To support “American Art Track” programming at Open House Chicago 2015, with the aim of showcasing some of the paintings, sculptures, mosaics, murals, and stained glass housed in or embellishing approximately 16 buildings throughout Chicago.
To support the publication of Street Teachings: Art, Youth, and Politics in Black Chicago around 1968, which chronicles the artistic experiments and political activism within and around Chicago’s Black Arts Movement (c. 1966–73), with a focus on collaborations that cut across race, class, and geography.
To support the publication Art Deco Chicago: Making America Modern, edited by Robert Bruegmann and published in cooperation with CityFiles Press. The multi-author book presents differing views and interpretations of the evolving study of the Art Deco movement and its history in Chicago.
To support the multi-author volume of The Arts Club at 100: Art & Culture from 1916–2016, published on the occasion of the Arts Club’s centennial and featuring nine essays, an illustrated chronology, and a list of exhibitions at the club since 1996.
To support the 2018 exhibition A Home for Surrealism, which positions Chicago as a center for surrealist art activity. The project brings new scholarship and attention to the connections between European surrealist art and the formation of a local brand of surrealism during the 1940s and 1950s.
To support exhibition research and development for the first major survey of the Chicago artist collective, the Hairy Who. Scheduled for 2018, the exhibition examines the Hairy Who artists in the context of the influence of Chicago and its cultural institutions and networks.
To support two free public programs during fall 2016 centered on filmmaker Suzanne Simpson’s 1973 film Karl Wirsum. Each program includes a screening followed by a panel discussion featuring artist Karl Wirsum and others. The first program focuses on the artist’s work in Northern California in the early 1970s, and the second focuses on the significance of music for the artist and in the film.
To support a series of ten free public programs in conjunction with the exhibition Post Black Folk Art in America 1930-1980-2016. The exhibition features art by Bill Traylor, Elijah Pierce, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Ulysses Davis, and Thornton Dial, among others, and related programming focuses on the relationship between black identities and outsider artmaking.
To support a series of programs about Chicago artist Edgar Miller that explores Miller’s work through the lenses of fine and folk art, architecture, and design, and that also considers his personal legacy and influence on Chicago culture.
To support 50×50: Celebrating 50 Years of Public Art in Chicago, 1967–2017, a free public symposium taking place in 2017 that brings together artists, administrators, planners, scholars, and civic stakeholders to engage in discussion and learn about public art in Chicago. Co-organized with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the event is the centerpiece of a year-long city-wide celebration of public art.
To support the 2017–2018 exhibition Bill Walker: Urban Griot, which explores the work of the Chicago muralist and painter. The project features Walker’s works on paper from the late 1970s and early 1980s, and provides historical context for the social-justice and social-practice focus of his work that continues to be explored in contemporary art today.
To support two public programs during the Arts Club’s centennial, both of which illuminate key moments in the organization’s history through reenactments and highlight its pioneering role in promoting modernism.
