anthony Alofsin :: Frank Lloyd Wright: A Golden Anniversary?
Thursday, February 18, 7:30 pm
Cost :: $15 / $20

One of the world's leading experts on Wright, Dr. Alofsin will look critically at the architect's reputation since his death in 1959, and will offer an overview of the fate of Wright's persona from neglect to international stardom and sensational celebrity. How golden is the golden anniversary of Wright's death? Is Wright now a victim of his own success? What does the future hold for the posterity of his ideas, work and legacy?

Award-winning architect, author, exhibition curator, and teacher, Dr. Alofsin is the Roland Roessner Centennial Professor of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. In 2006, he received the 2006 "Wright Spirit Award," the highest award given by the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy.

Alofsin's Frank Lloyd Wright: The Lost Years, 1910-1922, was a winner in the monograph category in the American Institute of Architects Book Awards program. His book When Buildings Speak: Architecture as Language in the Habsburg Empire and its Aftermath, 1867-1933, won the Vasari Award from the Dallas Museum of Art in 2007.

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Warren Trezevant :: Creativity and Innovation at Pixar
Thursday, March 11, 2010 :: 7:30 pm
Cost :: $5 / $15 / $20

An animator at Pixar Animation Studios since 1995, Warren Trezevant has animated seven Pixar films including A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars and Ratatouille. Warren has been part of Pixar's journey from being the first company to create an entirely computer-generated animated film to its metamorphosis into the Academy Award-winning creative powerhouse it is today. He will share personal experiences and address the myriad ways Pixar nurtures and supports creativity and innovation in feature filmmaking and beyond.

Co-sponsored by Flashpoint, The Academy of Media Arts and Sciences.

Special discounted admission of $5 for Oak Park River Forest High School students.

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Third Coast Percussion :: The Architecture of Music
Thursday, April 22, 2010 :: 7:00 pm
Cost :: $5 / $15 / $20

What is the relationship between architecture and music? Third Coast Percussion -- praised as "sonically spectacular" by the Chicago Tribune -- will explore connections between the two art forms in the acoustically perfect space of Unity Temple. By stretching the boundaries of architecture and music, and drawing parallels that are both obvious and abstract, this performance will produce a deeper understanding and appreciation of both.

Praised by Time Out Chicago for "chops, polish, and youthful joy in performing," Third Coast Percussion uses an impressive array of percussion instruments to create a performance experience like no other. With exceptional talent and dedicated artistry, the quartet combines the driving intensity of drums, the beautiful warmth of marimbas and vibraphones, and the surprisingly exotic sounds of everyday objects to make music that is playful, memorable and profound. Learn more about Third Coast Percussion here.

Special discounted admission of $5 for Oak Park River Forest High School music students.

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S.L. Natof :: Reading Wright: Furniture as Compositional Object
Thursday, June 3, 2010 :: 7:30 pm
At the workshop of S.L. Natof, 1217 W. Monroe, Chicago
Cost :: $15 / $20

Frank Lloyd Wright's furniture is typically understood within the context of the buildings it was designed for, or as a series of stand-alone collectable objects. However, his furniture exhibits design principles that are relevant to contemporary viewers and that can be seen in his buildings. Contemporary furniture designer and maker S.L. Natof -- a great-grandson of Frank Lloyd Wright -- will present a collection of observations and commentary on Wright's furniture along with a tour of his furniture making workshop. Lloyd is uniquely equipped to offer such information: as Wright's great-grandson, he has been living with and thinking about Wright's furniture all of his life. To see photos and learn more about S.L. Natof's furniture, click here.

This is an off-site event in an artist's workshop. Space is limited.

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City Garden :: Garden in a City
Friday, July 16, 2010 :: 2:00 pm
Cost :: $15 / $20

Break::the::Box is all about innovation, and City Farm is just that. Some of Chicago's finest restaurants get their produce from this oasis-like, sustainable vegetable farm bordering the remains of Cabrini-Green. What was once a bleak vacant lot has been transformed into a rich, fertile landscape, using innovative "reduce/re-use/recylce techniques." Our exclusive tour will take place at the height of the growing season -- you will be able to take home some delicious, fresh summer vegetables of your own.

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Peter Sagal :: Smuggling Monkeys
Friday, September 10, 2010 :: 7:30 pm
Cost :: $15 / $20

Peter Sagal, Oak Parker and host of NPR's "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me," explains why his weekly hour in which grown up people make adolescent jokes about smugglers with monkeys in their pants is actually the most important, influential news show on air today.

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David Patterson :: The Five Influences: Music and Mr. Wright's Architecture
Thursday, October 7, 2010 :: 8:00 pm
Cost :: $5

What aspects of music composition inspired Wright to appreciate a symphony as an edifice of sound or hail Beethoven as a great architect? How did this affect his work? With Beethoven's Fifth Symphony as a map, musicologist David Patterson decodes music's influence on Wright's approach to architecture. Co-sponsored by Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust.

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break :: the :: box is made possible by generous grants from the MacArthur Funds for Arts and Culture at The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and the Illinois Arts Council, an Agency of the State of Illinois.