South Side Speculations
January 18, 2018 –March 1, 2018
South Side Speculations grew out of a two-year intergenerational collaboration among Chicago-based high school students, arts and humanities scholars, and practicing artists and storytellers, and investigates the impact of structural violence on health and wellness across the South Side, with a particular focus on Englewood, Greater Grand Crossing, Washington Park, and Woodlawn.
The Long Term
September 21, 2018 –November 20, 2018
The Long Term is series of thematic works around long-term sentencing policies and the other long terms they produce. Presented by Arts + Public Life in partnership with the Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project.
A Place Called Home is the culminating program for the 2017-18 resident artists, Victoria Martinez, Arif Smith, and Brittney Leeanne Williams. The exhibition features new works the artists produced during their ten-month residency at the Arts Incubator in Washington Park that reflect on identity, memory, and place through painting, collage, dance and video.
Everyday Resistance: The Art of Living in Black Chicago
May 23, 2018 –July 6, 2018
Everyday Resistance The South Side Home Movie Project presents an exhibition of private film footage gathered from residents of Chicago’s South Side neighborhoods.
APR 6–MAY 10, 2018
Curated by the Teen Arts Council, I'm Down For Whatever is centered around the teen experience. As teens living here, how do we view our past, present and future? How do we respond to certain situations? How do we explore our artistic views?
JAN 26–MAR 16, 2018
Challenging assumptions of darkness, Eclipsing: the politics of night, the politics of light is a group exhibition that implicates the eclipse as a metaphor, exploring conversations of power, landscape, language, space and visibility.
Rare Earth
September 22, 2017 –November 17, 2017
Rare Earth invites the viewer to experience chance arrangements and discover new correlations between built environments from around the world. The exhibition mines a broad survey of architectural and design images from the archives of Rebuild Foundation.
JULY 13–AUG 25, 2017
Remain To Be Seen showcases the culminating work of Yaw Agyeman, Lauren Ash, and Stephen Flemister as part of their participation in the University of Chicago’s Arts + Public Life and Center for the Study of Race, Politics & Culture Artists-in-Residence program.
MAY 19–JUN 23, 2017
Curated by La Keisha Leek and Sadie Woods, Arts + Public Life's Inaugural Curatorial Collective. The Petty Biennial complicates dominant narratives of contemporary cultural, social, political norms. It is a response to classist views towards communities of color and marginalized art practices.
MAR 15–APR 29, 2017
Correct Opinions is a Teen Arts Council-curated exhibition of works created by more than 50 teen artists from After School Matters programs across Chicago. Painting, sculpture, photography, multimedia, and mixed media explore varied personal interpretations of “value” and the impact this concept has on how we perceive our voices in the world.
JAN 20–FEB 26, 2017
Chicago on My Mind is the inaugural exhibition from Arts + Public Life's Resident Curatorial Collective. Expanding on the intended curatorial vision of the 1969 exhibition Harlem on My Mind presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Chicago on My Mind explores cultural values driven by Chicago-based social and civic-minded collection practices.
JUL 8–AUG 28, 2016
Resonant Objects showcases the breadth of production by Chicago-based artists Greg Bray, Aquil Charlton, and Nazafarin Lotfi during their participation in the University of Chicago’s Arts + Public Life and Center for the Study of Race, Politics & Culture Artists-in-Residence Program.
JUL 8–AUG 26, 2016
Family Business showcases the works of Arts + Public Life (APL) staff and teaching artists. Featured art works include a range of mediums, including sculptures, photography, poetry, mixed media, woodwork, and other installations.
MAR 25–JUN 10, 2016
Runway to Reality is a collaborative exhibition featuring work by photographer Helen Maurene Cooper and fashion designer Suzette Opara. This exhibition highlights the cultural significance of prom on the South Side of Chicago
MAR 25–JUN 10, 2016
Doors have served a symbolic purpose across cultures throughout history. In religion and mythology, they have been used as emblems of transition, new beginnings, welcomed endings, or the passage from one world to another. This Flex Exhibition series focuses on doors and all of their functions through the work of Dayo Laoye and J. Johari Palacio.
FEB 1–MAR 11, 2016
Shared Language is a community classroom and exhibition that uses a broad definition of language to investigate modes of communication and the transfer of knowledge through experimental learning.
Sept 8–Jan 8, 2016
Forms of Imagination explores the way Arts + Public Life creates ambitious public design and architecture projects that foster creative communities in Chicago's mid-South Side.
JUL 17- SEP 11, 2015
Mom & Pops is a group exhibition that raises questions about community, capitalism and the ways in which family business can influence artistic production and act as daily reminders of ethnic, social, religious and economic difference.
JUN 13 - SEP 11, 2015
Students present a multisited final showcase of work created through spring Urban Arts courses in beginner and intermediate graffiti (taught by Miguel "Kane One" Aguilar) DJ-ing (DJ Scend), and street photography (Ruslana Lichtzier). These classes cultivate and sustain social practices historically significant to Chicago's urban landscape.
APR 3- JUN 5, 2015
Flex Exhibitions: Felicia Grant Preston is a visual artist whose work is rooted in pure abstraction and an electric color palette.
MAY 8- JUN 5, 2015
A culmination of Alberto Aguilar's Crossing Boundaries residency, Test/Move/Play Ability invites the viewer to participate through traveling to multiple sites in and around the Arts incubator to view his work.
MAY 8-29, 2015
Windy City Breakdown explores the process and research of Ayana Contreras while exploring the collision among arts, entrepreneurship, and Black Power in Black Chicago.
APR 3- 24. 2015
In exceptional/respectable, conceptual artist Green’s work becomes his visceral output towards the barrage of the 24-hour news cycle, respectability politics, and the conflict between contemplation and action
JAN 16–MAR 20, 2015
Exodus is a two-person exhibition featuring the works of Alexandria Eregbu and Alfredo Salazar-Caro, that addresses the artists’ personal interpretations of flight, im/migration, and belonging.
AUG 1–OCT 10, 2014
How to Make A Hood unfolds a wide canon of stereotypes that foster misconceptions as they relate to black bodies and their environments.
JUN 13–JUL 18, 2014
Forum as Form is an evolving installation of physical and social sculpture prototypes for communal dialogue and exchange.
APR 15–MAY 31, 2014
Created by Savannah Wood, the Black Ink Book Exchange is a pop up library that will host workshops over the summer of 2014 in several South Side Chicago locations.
FEB 13–MAY 31, 2014
Library of Love is a visual love letter to Chicago that consists of a collection of books, artwork, and objects wherein the community is invited to read, write, and contemplate the power of love in its many manifestations.
Black Power! In Tribute to Fred Hampton is a project of exhibitions, film screenings, performances and discussions honoring the legacy of Fred Hampton, Deputy Chairman of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party.
NOV 18–22, 2013
Illuminated Presence is a youth-focused project created by artist Ebony G. Patterson that explores how students assert their individuality amongst their peers and within their wider community.
Ethnographic Terminalia is a curatorial collective that exhibits new forms of anthropology engaged with contemporary art practice.
OCT 11–NOV 13, 2013
Through the use of linguistics, sound, and material, Groun(d) examines the murder of Trayvon Martin.
AUG 27–SEP 29, 2013
A culminating exhibition showcasing the works of the five Arts + Public Life/Center for the Study of Race Politics & Culture 2012/2013 artists-in-residence.
JUL 12–AUG 12, 2013
Public Dialogue explored the ever-increasing role that artists, creative professionals, cultural organizations, and anchor institutions play in the growth and fostering of communities.
JUN 12–30, 2013
The Design Apprenticeship Program (DAP) is a design-based mentorship and skills building initiative that encourages teens and young adults to invest in the improvement of the physical and social conditions of their community.
Free & Me: Reflections from a New School of Historians examines ideals of fear, courage, freedom, and Jim Crow.
MAY 8–JUN 9, 2013
Gestate is an exhibition of paintings that have an ethereal, bodily presence. Romany layers, smudges, and drips paint onto the canvas, creating an illusion of transparency and lightness.
MAR 8–APR 28, 2013
Feedback is comprised of artwork, programs, and a public dinner that engage with the concept of “feedback” as a mechanism for collaboration and exchange.