Art, Art History, and Design

Located in downtown Chicago, the Art Institute is one of the world’s great art museums, housing a collection that spans centuries and the globe. Admission for Illinois students is $21 and admission for Chicago students is $14. Proof of address or student status is required, so bring your Star Card. Limited, free admission days can be found on their website: https://www.artic.edu/visit/free-admission-opportunities

The Block is a dynamic, imaginative, and innovative teaching and learning resource for Northwestern and its surrounding communities, featuring a global exhibition program that crosses time periods and cultures and serves as a springboard for thought-provoking discussions relevant to our lives today. Its growing permanent collection of approximately 6,000 works focuses primarily on prints, photography, and drawings. Free and open to the public.

The Design Museum of Chicago inspires, educates, and fosters innovation through design. They define design broadly, from architecture to street art, from choreography to urban planning. Design is more than a powerful source of inspiration. It is an integral tool that can help to connect communities and create equity. Free and open to the public.

Hyde Park Art Center is a hub for contemporary arts in Chicago, serving as a gathering and production space for artists and the broader community to cultivate ideas, impact social change, and connect with new networks. The Art Center functions as an amplifier for today and tomorrow’s creative voices, providing the space to cultivate and create new work and connections. Free and open to the public.

The MCA is an innovative and compelling center of contemporary art where the public can experience the work and ideas of living artists, and understand the historical, social, and cultural context of the art of our time. The museum boldly interweaves exhibitions, performances, collections, and educational programs to excite, challenge, and illuminate our visitors and offer insight into the creative process. Admission for Illinois students is $14. For Chicago students, admission is $10. Illinois residents receive free admission on Tuesdays.

The MoCP is the world’s premier college art museum dedicated to photography. As an international hub, they generate ideas and provoke dialogue among students, artists and diverse communities through groundbreaking exhibitions and programming. Free and open to the public.

NVAM is dedicated to presenting art inspired from military service and combat by artists who are military veterans. Its subject matter is broad and often focused on the impact of military conflict, especially that which is directly experienced by fighters, service members, and civilians. NVAM collects art from all the branches of the military, and from artists who have seen war, military conflicts, and peacekeeping missions. Free and open to the public.

The Smart Museum of Art is a site for rigorous inquiry and exchange that encourages the examination of complex issues through the lens of art objects and artistic practice. Through strong community and scholarly partnerships, the Museum incorporates diverse ideas, identities, and experiences into its exhibitions and collections, academic initiatives, and public programming. The Smart first opened in 1974. Free and open to the public.

Founded in 1940, SSCAC is the oldest African American art center in the United States and is a Chicago Historic Landmark. While taking pride in our rich past, they today build on their legacy and innovatively serve as an artist- and community-centered resource with programs, exhibitions and events that inspire. SSCAC showcases established artists and nurtures emerging creators. Through educational and artistic programs, exhibitions, talks, tours, and more, the center strives to engage, educate and connect community members to African American art and artists. Free and open to the public.

Wrightwood 659 is a non-commercial exhibition space conceived for the presentation of exhibitions of architecture and of socially engaged art. It is designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Tadao Ando, who has transformed a 1920s building with his signature concrete forms and poetic treatment of natural light. General admission for all is $15 and tickets must be purchased in advance.

Carl Hammer Gallery is recognized world-wide for its discovery and representation of historically significant artists within the “Outsider” and self-taught genres. "The dialogue between “mainstream” and “Outsider” artists is both important and is influential in determination of both our exhibition criteria and artist representation."

The Center for Native Futures is the only all-Native artist-led arts non-profit organization in Zhegagoynak (Chicago). We promote the advancement of Native fine arts, foster contemporary artists, and encourage Indigenous Futurists.

Corbett vs. Dempsey LLC was founded by Jim Dempsey and John Corbett and opened its previous space on North Ashland Avenue in September 2004. Since opening, Corbett vs. Dempsey has presented a range of international artists and artists connected with the historical and contemporary legacy of Chicago.

DOCUMENT is a commercial gallery located in Chicago and Lisbon that specializes in contemporary photography, sculpture, and media based art. The gallery has organized more than 70 solo exhibitions since its opening in 2012 and actively promotes the work of emerging and established national and international artists.

LVL3 is a volunteer artist-run exhibition space and digital publication out of Chicago, IL. Our team is devoted to supporting creative talent from around the world while amplifying and prioritizing the voices of underrepresented communities.

Monique Meloche Gallery was founded in October 2000, with its debut exhibition ‘Homewrecker’ at Meloche’s home, and officially opened to the public in May 2001. Diverse and inclusive since its inception, the gallery promotes politically minded contemporary art, aiming to be a bellwether for artistic talents early or under-recognized in their careers.

Paris London Hong Kong is a private gallery founded by respected diviners of recent and contemporary culture to provide a haven for collectors, scholars and enthusiasts. Curating world-class exhibitions, featuring works from luminaries of the 20th century as well as emerging and thought provoking contemporary artists, PLHK is an exclusive experience set to challenge and enhance the discourse of contemporary and 20th century art.

Regards was founded in summer 2014 as a forum for artists who seek to challenge the formal, conceptual, and/or phenomenological concerns at stake in the production and exhibition of their work.

Vertical Gallery is Chicago's premier urban-contemporary art gallery. Established in April 2013 in the West Town neighborhood, the gallery focuses on work influenced by street art, urban environments, graffiti, pop culture, graphic design and illustration.

Zolla/Lieberman Gallery was established in 1976 by Roberta Lieberman and Robert Zolla within a then-desolate industrial neighborhood now known as the River North Gallery District. They transformed a vacant industrial space into a hub for contemporary art, laying the foundation for the thriving art community that the area is today.