Chicago MemoryScape: A Moving Art Installation

• • 3ARTS MATCH
  • 98% contributed
  • 2% to go

Chicago MemoryScape is a public art and dance installation that creates a moving memory map throughout the city of Chicago. Lucy Vurusic Riner turns Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods into stages for spontaneous, crowdsourced dance performances, using public art as a backdrop to spark connection with dance and community members. Together they experience, participate and create their own MemoryScape.

About This Project

Have you ever visited a neighborhood, or smelled something that takes you directly back to a moment in time that you can viscerally feel? For this project, I want to investigate the connections that our bodies have to those memories and translate them into movement. I want my audiences to be transported by my memories to different moments in their own lives.

As a native Chicagoan rooted in a deep personal history with the city, the city's many neighborhoods are filled with rich memories that have shaped my five decades. In this travelling storytelling work, I use public art as a backdrop to create spontaneous and crowdsourced dance performances to build new memories. I want to challenge myself to delve deeper into telling my own stories as they relate to growing up in Chicago; and to document my memories through dance, as a memory-scape of my growing up in this unique urban environment. 

This process will take me and six dancers to various murals in Chicago neighborhoods, We will create short dance vignettes inspired by the public art. After creating each storyscape, audience members can choose to become participants in each location by learning simple movement phrases to connect us. 

MemoryScape would begin its programming in August and run through late September while the weather and daylight still permits. By supporting this project you will help us ensure that artists will be compensated for their time in rehearsal and performance. Funding will also go towards rehearsal space for the creation process. Lastly, your support will also ensure that all necessary public safety measures are met. Bringing free public art to our Chicago communities provides accessible opportunities for people to not only learn more about the artists that are creating murals in their neighborhoods but also be exposed to dance in non traditional settings. I believe that now, more than ever, we need to connect our communities to showcase the beauty of our city and the amazing tapestry of people that bring art, culture, and beauty to Chicago.

Thank yous

Contribute any amount or choose from the levels below.

• $25
  Social media shout-out ($22.00 is tax deductible.)
• $50
  Thank you card with exclusive updates about "MemoryScape" ($45.00 is tax deductible.)
• $100
  Photograph of one of the "MemoryScape" mural locations ($80.00 is tax deductible.)
• $250
  Video recording of one "MemoryScape" performance ($225.00 is tax deductible.)
• $500
  A meal with Lucy to discuss the inner-workings of "MemoryScape" ($450.00 is tax deductible.)

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Lucy Vurusic Riner

Make a Wave Awardee

Lucy (she/her) is a native Chicagoan who has been dancing, choreographing, and teaching in the Midwest for 28 years. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Dance Education and Performance from Illinois State University. Lucy completed her Master’s Degree in Education …

View Lucy Vurusic Riner's profile

• 3 updates
• 52 supporters

• Update 1: We have made it to the first goal!!!

  Posted on May 13, 2025

   

  Friends! Family! Supporters of the Arts! 

  Thank you so much for getting us this far!  We have made it to the first goal!  After raising $2000 on our own we were able to get our 3Arts match! I'm so grateful to the many of you that came through and helped us get this far! I look forward to bringing this project to life.  I'm working with some beautiful Chicago artists to make this happen. 

  Thank you all for supporting me and this vision! I look forward to reaching the finish line and sharing this work with you!

  Lucy Vurusic Riner

  Update 2: We are so close!!!

  Posted on May 28, 2025

   

  Hi Chicago MemoryScape Supporters!!!

  Thank you so much for all the support!  I'm so excited to get this project off the ground this summer! Shout outs have been going out to all of you and I will make sure that rewards go out sooner rather than later! If you know anyone that might be interested in my project please share the link with them!  And I look forward to sharing the work with you once we are dancing in the streets!

  Lucy

  Update 3: We are so close!

  Posted on June 09, 2025

   

  Just letting you know that the excitement is building and I'm so grateful to have this opportunity to share my work with you all!  We are so close! If you have a friend, family member or dance lover that you think might enjoy this project please tell them that there is still time to help Chicago MemoryScape get the funding it needs to begin production this summer!

  With love, 

  Lucy

• Thank you to the following for contributing to 3Arts with the recommendation that we support this project.

  • Angela Simmons

  • Jillian Estanich

  • Martha Mulligan

  • Ellyzabeth Adler

  • Cheryl Cornacchione

  • Tami Riner

  • Sean Koogan

  • Sarah Ratcliffe

  • Chris Ternes

  • Katie Calandra Kritek

  • Jessica Kondrath

  • anne kasdorf

  • cristal sabbagh

  • Johannah Wininsky

  • Helen Sunkle

  • Lauren Bisio

  • Stephen Blood

  • Jill Liebhaber

  • Jena Ertel

  • Daiva Bhandari

  • Kimberly Ricaurte

  • Julie Chavez

  • Linda Carlson

  • kt williams

  • Carolina Sternberg

  • Anonymous Supporter

  • Aimee Bass

  • Jen Grisham-Dobbs

  • Amy Branahl

  • Elaine Cowen

  • Elizabeth Durkin

  • Molly Schoen

  • Anonymous Supporter

  • Sydneu Rusie

  • Nathan Oshana

  • Anonymous Supporter

  • Barry Irving

  • Marjorie Riner

  • Tuli Bera

  • Laura Duffy

  • Natalie Wade

  • Rika Lin

  • Jessica Kerwin

  • Aspen Toman

  • Jillian Estanich

  • Nikki Gambacorta

  • Sara King

  • Annette Stenner

  • Nora Petroliunas

  • Emilia Merchen

  • Jonella Williamson

  • Jeff Hancock

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