[Chicago, IL – September 25, 2024] – Art Design Chicago, a key initiative of The Terra Foundation for American Art, is proud to announce its most ambitious fall season to date. This September through November, Art Design Chicago partners will host more than twenty extraordinary exhibitions and dozens of programs that celebrate Chicago’s diverse artistic communities and inspire dialogue around contemporary challenges.
Art Design Chicago is a proliferation of art exhibitions and programs featuring local Black, brown, Asian and Native artists of the past and present that is at the forefront of this season’s must-do list; giving Chicago-area residents and visitors new reasons to explore Chicago neighborhoods through art and design.
There are numerous Art Design Chicago exhibitions and programs open now and throughout the fall. Here are 10 Art Design Chicago events to explore across the city as autumn approaches.
1. PILSEN
Pilsen Day Art & Experiences
Chicago Humanities (various locations in Pilsen)
Occurring on September 29, 2024, from 11am-7pm.
Alberto Aguilar, Chicago Humanities’ first Artist-in-Residence, has curated a full day of programs in his home neighborhood of Pilsen that will give audiences a chance to encounter art in new and exciting ways and inspire viewers to make their own active connections. Elements include talks, performances, film screenings, and exhibitions.
2. SOUTH LOOP
What is Seen and Unseen: Mapping South Asian American Art in Chicago
South Asia Institute, 1925 S. Michigan Ave.
Open through October 26, 2024
Through an archival exhibition and installation of contemporary art, this multifaceted project documents the history of South Asian art and artists in Chicago and their important contributions to the cultural life of the city. The narrative begins with documentation from the Indian Pavilion at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and continues through the past 25 years documenting South Asian American artists’ participation in exhibitions and programs throughout the city.
3. HYDE PARK
The United Colors of Robert Earl Paige
Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 South Cornell Ave.
Open through October 27, 2024
Longstanding artist, educator, and designer Robert Earl Paige believes beauty should be accessible all around us for everyone to experience. This exhibition presents a survey of textiles, drawings, tiles, prints, and other works that spans over half a century of Paige’s prolific creative practice and aims to encourage us to make art every day. It includes Paige’s popular fabric work while debuting recent clay, wall/floor paintings, and collage work made during his Radicle Residency at Hyde Park Art Center in 2022–23.
4. LOGAN SQUARE
La Casa de Todos / Everyone’s Home
Comfort Station, 2579 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Open through November 15, 2024
Artist Edra Soto’s outdoor installation draws from her Puerto Rican roots, inviting the community to celebrate a shared home together. Referencing rejas (wrought iron screens) commonly found throughout Puerto Rico, the structure’s colorful overlapping abstract carved panels create safe zones intended to house public gatherings and moments for celebration.
5. WEST LOOP
Learning Together: Art Education and Community
Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois at Chicago, 400 S. Peoria St.
Open through December 14, 2024
Over the last century, Chicago has led the nation in progressive arts education for K-12 students, as teachers and their students linked art education to movements for social justice, access, and self-determination. Together with a companion exhibition at the nearby Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Radical Craft: Arts Education at Hull-House, 1889-1935, the projects tell the first broad history of arts education and artist-educators in Chicago. Artworks are co-created by students and educators.
6. BRONZEVILLE
ReSOURCE: Art and Resourcefulness in Black Chicago
South Side Community Art Center, 3831 S. Michigan Ave.
Open through December 21, 2024
Thinking ecologically before there was an environmental movement, generations of Black artists have worked their alchemy to transform simple materials and castoff objects into beautiful art, breathe life into the city’s forgotten corners, and reinvent and reclaim ancestral traditions. This exhibition brings together 40 artists and 70 artworks (including 4 projects commissioned for the exhibition) to tell this story.
7. NEAR NORTH SIDE
Indigenous Chicago
Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton St.
Open through January 4, 2025
Developed in partnership with representatives from several tribal nations and Native community members in Chicago, this exhibition explores Indigenous history in Chicago across five centuries to highlight the way that the development of the city has been shaped by Indigenous lives and land. Indigenous Chicago centers the voices and impacts of Indigenous leaders, activists, and artists to tell a new history of Chicago. The exhibition draws largely on the Newberry’s collection while also showcasing new work by contemporary Native artists, including Jason Wesaw (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi), Camille Billie (Oneida), and Jim Terry (Ho-Chunk).
8. EDGEWATER
Myth of the Organic City
6018North, 6018 N. Kenmore Ave.
Open through February 23, 2025
Myth of the Organic City draws from Chicago’s official City seal which proclaims “Urbs In Horto” or “City in a Garden” as a projection of environmental custodianship. However, Chicago has been designed and constructed in often inequitable and unsustainable ways, with cycles of dispossession and dislocation of nature and people. The exhibition pairs a broad historical overview with contemporary artworks that reimagine our complicated relationship with the city and nature.
9. SOUTH SHORE
Theaster Gates | When Clouds Roll Away: Reflection and Restoration from the Johnson Archive
Open through March 26, 2025
For over a decade, artist Theaster Gates has been stewarding the collections of the Johnson Publishing Company, the renowned publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines and chronicler of the richness of Black life in America. In the most comprehensive celebration of the archive to date, Gates is exhibiting newly restored objects, vintage office furniture, works of art owned by founder John H. Johnson, along with his workout suite, trophies and memorabilia, giving insight into one of the most formidable Black companies to have ever existed.
10. WEST LAWN
Belonging: Lithuanian Artists in Chicago 1900 to Now
Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, 6500 S. Pulaski Rd.
Open through May 17, 2025
Exploring identity and place through the diverse work, perspectives, and legacy of three immigration periods of Lithuanian artists in Chicago, this exhibition and its associated programs and publications consider the causes and consequences of immigration/migration, including displacement, colonization, trauma, and assimilation. The cost of belonging is choosing what to leave behind. Its reward: creating new connections in this culturally diverse and evolving city.
These are just some of the Art Design Chicago events set to captivate audiences this fall, whether art enthusiasts, curious explorers, or people simply looking for inspiration.
For more information about each exhibition’s dates, location and featured artists, please visit artdesignchicago.org.
About Art Design Chicago
Art Design Chicago is a special series of events and exhibitions that highlight the city’s unique artistic heritage and creative communities. An initiative of the Terra Foundation for American Art in partnership with artists and arts organizations across the city, Art Design Chicago seeks to expand narratives of American art with an emphasis on the city’s diverse and vibrant creative cultures and the stories they tell. Learn more at artdesignchicago.org.
About the Terra Foundation for American Art
The Terra Foundation for American Art, established in 1978 and having offices in Chicago and Paris, supports organizations and individuals locally and globally with the aim of fostering intercultural dialogues and encouraging transformative practices that expand narratives of American art through the foundation’s grant program, collection, and initiatives. Learn more at terraamericanart.org.
For any Art Design Chicago event photos and footage, email our media contact below.
Media Contact:
Malik Joseph, Media Relations Specialist, Rudd Resources
216-647-5704 | Mjoseph@ruddresources.net
