A Brief History of The Center For International Performance and Exhibition

The Center for International Performance and Exhibition was founded in 1987. At that time, a diverse group of cultural workers and community activists saw a need for providing an ongoing, organic link between the often-divided realms of artistic expression and social action. To further its evolving mission, it was formally incorporated in 1987 and received IRS 501 c3 status in October of 1989.

HotHouse was founded in 1987 as a for profit center for a broad range of multi-arts and community-based activities, including those organized by The Center for International Performance and Exhibition (CIPEX). In 1995, after six extremely successful years of operation, the board of directors of CIPEX spent a year evaluating the organization and articulating the future of the organization. It was decided: to formally become a wholly non-profit organization and change the name to The Center For International Performance and Exhibition d.b.a. HotHouse; to relocate our facility, and to expand the amount and kinds of programming services we offer. In 1995 HotHouse moved out of its popular site in Wicker Park and spent two years as an itinerant presenter.

In 1996, The John D. and Catherine T. Mac Arthur Foundation awarded CIPEX/HotHouse with a special initiative grant for the purposes of re-establishing HotHouse in a new and permanent location. After a prolonged search, the board acquired its new facility in the heart of downtown in a space double the size of our former site. Through 1997 and 1998 the board of directors raised an additional $230,000 from grassroots contributions, loans and other foundation grants, which allowed for the renovation of the new site. HotHouse reopened at 31 E. Balbo on May 7, 1998.

Since reopening downtown, the audience for HotHouse's programs and demand for our facility has grown exponentially. In year 2004 our budget will be more than twenty times what it was when we started our project in 1987 with revenues growing at least 10% annually. The staff, board and volunteer committees have also grown proportionately and in 2004, HotHouse will count 31 paid staff, 18 board members, and over 40 volunteers amongst its most core constituency.

In 2005, HotHouse will celebrate eighteen years of presenting a phenomenal range of adventurous and provocative cultural programs. HotHouse has earned an international reputation for building an audience for essentially non-commercial and more esoteric art work, producing innovative festivals, introducing Chicagoans to artists from around the world, and providing many communities across the city with access to a first rate facility for their own activities. In almost two decades of operation HotHouse has hosted over 6,000 cultural events including: concerts, forums, poetry readings, film screenings, art exhibitions, debates, book signings, theater works, workshops, master classes, and community gatherings.

HotHouse has also been eminently successful in working with artists and organizations from every community in the city, collaborating with many prestigious institutions such as The Jazz Institute of Chicago, The Goethe Institute, The French Cultural Services Agency, The Du Sable Museum of African American History, The Field Museum, The Museum of Contemporary Art, The Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, The Guild Complex, The Old Town School of Folk Music, The University Of Chicago, Columbia College, The Public Square, The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), and the Chicago Cultural Center, to name a few.

In addition to our roster of daily arts presentations, HotHouse initiated several noteworthy festivals; The FMP Festival in 1995 which brought eleven European avant-garde composers to Chicago to collaborate with Chicago based artists, The Women of The New Jazz Festivals (1991,1994, 2000) which highlights the contributions of women composers and instrumentalists, The World Music Festival (1999-2003), which brings over 90 internationally renown artists to Chicago in a ten day festival located in venues throughout the city, The Chicago/South Africa Initiative (2000), which brought eight jazz musicians to Chicago from South Africa to perform with locally based jazz musicians, and Viva Flamenco 2002 (a fifteen day multi-media festival showcasing Spanish and Gypsy music and dance featuring artists invited from Spain).

Last year, HotHouse welcomed over 53,000 people to 524 public programs and hosted over 107 programs that were planned by outside organizations. With ever-increasing attendance and demand for our organizations' resources growing on a daily basis, HotHouse is one of the city's most treasured cultural organizations.