The Courtroom Artist Residency Report: Residencies #9-12 by Marc Fischer & Contributors

The third collection of reports from Public Collectors' meal-based artist residency that brings artists to observe Criminal Court in Chicago, followed by a meal and discussion. For this residency program, artists and creative workers are invited to observe approximately three hours of court proceedings with Marc Fischer of Public Collectors at Cook County Criminal Court on 2600 S. California in Chicago.Featured in this booklet are discussions with Dana Sperry, Bea Malsky, Eric Von Haynes and Melinda Fries. During these four residencies we observed well over a hundred defendants who saw numerous judges for all manner of issues, including one situation where a lawyer wanted to be found in contempt so that he could be given a new judge for his trial. We observed a skunk try to cross from the jail to the court by way of the parking lot, and we watched over two hours of juror questioning in a gun case—learning the hobbies of nearly three dozen Chicago citizens as well as the various crimes