Art Design Chicago is an initiative of the Terra Foundation for American Art in partnership with local artists and arts organizations across the city. Culminating in two citywide, year-long series of exhibitions and events—in 2018 and 2024—the initiative seeks to catalyze transformative approaches to co-creation and community engagement and stimulate expansive narratives of Chicago art and design, past and present. Through grants to Chicago-based institutions and a partners’ network, Art Design Chicago also aims to strengthen vital connections between cultural organizations, creatives, and communities throughout Chicago, building new understandings of the city through the lens of its art and design history and legacy
Grounded in research and community and featuring series of exhibitions and events, Art Design Chicago highlights the stories and voices that are part of Chicago’s artistic identity and creative communities. By providing grant support and coordinating a network for collective learning and exchange throughout project development, the Terra Foundation encourages projects that broaden understandings of American art by highlighting artists and designers who have shaped Chicago’s creative heritage and contemporary life. The foundation encourages projects that employ inclusive and equitable approaches and are developed and implemented with the expertise and mutually enriching engagement of community partners.
Art Design Chicago is an initiative of the Terra Foundation for American Art in partnership with local artists and arts organizations across the city.
Robert Earl Paige at the The United Colors of Robert Earl Paige, Hyde Park Art Center, April 6–October 27, 2024. Photo by Beto Defreitas. Supported in part by Art Design Chicago.
"Chicago Sukkah Design Festival" is hosted at James Stone Freedom Square; landscape designed by Could Be Design and Nekita Thomas, working with Stone Temple Baptist Church. Photograph by Brian Griffin for the Chicago Sukkah Design Festival. Supported in part by Art Design Chicago.
Edra Soto, La Casa de Todos, Comfort Station, 2024. Photo by Ricardo Adame. Supported in part by Art Design Chicago.
Visitors exploring The Time Is Now! Art Worlds of Chicago’s South Side, 1960–1980 , Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, September 13–December 30, 2018. Supported in part by Art Design Chicago.
Visitors to Arte Diseño Xicágo: Mexican Inspiration from the World’s Columbian Exposition to the Civil Rights Era, National Museum of Mexican Art, 2018. Supported in part by Art Design Chicago.
Art Design Chicago is a special series of events and exhibitions that highlight the voices and stories that are part of the city’s unique artistic heritage and creative communities. The initiative encourages Chicagoans to visit art where they are—at museums, community centers, parks, and gardens—seizing opportunities to be inspired by and connect with the art and artists that shape and reflect the life of the city.
The 2024 edition supported the development of more than 35 exhibitions and hundreds of events by more than 75 cultural partners.
Explore exhibitions and events.
Storytelling throughout the initiative highlighted people, places, and ideas that drive Chicago’s dynamic arts ecosystem. Dive in and discover interviews, essays, news, videos, and more.
Dig deeper into Chicago’s art and design history and contemporary creative communities through exhibition catalogues, digital archives, artist interviews, recorded conversations, and more.
Art Design Chicago 2018 created a citywide partnership between more than 95 cultural organizations that produced 46 exhibitions and more than 300 programs that examined Chicago’s art and design legacy through exhibitions, public programs, special events, and tours as well as several new publications.
The 2018 edition supported the development of scholarly publications and digital resources, such as audio and video, exhibitions, and classroom tools, resulting in 45 publications and digital projects.
Throughout 2018, more than 2.5 million visitors engaged in Art Design Chicago exhibitions and events.
In anticipation of Art Design Chicago 2024, this series of public programs and digital storytelling amplified the voices of Chicago’s diverse artists and designers, past and present, and explored the essential role they play in shaping the now, in the city and beyond.
