Experience

in your backyard

An initiative of the Terra Foundation for American Art in partnership with artists and organizations across the city, Art Design Chicago is a series of events and exhibitions that highlight the city’s artistic heritage and creative communities.

NOW + NEXT

Akito Tsuda: Pilsen Days

June 3, 2024-April 29, 2025

Harold Washington Library

Radical Craft: Arts Education at Hull-House, 1889-1935

September 8, 2024-December 19, 2025

Jane Addams Hull-House Museum

Myth of the Organic City

September 22, 2024-June 1, 2025

6018North

Robert Earl Paige: Give the Drummer Some!

September 24, 2024-July 31, 2025

Smart Museum of Art

beLONGING:  Lithuanian Artists in Chicago 1900 to Now

September 28, 2024-September 2, 2025

Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture

Letters Beyond Form: Chicago Types

November 9, 2024-April 4, 2025

Design Museum of Chicago

Sunday Sustainable Soup

December 8, 2024-June 1, 2025

6018North

Making an Impression: Immigrant Printing in Chicago

December 12, 2024-March 29, 2025

Newberry Library

Woven Being: Art for Zhegagoynak/Chicagoland

January 26, 2025-July 13, 2025

Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University

Living Stories: Contemporary Woodland Native American Art

January 27, 2025-January 5, 2026

Gichigamiin Indigenous Nations Museum

A Tale of Today: Materialities

February 6, 2025-April 27, 2025

The Richard H. Driehaus Museum

Art and Botanics Workshop with Luftwerk

March 21, 2025

Chicago Cultural Center

Artist Panel: Letters Beyond Form

March 21, 2025

Design Museum of Chicago

Weaving Stories 3

March 22, 2025

Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture

Catalogue Release Party

April 3, 2025

Design Museum of Chicago

Still Here: Linking Histories of Displacement

April 4, 2025-June 30, 2025

National Public Housing Museum

Materialities Community Days

April 5, 2025

The Richard H. Driehaus Museum

CSO Chamber Music: A Tale of Today: Materialities

April 8, 2025

The Richard H. Driehaus Museum

Materialities Workshop

April 9, 2025

The Richard H. Driehaus Museum

In Conversation: Materialities Artists and Curator

April 23, 2025

The Richard H. Driehaus Museum

Prairie Colorfield

April 24, 2025-April 27, 2025

Navy Pier

Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-taught Art in Chicago

May 23, 2025-January 11, 2026

Intuit Art Museum

Floating Monuments: Mecca Flats

August 2, 2025-August 3, 2025

Floating Museum

STORIES

Learn about the people, places, and ideas that drive Chicago’s dynamic arts
ecosystem. Dive in and discover interviews, essays, news, videos, and more.

View of an art gallery with sculptures on pedestals.

Grounding, Advocating, and Experimenting with Craft: What I Learned From “Agency: Craft in Chicago from the 1970s–80s and Beyond”

The United Colors of Robert Earl Paige: A Reflection on Community, Glamour, and Style

A set of three images depicting typography on signs that say "All Rise Lounge," "Kajiken," and "Tacos, That Way."

Typographical Scavenger Hunt: Using “Letters Beyond Form: Chicago Types” as a Framework

Welcome to Zhegagoynak

A dense collage of brightly colored floral images on a black background.

Myth of the Organic City: Exploring the Naturalization of Technology as a Site for Environmental Critique

Gallery installation view of a colorful mural depicting a Black man holding a child, a car, two busses, and a variety of other objects.

Learning Together: Documenting Chicago’s History of Art Education

Rewilding History: A Review of “Myth of the Organic City”

Radical Craft: Firebird Community Arts and Red Line Service pick up the threads of Hull-House

Art Design Chicago amplifies Black and Indigenous histories with 2025 exhibitions

Visitors standing and interacting in front of stacks of full bookshelves.

When Clouds Roll Away: A Community Reflection on the Johnson Publishing Company Archives

A vintage photo of a group of coworkers sitting in front of a blackboard with a picture of a ship on it.

Toy Stories: The Amazing Journey of Dalia Verbickas Ancevicius

Adversarial Joy: Art, History, and Storytelling in “Paper Cuts”

Creative Conversations with Dawit L. Petros

Questions with a Curator featuring Lois Taylor Biggs

A gallery installation including large skeleton puppets and a wall-mounted video monitor.

Chicago’s History of Radical Art Pedagogy

Curator Amira Hegazy, wearing a long black dress and hair pulled back, stands in front of the opening exhibition text panel for "Letters Beyond Form."

WDCB Radio Tours “Letters Beyond Form” at the Design Museum of Chicago

A photograph of Mary Lawson interviewing Akito Tsuda. They sit at a big red table with photographs hung on a wall in the background.

Thank You for This Question

Four artists and two curators pose together in front of an gallery wall.

Stories found within art and spoken by Native artists in six contemporary exhibitions in Chicago

Questions with a Curator featuring Clemenstien Love

Visual Voices and Art as Resistance: Designing for Change at the Chicago History Museum