Here's something a little different for Connected. The Artistic Director of the Elgin Fringe, Nick Mataragas recently attended the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals (CAFF) conference in Ottawa, Canada. In this episode, he recounts his experience at the con, opening up the festival planning curtain a little.

Executive Director Tanner Melvin chats with Material Messengers guest curator Samuel Shwindt. Sam and Tanner discuss how the new exhibit came to be, the talented artists involved, and why extending your reach is so important. Check it out, and make sure to visit MATERIAL MESSENGERS: Ephemeral Environments, on display at the Side Street Gallery at 15 Ziegler Court AND in the windows of their "new" building at 62 S. Grove Ave. in downtown Elgin from August 2nd-September 1st.

Executive Director Erin Rehberg has a conversation with Going Dutch Artist in residence, Luiza Moreas. They discuss Luiza's journey from Brazil to Europe, to Elgin, her approach to dance, and the struggles of becoming a resident.

Alex has a chat with Side Street Studio Arts Exhibitions Coordinators, Chris Arrecis and Andrew Vo. They discuss the current show in the gallery, Monochrome: Purple, as well as the process of selecting producing an exhibition.

Alex has a conversation with Rachel Benzing. They discuss dance, trends in the performing arts, and her upcoming show at the Winter Fringe.You can see Rachel perform the Elgin Fringe Festival Winter Fringe on January 27, 2024 at the Elgin Public House. Tickets available at elginfringefestival.com/ticketsTo learn more about Rachel, visit her website at rachelbenzingartist.com

Alex has a conversation with improviser Nelson Velazquez of Los Improviachis. They discuss the founding of the group, the parallels between improv and traditional acting, and comedy in general.You can see Los Improviachis perform the Elgin Fringe Festival Winter Fringe on January 27, 2024 at the Elgin Public House. Tickets available at elginfringefestival.com/ticketsTo learn more about Los Improviachis, visit their website at losimproviachis.com

Alex has a conversation with Side Street Studio Arts artist in residence Nicole Prokop. They talk about Nicole's journey of becoming a working artist, imposter syndrome, and the pressure from family to find a "normal job".

Alex has a conversation with artist and illustrator Adrian Mesino. They talk about Adrian’s use of artificial-intelligence in his artwork, AI effect on the art world, and the relationship between art and technology.

Alex has a conversation with artist, Joshua Dixon about his April 2023 show at Side Street, Connective Tissue.Joshua Dixon is a Chicago-based photographer and fashion designer. Dixon's work is based on his personal experiences of a pitbull mauling incident that occurred in 2007, which has led to a lifelong journey of self-discovery and advocacy for issues that are often silenced, such as mental health, ableism, and racial discrimination. The powerful photographs create a sense of inclusion for those who feel discarded by society due to their unapologetic flaws.

Alex has a conversation with artist and art educator Branstarr Sihanath. They discuss Branstarr’s teaching philosophy, encouraging students, and what it's like being a working artist and a teacher.

Side Street Founder and Executive Director Erin Rehberg closes the 2023 Vote Local series with Elgin Mayor Dave Kaptain. Vote Local is Side Street's series about the arts in politics and attempts to speak to as many local candidates as possible about their participation in and views on the arts in Elgin.

Side Street Founder and Executive Director Erin Rehberg continues the 2023 Vote Local series with Elgin City Council Candidate Christina "Tia" Aagesen. Vote Local is Side Street's series about the arts in politics and attempts to speak to as many local candidates as possible about their participation in and views on the arts in Elgin.

Side Street Founder and Executive Director Erin Rehberg continues the 2023 Vote Local series with Elgin City Councilwoman Tish Powell, running for re-election. Vote Local is Side Street's series about the arts in politics and attempts to speak to as many local candidates as possible about their participation in and views on the arts in Elgin.

Side Street Founder and Executive Director Erin Rehberg continues the 2023 Vote Local series with Elgin City Council Candidate Marcus Banner. Vote Local is Side Street's series about the arts in politics and attempts to speak to as many local candidates as possible about their participation in and views on the arts in Elgin.

Side Street Founder and Executive Director Erin Rehberg continues the 2023 Vote Local series with Elgin City Council Candidate Karin Jones. Vote Local is Side Street's series about the arts in politics and attempts to speak to as many local candidates as possible about their participation in and views on the arts in Elgin.

Side Street Founder and Executive Director Erin Rehberg continues the 2023 Vote Local series with Elgin Mayoral Candidate and current City Councilman Corey Dixon. Vote Local is Side Street's series about the arts in politics and attempts to speak to as many local candidates as possible about their participation in and views on the arts in Elgin.

Side Street Founder and Executive Director Erin Rehberg continues the 2023 Vote Local series with Elgin City Council Candidate Diana Alfaro. Vote Local is Side Street's series about the arts in politics and attempts to speak to as many local candidates as possible about their participation in and views on the arts in Elgin.

Side Street Founder and Executive Director Erin Rehberg continues the 2023 Vote Local series with Elgin City Council Candidate Anthony Ortiz. Vote Local is Side Street's series about the arts in politics and attempts to speak to as many local candidates as possible about their participation in and views on the arts in Elgin.You can find Erin's previous conversation with Anthony Ortiz here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/vote-local-5-anthony-ortiz/id1547563482?i=1000510732945

Side Street Founder and Executive Director Erin Rehberg continues the 2023 Vote Local series with Elgin City Council Candidate Ismael Cordova. Vote Local is Side Street's series about the arts in politics and attempts to speak to as many local candidates as possible about their participation in and views on the arts in Elgin.

Side Street Founder and Executive Director Erin Rehberg continues the 2023 Vote Local series with Elgin City Councilman John Steffen, running for re-election. Vote Local is Side Street's series about the arts in politics and attempts to speak to as many local candidates as possible about their participation in and views on the arts in Elgin.

Side Street Founder and Executive Director Erin Rehberg kicks off the 2023 Vote Local series with Elgin City Councilwoman Rose Martinez, who is currently running for re-election. Vote Local is Side Street's series about the arts in politics and attempts to speak to as many local candidates as possible about their participation in and views on the arts in Elgin.

Alex has a conversation with Going Dutch artist, Sara Peak Convery. They discuss Sara's background, art practices, and take a deep look at her Going Dutch exhibition, "Uncovered: Would You Touch Me?".

Alex has a conversation with Going Dutch artist, Rita Grendze. They discuss Rita's influences, training, and media choices. They take an especially close look at her installation, "Belly".

Assistant Director, Ivette interviews one of our summer camp groups, Team Pikachu.

Assistant Director, Ivette interviews one of our summer camp groups, The Happy Cool Queens.

Assistant Director, Jess Rocha, speaks with Ken Simonsen about his art and collaboration.

Assistant Director Nick Mataragas has a conversation with Year 9 artist Kateryna Mazhuha. They discuss her Year 9 piece, Statice Flowers, her journey in discovering her own style of art, and the transition from living in the Ukraine to living in the United States.You can find Kateryna's work on her instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kateryna_mazhuha/

Assistant Director Nick Mataragas has a conversation with Year 9 artist Chimezi Anorue. They discuss Anorue's drawing style, his inspirations, and specific pieces of art. His piece, Rainbow Man was a Runner Up at Side Street Studio Arts' Year 9 exhibition. His Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paschalmezie/Rainbow Man: https://www.instagram.com/p/B6p0i2Igmsz/Serenity: https://www.instagram.com/p/CGGGUmQA0Ii/Become: https://www.instagram.com/p/B8FNhjLAekf/Slay Mama: https://www.instagram.com/p/B65L_yAg6SC/

Assistant Director, Ivette talks to Stephanie Sailer about her piece in Year 9, Persistence of Living. Stephanie won best in show and she talks about her process and how she came up with the idea of creating these multi-media sculptures.

Assistant Director, Jess, speaks with Danielle Piloto about her artistic practice: touching on topics such as her inspiration, growing a community, daily practice, subject matter, and more. You can connect and learn more here: https://linktr.ee/DaniellePiloto

Side Street Studio Arts Founder and Executive Director Erin Rehberg talks with Elgin artist, community leader, and Side Street's new President Freddrick D. Wimms. From the Nightmare on Chicago Street origin story to his thoughts on curating the "Black Spectrum" exhibition in the Side Street Gallery this month, the two focus on the community of art and the "if we build it, it will be built" philosophy.

SSSA Founders and Executive Directors Tanner Melvin and Erin Rehberg reflect on 2021 and look forward to 2022 at Side Street.

Assistant Director, Nick Mataragas has a conversation with Illustrator Amanda Scharf. They discuss her technique, the con community, and developing a story around your art.http://www.amandascharf.com/https://linktr.ee/amandascharfhttps://www.instagram.com/aya_feesh/https://twitter.com/amandascharf?lang=en

Assistant Director, Nick has a conversation with artist, Cryomera. They discuss selling art at comic cons, pen and ink drawing, relief printing, and Twitch.You can check out Cryomera’s work at:https://cryomera.com/https://www.artstation.com/cryomerahttps://www.twitch.tv/cryomerahttps://www.etsy.com/shop/cryomera

Side Street Founder and Executive Director Erin Rehberg talks with artist Rachel Elizabeth Maley, who curated Side Street's upcoming exhibition Self-Ish, an exploration of how and why we construct self-identities. The two discuss the motivations and themes of the show and complexities of self-representation in art and our daily lives. Self-Ish opens in the Gallery at Side Street on Friday, December 3 at 6pm and features work by Kathryn Eli, Bill Ellis!!, Brian Garbrecht, Atoi Glennette, Katherine Grace Maley, R.E. Maley, Han Nicole Martin, Mitzi Melaine, T. Sit, and Jamie Tubbs, and a live performance from Jordan Reinwald.

Side Street Founder & Executive Director Tanner Melvin chats with Side Street Music Coordinator, musician, and promoter, Peter Brankovic. We discuss music philosophy, religion, inspiration, and so much more. Peter brings their new band BOUND to Side Street on Saturday, November 20th with special guests Motion Failure, Ethereal Lotus, & What To Do. #supportlocalmusic

Side Street Founder & Executive Director Erin Rehberg talks with Alisa Duda, Dave Metzger, and Mike Rende of Elgin's Oddball Art Labs, a non-profit artist based organization created to advance the presence of the arts in the Fox Valley and beyond. The group is bringing "A Cabinet of Curious Characters" to the Gallery and Theater at Side Street November 19-28.

SSSA Founder and Executive Director Tanner Melvin chats with thespian, D&D master, and manager of Blue Box Cafe, Nathan Chesterfield. Our discussion ranges from falling in love with theater, life during Covid, celebrating the lives of Chris and Kathleen Mau, and The future of blue box café.

SSSA Founder and Executive Director Erin Rehberg talks with creative Lindsay Johnson, whose work is current featured in the Gallery at Side Street in Deep Waters, Johnson's first-ever solo exhibition. Artist mother and educator, Lindsay Johnson constructed narrative works on panels with acrylic, photographs, or found material to reconstruct moments in time, ideas, and dreams during the Covid-19 pandemic. The blue used throughout many of these works are made from disposable surgical masks, placed as sky, to emphasize the invisible yet inescapable force that both pulled us apart and under, and propelled us forward and together.

Nick has a conversation with Michael Bradt, the owner of the soon to open Bit Theater. They discuss the challenges related to opening a brand new theater, and their history together as improvisers. Michael shares the vision for his theater and training center.To learn more about the Bit Theater, you can visit https://bitimprov.com/

Four members of Elgin's newly emerging Social Justice Collective, Councilman Corey Dixon, Amanda Harris, Dr. Rise' Jones, and Paige Roeber join SSSA Founder and Executive Director Erin Rehberg to discuss the obstacles and inspirations that are emerging from their Making Space project, which was developed in response to Elgin's Black Lives Matter protests during the summer of 2020. The project consists of four parts: a mural, a documentary, a Juneteenth partnership, and a scholarship. Making Space FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/ElginMakingSpace.

SSSA Assistant Director, Ivette De Santiago, sits down with Florida based artist Kelsey Wilkerson to discuss her art practice and her journey of self re-discovery during the pandemic. Kelsey discusses how she went from working in a busy Manhattan office to taking the office with her through out several cities in Florida, including onto a boat. She has discovered a love for wilderness photography that she manages to do while on a kayak. She is also exploring with watercolor painting, and loves to make digital paintings of Sheera the cat. Kelsey graduated from the University of Florida with a BFA and now works as a Senior Creative Designer at Innovid. She is also taking a class to become an unofficial wilderness explorer, or a wilderness tour guide. instagram @kelseywilkerson.art

SSSA Founder and Executive Director Tanner Melvin talks with Chicago-based and L.A. born artist Jocelyn Ingram. Jocelyn is our newest recruit as the talent sourcer for Side Street TV, AND she's the brainchild behind the stop-motion animation studio, Plastic Buddies.

Side Street Founder and Executive Director and Going Dutch Festival Artistic Director Erin Rehberg talks with Chicago-based dance artist Sophie Allen, who is one of two 2021 Going Dutch Festival Artists-in-Residence. The festival, a celebration of the female voice in the arts, will be held in and around downtown Elgin in June, and Allen will be performing, leading a workshop, and involved in the community for the duration. Sophie pushes gender, playfulness and absurdity to the forefront of her work and continues to hone her sense of musicality and humor to connect with deeper subtexts. She is fascinated by acts of subversion, confrontation, confession and concealment in performance—specifically for the purpose of reimagining personal and collective histories. She enjoys the magnetism of interdisciplinary collaboration and loves nothing more than when a dance doesn’t make sense until it does. Sophie is excited to be performing for real people again. Her living room and her computer screen were growing tired of her… and vice versa.And, Jordan Reinwald, GD Artist-in-Residence. Jordan Reinwald (she/her), is a dancer, aerialist, and choreographer currently based in Chicago. She has performed professionally, nationally, and internationally with Winifred Haun and Dancers, Khecari, Cerqua Rivera Dance Theater, The Catskills Ballet Theatre, The Civic Ballet at the Ruth Page Center for the Performing Arts, Aerial Dance Chicago, C5 Create With No Limits, and as a promotional performer for Theater Mama with Cirque Du Soleil, among others. She was recently a featured aerialist with Q Productions Las Vegas, and is an active member of The Drifter’s Collective, a multi-disciplinary contemporary circus troupe. She currently creates work with Michel Rodriguez Cintra under the name Once. The pair’s work has been featured at Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival, Columbia College Chicago, LatinX Arts Festival, and at Northwestern University. Reinwald is the Director of Document Cuba, a collaborative choreographic research project which aims to provide choreographic inquiry opportunities for Reinwald, Rodriguez Cintra, and Osnel Delgado Wambrug, Founder and Artistic Director of Malpaso Cuban Dance Company. Reinwald has taught ballet, creative movement, Acro, and composition for River North Chicago Dance, Chicago Public Schools, The Jillana School, and The Actor’s Gymnasium, among others. Reinwald is a 2019 graduate of the Actor’s Gymnasium Professional Training Circus Program with specialties in Clown, Rope and Harness, and additional focuses in Silks and Bottle Walking.

SSSA Founder and Executive Director Erin Rehberg talks to her musical family with roots in the Elgin area music scene. Melva Rehberg Schultz Swigart and Bob Swigart talk about growing up with music, the scene and artists from "back in the day", and how they are still evolving their artistic practices today in Arizona. They take us from The Village Squire in West Dundee to Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and beyond. They may even close with a tune!

SSSA Founder and Executive Director Erin Rehberg talks with Chicago-based artist Raúl Ortiz who will be featured in the Gallery at Side Street Studio Arts during the month of May. The two discuss his identification as a "late bloomer" in the art world, his range of influences from his mother to black and white movies, and what the audience can expect to see in PATTERNS, opening Friday, May 7 at 6pm.

Today on CONNECTED our guest is Omnia Sol, an artist currently living/working/playing in Chicago. We get down and dirty talking glitch art, smudging, VHS collections, The Fast and The Furious, and of course, Harvey Pekar. Find out more at www.omniasol.art. But for now, sit back, relax, and enjoy the dulcet tones of Tanner Melvin and Omnia Sol.

Nick has a conversation with actor, writer, vlogger, and YouTube personality, Vickie Eisenstein. They talk about her journey from Chicago to Korea to Chicago to LA, her training at The Second City, and Who’s On First.You can learn more about Vickie on her Facebook Page, https://www.facebook.com/VickieComedyPage and see her videos at https://www.youtube.com/vickiecomedy