Chicago activists in the 1960s and ’70s used design to create powerful slogans, symbols, and imagery to amplify their visions for social change. Designing for Change: Chicago Protest Art of the 1960s–70s features more than 100 posters, fliers, signs, buttons, newspapers, magazines, and books from the era, expressing often radical ideas about race, war, gender equality, […]
This exhibition makes visible the photograph collection of Japanese photographer Akito Tsuda, who documented Chicago's Mexican American Pilsen neighborhood in the early 1990s while attending art school at Columbia College. It also explores the relationships between the photographer and his subjects over time.
Radical Craft, an exhibition, catalog, and workshop series, celebrates the work of immigrant artists and reformers at the country's most important social settlement. The exhibition showcases Hull-House’s rarely exhibited textile collection, drawn from a wide array of immigrant traditions. Also included are handbound books from Ellen Gates Starr’s bookbindery, newly restored paintings by Alice Kellogg […]
Myth of the Organic City presents an historical and contemporary overview of Chicago’s design and land use, from its Indigenous roots through 20th century infrastructure projects to present-day developments. The exhibition includes maps, landscape designs, installations, wall drawings, sculptures, and multimedia works by more than 25 artists. The exhibition features artwork by Alexandra Antoine, Rebecca […]
For the Smart Museum’s 50th anniversary, South Side artist Robert Earl Paige creates a multi-part pattern-based installation and sprawling public art project that invites communities into a collective experience of space. Give the Drummer Some! is rooted in Paige’s decades-long practice as an interdisciplinary artist, designer, and educator who bridges cultural boundaries. A lifelong resident of the […]
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 […]
This exhibition explores typography, the shape and design of letters, within Chicago's diverse neighborhoods to investigate design legacies and their contemporary echoes. The exhibition highlights alternative modernisms by considering how revolutionary movements and concepts like love and safety shape the way communities spread and design information for one another. Featured designers and lettering artists activate […]
On Sundays from 2:00 - 5:00 p.m., join 6018North for soup and discussions about sustainability. Presented as a part of 6018North's Myth of the Organic City exhibition, Sunday Sustainable Soup is an opportunity to gather together—over soup—with likeminded people who want to advance sustainable actions. Early conversations formed the agenda/focus around three things: Be a […]
Zhegagoynak, the place now known as Chicagoland, is a vital center for Indigenous art, past and present. Through the perspectives of four collaborating artists with connections to Zhegagoynak—Andrea Carlson (Grand Portage Ojibwe/European descent), Kelly Church (Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Tribe of Pottawatomi/Ottawa), Nora Moore Lloyd (Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe), and Jason Wesaw (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi) —Woven Being explores confluences that are […]
This exhibition examines contemporary approaches to traditional Woodlands style art, highlighting the underrepresented and diverse Native cultures of the Great Lakes region and the materials, art forms, and processes they have carried forward over generations.
The Driehaus Museum is characterized by a rich history and an impressive wealth of architectural styles. The site of the Museum, the Gilded Age-era Samuel Nickerson Mansion, offers a rare opportunity to map important and often overlooked histories and genealogies. While the unique design and architecture of the Mansion have been documented and studied, A Tale […]
Join the Design Museum of Chicago to celebrate the release of the Letters Beyond Form exhibition catalogue. The book captures the essence of the exhibition by exploring the artistry, history, and cultural significance of letterforms. The public is invited for a casual gathering to browse the catalogue, connect with fellow design enthusiasts, and revisit the […]
This exhibition, curated Dr. Lucy Mensah, uses art, archives, and public dialogue to explore and connect the histories of displacement of Indigenous people and African American families on the land where the National Public Housing Museum is located. The project includes a temporary mural outside the museum by artist Andrea Carlson (Ojibwe) that links Indigenous […]
On these free admission days (March 1 and April 5), come explore A Tale of Today: Materialities. For this exhibition at The Richard H. Driehaus Museum, curator Giovanni Aloi has invited artists to select a material from the museum, research its history, and produce site-specific installations designed to uncover hidden cultural, historical, and ecological networks, […]
Musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra present three works in celebration of The Richard H. Driehaus Museum's exhibition, A Tale of Today: Materialities. The event begins with a brief introduction […]
During this workshop directed by Materialities exhibiting artist, Bobbi Meier, visit the artist’s work in the Driehaus Museum and then move to the museum's studio for a hands-on workshop to create your own plushie. Craft a unique soft sculpture using pantyhose, fiberfill, needle, and thread. Relax, stitch, and bring your plushie to life in this […]
With his installation, Give the Drummer Some!, artist Robert Earl Paige invites Smart Museum visitors into a colorful world of design and pattern. Join the museum for this Family Day and design your own brilliant world! Imagine, sculpt, and assemble 3D landscape tiles inspired by real-life environments or create fictional worlds through modeling clay, wooden […]
Join the University of Chicago's student poetry group "Catcher in the Rhyme” for a poetry presentation embedded in the vibrant Give the Drummer Some! installation by South Side artist, designer, and educator Robert Earl Paige. The poets turn to the rhythm and movement of Paige’s patterns and motifs for inspiration. Free, register at the link below; […]
Celebrate the closing week of A Tale of Today: Materialities with a conversation between the guest curator, Dr. Giovanni Aloi, and participating artists Laleh Motlagh and Rebecca Beachy. The panel advances the exhibition’s scholarly research and contextualizes participating artists’ work within historical sources and contemporary practice.
Created by Luftwerk, this interactive installation captures and reimagines fragments of the landscape we inhabit as a reminder of the loss of native prairie. Works on the walls depict an abstracted landscape that references a time when prairies occupied two-thirds of the midwestern landscape, rich in biodiversity, a holistic interconnected ecosystem of healthy soil, abundant […]
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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.
