Michael Workman

In the second of a two-part assessment of the Bridgeport neighborhood during the Select Media Festival, this week we interview Jesse Batesole of the Texas Ballroom and Gallery. Located on Archer at the northernmost stretch of the neighborhood, Texas Ballroom is in a rundown three-story building that has long served as artist commune/public-gathering space for DJ parties, film screenings and art shows. Though lately skewing towards music events, the building has long been recognized as an art outpost on the city's South Side.

What's the current state of the residence at Texas?

Jesse Batesole: There are seven people right now, I don't even know all their last names: Heather's a performance artist, Sirus is a filmmaker, Duke is a DJ, David is a photographer and Kate Fadden and I are artists--and Jessi's a musician. Pretty much everyone uses the space to show their work or perform. Kate and Heather uses the space as a studio too; the DJs and musicians all perform here; Sirus has filmed some of our events and used the space for setting up other shoots.

How did Texas Ballroom get started?

JB: As far as I know, Texas was started over three years ago. This girl Kac Solven moved here and started a live/work space so she could interact with other artists. She and two other people built rooms in it and ended up incorporating other people into the space so it is like it is now with seven other people living in it. She's moved to Portland now. It's a transient space--we've had Camp Gay here, Buddy--a transient space where there's no lease involved. It's a creative environment because people come and go and change what it's about. It originally started as more art shows, gallery shows and we had events in the past where we had artists from other towns: Montreal, Detroit and over the last year and a half, it's developed into an all-ages venue where we have a glorified version of basement shows. I know that for the art shows they always incorporated one or two music acts. Kids on tour would stop by, and so bands have been contacting Texas about shows, we've had some really good ones: the Lighting Bolts have played, Marah, and we support a lot of hometown groups--we just had a show with Mannequin Men, White Hot Nights, Russian Circle. Next week as part of the Select Media Festival we're hosting two nights of film screenings. We haven't really done too many films--last spring we did an event called Astropunk and there was this filmmaker from New York and they did one of their first screenings at our place followed by a show by a punk-rock band. Bands mainly contact us through our email (texasballroom@yahoo.com) because they heard about us through friends who played here.

You coordinate with your downstairs neighbors, a space similar to yours called Hey Cadets!, to produce some of your events?

JB: Something that's really important is that our space works closely with the first floor. It's kind of a family affair and we're all very like-minded and we all help out with each other's stuff as we can. It's a constantly evolving space that we've just actually started including on the second floor of the building. There's four people living there and their space is called Midrange and they always open their doors to us, to host DJ parties and jam sessions. It's a very unified building right now, moreso than it ever has been.

I hear the city has given you hassle about hosting events here because you don't have a Public Place of Amusement license.

JB: We're artists who are trying to support other artists and we have this kind of family thing going. It's important to keep a positive environment but the bad thing is that lately we've been running into some problems with the city because we are just a residence. I actually had to go to court for operating without a PPA license. We started to back away from it because we didn't want to get our landlord in trouble--it's a fine line right now, we're trying to be very cautious about planning things, it basically has to be word-of-mouth otherwise we've got a risk of getting busted. The city likes to say we have raves--it's what they lump everything into. The public needs to be there with the city and alderman, having art shows and musical performances, we're moving artists and people with good intentions into the neighborhood and I want to see a lot more of that. It has been growing; there are other spaces moving in--a place called the Junk Shop and a place called the Building of the Future, these artist-run spaces and collectives, and the Select Festival is based entirely on how Bridgeport is like Wicker Park was twenty years ago.

Underground Multiplex shows at Texas Ballroom and Gallery, 3012 South Archer, (773)852-9932, November 5 and 6, 4-5pm. More information on other Select Media Festival events is available online at www.selectmediafestival.org.

(2005-11-01)

Also by Michael Workman

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