Backspace Collective, 2010–2012
Co-founded by Shannon Benine, Jeremiah Chiu, Elizabeth Kauffman, John Mosher, Acacia Warwick and Todd Williams
wearebackspace.wordpress.com
Backspace is:
• deleting, rethinking, changing your mind, looking at things a different way, editing
• the freedom to fail, to try again, to fail again until you succeed
• a way to make thoughts ephemeral, transitional, adaptable
• the ability to revise ideas, change minds, and re-evaluate why we are here
• moving backward while looking forward
• a space to re-work, re-invent, and re-invigorate
• like the eraser on a pencil
• emptiness
• impermanence
• a thinkers’ and artists’ collective
• a space for contemporary art and ideas
Backspace is a center for new ideas in a radically changing world. We provide an outlet for creative expression that is integral to a healthy society, and promote civic engagement locally and globally. We are dedicated to fostering innovative, risk-taking contemporary art and cultural scholarship through exhibitions, lectures, and other events and programming. Our space is a forum for exhibiting, discussing, and interpreting works ranging from traditional plastic arts to performance and new media. We are committed to expanding the cultural vocabulary within central Illinois while actively engaging in the myriad discourses within contemporary art.