Why Art on Tap?

British contemporary artist Paul Martin (1948–2022) described art as  “a lonely occupation… a conversation within your own head and with the work in progress, and all else a distraction.”

In the years since the pandemic, many remote workers have found themselves in a similar state—spending long days in their own rooms, their own heads, their own screens, with colleagues reduced to pings and shifting images on a laptop.

Against the backdrop of Chicago’s iconic tavern culture, Art on Tap explores how neighborhood bars serve as the unofficial "third spaces" for artists where solitary creativity meets community connection. The same dynamic should resonate with anyone working from home in a world of spreadsheets, emails, Slack, and Zoom.

Project Overview

Across Chicago, neighborhood bars and taverns are more than places to drink; they are informal studios, offices, and salons where creative work quietly happens. Many artists earn a living behind the bar or gravitate there for a sense of community. Painters sketch between shifts, writers work from bar stools with laptops open, and photographers document the life unfolding around them. These spaces provide both income and inspiration, allowing artists to balance work and creativity in the same room.

Synopsis

Art on Tap explores how local bars and taverns function as spaces for making, showing, and sharing art. The short film—15+ minutes or so—profiles four to five artists who use these establishments as extensions of their studios and as hubs for connection. Chicago’s bar culture and creative community overlap in subtle but powerful ways, revealing how everyday spaces quietly sustain artistic lives.

Approach

Art on Tap will blend interviews, on-location footage, and brief observational scenes of artists at work in their chosen bars. These interiors—rich with stories, regulars, and history—will be filmed as both workplaces and creative environments, showing how art takes shape in the middle of everyday life. The aesthetic will move between the intimacy of solitary concentration and the hum of a crowded room, echoing the tension between isolation and connection at the heart of contemporary creative work. Non-artist viewers will relate to their own experiences with remote work and what they do to recharge, refresh, and reconnect.  

Our team is currently reaching out to artists and bar operators to identify potential subjects.