Artist-run spaces are an integral part of a vibrant art community. From microcinemas to warehouse spaces to apartment galleries, no healthy art ecosystem can exist without some forms of independent and DIY organizations. With this thought in mind, we are pleased to present the VDB TV program, This Must Be the Space: A Video Conversation on Artist-Run and Artist-Inhabited Spaces, programmed by Emily Eddy, the director of Chicago’s Nightingale Cinema which recently closed their physical space of 14 years.

Emily has also written a delightful and insightful accompanying essay that chronicles some of the Nightingale’s history and ties it into several ideas explored in the works featured in the program by Videofreex, Nazli Dinçel, Glenn Belverio, George Kuchar, Anne McGuire, and Tom Rubnitz. The works range in dates from 1971-2016, consist of disparate styles, and focus on a variety of scenes, but they all illustrate aspects of why the experimentation of the artist-run space is vital in our communities.