Chicago Cultural Alliance

Dark Night of the Soul by Daniel Hryhorczuk
2024-11-29 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Chicago) | 2249 West Superior Street, Chicago, IL 60612, 2249 West Superior Street, Chicago, IL, 60612, United States
Author Daniel Hryhorczuk will present his new novel, The “Dark Night of the Soul,” about a Ukrainian writer who embarks on a spiritual journey to reconcile with his Russian daughter and seek redemption amid the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.The evening presents a wonderful opportunity to meet the Chicago author, Daniel Hryhorczuk, purchase a signed copy of his book, and socialize with fellow attendees.

Photographing the Salt Shed: The Intersection of Art and Labor
2024-12-10 18:00 - 19:30 | Chicago Architecture Center, 111 E Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL, 60601, United States
Originally constructed in 1929, the Morton Salt Company Warehouse Complex is a familiar and beloved Chicago Landmark along Elston Avenue near Goose Island. For decades, its enormous hand-painted sign has captivated people traveling along Interstate I-90. As times changed, the property was no longer used for salt storage and processing. Sandra Steinbrecher’s new photography book, The Salt Shed, chronicles the building’s remarkable transformation into a stunning music venue.
Join the CAC for an enlightening panel discussion on the Salt Shed’s redevelopment, history and working-class roots. Joining Sandra are Daniel John Majerowicz, the plumbing foreman for the project, and Paul Durica, Director of Exhibitions at the Chicago History Museum and author of the book’s history essay. The conversation is moderated by Heidi Stevens, a Chicago writer, speaker and nationally syndicated columnist, who wrote the book’s foreword.
Copies of The Salt Shed will be on sale at the CAC Design Store before and after the program and there will be a short book signing following the panel discussion.

Building the Table (Pt. 4): Celebrating Culture in Policy, Advocacy, and Social Justice
2024-12-15 15:00 - 17:00 | Nobody’s Darling, 1744 West Balmoral Avenue, Chicago, I, 60640, United States
“Building the Table” is an in-person extension of ‘The Table On Air’ talk show, designed to culturally explore intersectional identities and highlight the dynamic lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ community members. This quarterly event series, in partnership with Nobody’s Darling Bar, features moderated discussions with creative entrepreneurs, grassroots organization members, and social impact leaders on diverse topics. The series acknowledges and celebrates the importance of the LGBTQIA+ community in society.
Quarterly Topics:

Q1: Health, Wellness, and Beauty
Q2: Arts, Entertainment, and Culture
Q3: Business, Entrepreneurship, and Education
Q4: Policy, Advocacy, and Social Justice

Event Format: Each event includes a panel discussion followed by a social mixer. The panel discussion is pre-recorded and later broadcast, featuring live audience interaction.
Event Details:
Location: Nobody’s Darling Bar, a James Beard Award nominee and Black-woman-owned bar in Chicago, is celebrated for centering queer women and femmes.
Experience an afternoon dedicated to fostering networking and connection for Black and Queer professionals across various industries. Engage with a diverse community of entrepreneurs, creatives, tech innovators, and more. Build meaningful relationships, navigate the evolving professional landscape, and uncover strategies for your continued success.
Event Schedule:

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM: Panel Discussion
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM: Social Mixer and Networking

Proposed Guests for Q4 (Policy, Advocacy, & Social Justice):

Payton Head – Equity Strategist, Change-Agent, Public Speaker at Keppler Speakers, and Government Consultant for Deloitte
Kim L. Hunt – Executive Director of Pride Action Tank (PAT), and Vice President of Special Projects at AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC)

Sounds by DJ PBNJEFFY

Stammtisch Open Haus, Every 3rd Friday
2024-12-20 19:30 - 2024-12-21 00:00, 2025-01-17 19:30 - 2025-01-18 00:00, 2025-02-21 19:30 - 2025-02-22 00:00, 2025-03-21 19:30 - 2025-03-22 00:00, 2025-04-18 19:30 - 2025-04-19 00:00, 2025-05-16 19:30 - 2025-05-17 00:00, 2025-06-20 19:30 - 2025-06-21 00:00 | DANK Haus German American Cultural Center, 4740 N. Western Ave., Chicago, IL, 60625, United States
Feiern Sie mit uns! Our monthly Open Haus Stammtisch is a great way to meet new friends and enjoy a little Gemütlichkeit over some delicious German food and drink!
Theme TBD
Food and drink will be available for purchase.
Free parking at 5/3 Bank after 6:00 PM located at Western and Gunnison

Architect Talk: Carol Ross Barney
2025-01-23 18:00 - 20:00 | Chicago Architecture Center, 111 E Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL, 60601, United States
Dive into an architectural career devoted to people, places and cities, celebrated in the new book, The People’s Architect. A widely admired urbanist, mentor and educator, Carol advocates for excellent design accessible to all—as a right rather than a privilege. Encompassing new schools, libraries, transit stations and parks, including city-defining projects like the Chicago Riverwalk, her practice showcases a belief in the transformative power of the built environment in our daily lives. In an age of diminishing investment in and care for our shared public realm, Carol’s work reminds us of the catalytic power of beautifully designed infrastructure and civic spaces.
Pre-signed copies of The People’s Architect are available for purchase at the CAC Design Store or online. Get your copy personally inscribed by Carol at the conclusion of the program.
Guests are invited to a reception with light bites and refreshments at 5:00 p.m. outside the lecture hall. The program starts at 6:00 p.m.
Image Credit: Chicago Riverwalk. Photo by Kate Joyce Studios

CAMOC Book Talk - Background Artist: The Life and Work of Tyrus Wong
2025-02-12 18:00 - 20:00 | Chinese American Museum of Chicago, 238 W. 23rd St, Chicago, IL, 60616, United States
Join our first Book Talk event of the year on Wednesday, February 12, with Background Artist: The Life and Work of Tyrus Wong by Karen Fang. This event will feature a screening of short animated films by “Malt Adult” and a panel discussion with the author, moderated by Larry Lee.
Explore the artistic legacy of Tyrus Wong, a pioneering Chinese American artist whose work significantly shaped American visual culture—from Disney’s Bambi to Hallmark greeting cards. Through a film screening and panel discussion, we will examine Wong’s contributions and the broader historical context of Asian animation in American art.
In a 40-minute film screening, Chicago’s independent animation duo Malt Adult will curate a selection of works by animators, Chinese American artists, Chinese artists living in Chicago, and Chicago-based animators to celebrate Wong’s enduring influence.
Learn more about Background Artist.
– – –
Karen Fang is a film scholar and visual culture critic who writes and speaks for museums and film festivals around the world. Known for previous books about Hong Kong cinema and nineteenth-century British interest in exotic objects, Karen often writes about the intersection of eastern and western aesthetics. Her work has appeared in Smithsonian Magazine, Hyperallergic, Nikkei Asia, and the Los Angeles Review of Books.
“Malt Adult” is a free, curated screening and zine series based out of Chicago. Established in 2016, it features independent and underground animation from artists pushing the boundaries of the medium, with a mission to bring contemporary animation to the Midwest.
Larry Lee is a multimedia artist, art historian, and educator. He curates the Spotlight Series and teaches at the SAIC, UIC, DePaul University, and Columbia College Chicago.

Don't Go: Tonika Johnson & Maria Krysan
2025-02-13 18:00 - 19:00 | Chicago Architecture Center, 111 E Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL, 60601, United States
Join us for an evening with Tonika Lewis Johnson and Dr. Maria Krysan discussing their new book, Don’t Go: Stories of Segregation and How to Disrupt It.
The program will feature a thought-provoking conversation between the two authors, a Black artist and a White academic, who met through their shared passion for anti-segregation work. Together, they’ll discuss their research and documentation of personal stories detailed in the book, and actionable ways to disrupt harmful cycles of disinvestment and resource disparity across Chicago’s neighborhoods and built environment.
In their new book, Tonika Lewis Johnson and Dr. Maria Krysan document the reflections of Chicagoans who’ve heard, taken, or given the all-too-common advice, “Don’t go to Chicago’s South or West Sides.” By inviting readers into the lives of Chicagoans who have ignored these warnings, the stories in Don’t Go discuss the consequences of built environment disinvestment, pervasive social influence, and de facto segregation, while also highlighting the rewards of coming together.

Butoh Artist Talk and Community Discussion with Joan Laage
2025-02-22 14:00 - 16:00 | 3500 S Morgan Street, 3500 S Morgan St 3F, Chicago, IL, 60609, United States
Come join us for a rare opportunity to hear artist and scholar Joan Laage discuss her butoh learning and exploration alongside members of the Chicago butoh community. This event is a collaboration between the Heritage Museum of Asian Art and Butoh Chicago.
Please note tours may be canceled or postponed due to unforeseen circumstances.
This is generously funded by the Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation as part of the Dragon Within: Loong and Global Symbols event series.
Artist bio:
Residing in Seattle WA for many years, Joan/Kogut is known as the Northwest butoh pioneer. She is one of the few non-Japanese to study with and dance under Yoko Ashikawa in her Tokyo-based group Gnome in the late 80s. She also studied with Kazuo and Yoshito Ohno. Joan has performed and taught at many festivals including the first New York butoh festival, Vienna’s Hybrid Butoh Festival), Paris Butoh Festival (Tenri) and En Chair et En Son Acousmatic Festival in Paris. Joan was invited by Vangeline to present a solo in New York City and was a featured artist at Frankfurt’s Winterwerft Festival. Joan wrote a dissertation on the butoh body and is featured in Tanya Calamoneri’s Butoh America. Since living in Krakow 2004–2006, she has been known as Kogut (rooster).
Butoh (舞踏, Butō) is a form of contemporary Japanese dance theatre that encompasses a diverse range of activities, techniques and motivations for dance, performance, or movement.
Accessibility
The Heritage Museum of Asian Art’s Entrance is on West 35th Street. Take the elevator to the third floor and turn right to the Museum Reception Desk. Accessible and standard toilets are located on the same floor. Free parking space is available next to the museum via West 35th Street.
If you have any programming questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch with info@heritageasianart.org or 312-842-8884.

Design News Roundtable: The Neighborhoods
2025-02-27 18:00 - 19:00 | Chicago Architecture Center, 111 E Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL, 60601, United States
Join us for the first installment of CAC’s new quarterly Design News Roundtable series, a space for freewheeling conversation with architects, designers, preservationists, community leaders and advocates exploring our ever-changing city.
Guest panelists will scour the headlines and opine on recent design, development, and planning news impacting Chicago’s neighborhoods. Housing, preservation and reuse, transportation, sustainability, open space and recreation, placemaking, and arts and culture are all fair game. Brush up on the past few months of built environment news and gain a deeper appreciation for the people, places and difference-makers in diverse communities across Chicago. This roundtable is hosted by Dario Durham, co-founder of the popular podcast 77 Flavors of Chicago. Our esteemed panelists are Elevated Chicago executive director Juan Sebastian Arias, Preservation Futures co-founder Elizabeth Blasius, Teamwork Englewood executive director Cecile De Mello, and JGMA president & founder Juan Moreno.

All in on Quantum: A Vision for the South Lakefront
2025-03-20 18:00 - 19:00 | Chicago Architecture Center, 111 E Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL, 60601, United States
A first-of-its-kind Illinois Quantum & Microelectronics Park (IQMP) will soon touch down at the former U.S. Steel South Works site, a 440-acre barren expanse at the end of the lakefront trail. Learn all about this generational investment on the Far South Side.
The largest piece of the new megadevelopment is a leading-edge quantum computing campus for the company PsiQuantum. IBM has also announced it will participate in the IQMP’s National Quantum Algorithm Center next door, and a much-needed Advocate Health hospital to the north rounds out the site plan. The proposed buildings, roadways and recreational paths are set back from improved parkland skirting the shoreline.
Our program brings together project leaders and elected officials for an informative, thought-provoking discussion. The panelists are: Related Midwest President Curt Bailey; PsiQuantum Executive VP Josh Richman; and Aldermen Peter Chico (10th) and Greg Mitchell (7th). Architect Lesley Roth, Principal at Lamar Johnson Collaborative, moderates the discussion.
The panel will address several questions, including:

What is quantum computing and why are technologists and economic boosters so bullish on it?
What in particular makes the former U.S. Steel site attractive for quantum computing?
How will this project utilize best practices in urban planning?
What is the full catalytic potential for new investment within nearby communities?

This program is part of our 2025 Public Domain series, where we explore Chicago design and development with big implications for the public realm.

ART WORKS Projects Gallery Closing Event: 18 Years of Visual Advocacy
2025-03-23 15:00 - 17:00 | 625 North Kingsbury Street Chicago, IL 60654, 625 North Kingsbury Street, Chicago, IL, 60654, United States
After 11 years of producing and presenting high-impact visual advocacy projects in our beloved shared office and gallery space located at 625 N Kingsbury Street, our team at AWP will be moving out on March 31.

To mark this occasion, we welcome back AWP’s founder, Leslie Thomas, who will be joining us for a special closing event featuring a conversation with managing director Bora Un on Sunday, March 23 from 3:00 – 5:00pm. This conversation will be moderated by AWP Board Member and DEI Manager at WBEZ, Steve Bynum.

During our time together, we will revisit some of AWP’s projects from across our 18 years of creating impact through powerful visual storytelling, and will share details about some upcoming collaborations with Leslie’s film production studio, MIRA Studios/MIRA Europe. Guests will also have the opportunity to view a glimpse of Leslie’s latest feature-length documentary film, The Sharp Edge of Peace, based on AWP’s 2012 project Women Between Peace and War: Afghanistan.

This event will serve as the closing event for our open house taking place on Saturday, March 22 – Sunday, March 23 from 12:00 – 6pm each day as we invite our Chicago community to come see the space for a final time, and to help us find new homes for a number of our ready-to-go exhibition kits, books, limited edition prints, and a range of unused exhibition materials and supplies that will be for sale, or free for the taking!

Sustain'd
2025-04-02 - 2025-04-17 | Trickster Cultural Center, 190 S Roselle Rd, Schaumburg, IL, 60193, United States
Township High School District 211 will showcase their Advanced Placement Art class artists in their first ever capstone show titled, Sustain’d. Each student artist works for 1 school year to create a body of work around a sustained investigation of a concept.

Dr. King in North Lawndale: Housing Access in Chicago
2025-04-10 18:00 - 19:00 | Chicago Architecture Center, 111 E Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL, 60601, United States
In recognition of April as Fair Housing Month, join us for a panel exploring an impactful and often overlooked Chicago chapter in the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the legacy he left behind in the city’s fair housing landscape.
In January of 1966, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. moved his family to the North Lawndale neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side. On the heels of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Dr. King had set his sights on Chicago for his first major campaign outside the south, joining the Chicago Freedom Movement’s efforts to combat discriminatory housing practices. Due in large part to his advocacy in Chicago and beyond, legal protections from housing discrimination would finally be secured with the passage of the federal Fair Housing Act on April 11, 1968, six days after his assassination.
Our panel discussion will contextualize Dr. King’s time in North Lawndale and his work with the Chicago Freedom Movement, investigating the progress and ongoing challenges in combatting housing discrimination and access in Chicago spanning six decades.
Hear from distinguished panelists including Monica Chadha, AIA, LEED AP, and founder of the architecture firm Civic Projects; Jonathan Eig, journalist and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, King: A Life; Blanche Killingsworth, president and founder of the North Lawndale Historical and Cultural Society; and Tim Swanson, President & CEO of Inherent L3C. The discussion will be moderated by CAC’s CEO & President, Eleanor Gorski.

Constructing Housing During Crisis: Ukraine
2025-04-23 18:00 - 19:00 | Chicago Architecture Center, 111 E Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL, 60601, United States
Join us for a discussion of the role of temporary housing as a place of care and healing during the ongoing crisis. This program is hosted in collaboration with the exhibition Constructing Hope: Ukraine which is currently on view in the CAC’s Skyscraper Gallery through September 1, 2025
FREE with Registration
Currently displayed in the CAC’s Skyscraper Gallery as part of the Constructing Hope: Ukraine exhibition, Co-Haty is a project by the Ukrainian NGO MetaLab that provides temporary emergency accommodations for internally displaced people in Western Ukraine, offering them solace in the aftermath of the Russian invasion. Approximately 12 million Ukrainians were compelled to abandon their homes, with 6.5 million seeking refuge in the western part of the country. However, decades of housing policy challenges revealed a shortage of affordable housing options. In response to this pressing need, the Co-Haty team closely collaborates with local governments and an extensive network of agencies.
Join us for a presentation and conversation with Anna Dobrova, co-founder of Metalab, who will present her firm’s project that refurbishes and repurposes large, vacant former Soviet municipal buildings into emergency shelters.

Design News Roundtable: Downtown Chicago
2025-05-08 18:00 - 19:15 | Chicago Architecture Center, 111 E Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL, 60601, United States
Join us for the second quarterly Design News Roundtable, a space for freewheeling conversation with architects, designers, preservationists, planners and community leaders exploring our ever-changing city.
Our tapped-in panelists will scour the headlines and opine on recent design, development, and planning news impacting Chicago’s downtown. Office-to-residential conversions, efforts to revive our great shopping streets, public activations and open space, megadevelopment, historic preservation, and arts and culture are primary areas of focus. Brush up on the past few months of built environment news and gain a deeper appreciation for the projects, the ideas, and the difference-makers charting a path forward future of downtown.
This roundtable is hosted by Dario Durham, co-founder of the popular podcast 77 Flavors of Chicago. Our panelists are Preservation Futures co-founder Elizabeth Blasius; Gensler Principal & Cities Sector Leader Andre Brumfield; and Site Design Senior Project Manager Mejay Gula, founder of the Tender House Project.

Black Modernism and the Spatial Modernity of the Black Church
2025-05-13 18:00 - 19:30 | First Church of Deliveriance, 4315 S Wabash Ave, Chicago, 60653
Program in collaboration with the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation
Join us in the sanctuary of The First Church of Deliverance for a salon-style seminar on Black Modernism and the architectural modernity of Black American traditions with leading voices in architectural history, criticism and preservation.
This program is part of a larger series of national conversations curated by the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, dedicated to reflection and dialogue on the evolving definition of Black Modernism and the undervalued legacy of African American contributions to modernist architecture. Set within one of Chicago’s most iconic examples of Black sacred modernism, the event brings together leading voices in architectural history, criticism, and preservation.
The evening will feature presentations by Lee Bey, photographer, writer and lecturer whose work documents and interprets the built environment through the lens of race, politics and power, and Charles L. Davis II, African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund Fellow and Associate Professor of Architectural History and Criticism at the University of Texas at Austin, whose research explores the role of racial identity and race thinking in shaping architectural history and contemporary design culture. Following the presentations, a moderated conversation will be led by architect and cultural preservationist Brandon Bibby, Senior Preservation Architect for the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund and Manager of the Conserving Black Modernism initiative. The discussion will open space to collectively consider how Black Modernism continues to inform our understanding of identity, memory, and the built environment.

Dave Barry: "Class Clown"
2025-05-15 18:00 - 19:00 | Chicago Hope Academy, 2156 West Ogden Avenue, Chicago, 60612
How does the son of a Presbyterian minister wind up winning a Pulitzer Prize for writing a wildly inaccurate newspaper column read by millions of people? America’s most beloved wiseass, Dave Barry, finally tells his life story with all the humor you’d expect from a man who made a career out of making fun of pretty much everything. Barry will be interviewed by Mark Bazer of The Interview Show on WTTW. Books will be sold at the event and Barry will sign them following the program.
This is event takes place at Chicago Hope Academy. The entrance to the auditorium is through the parking lot at 2156 W. Ogden Ave., Chicago, IL 60612. This lot can be used for parking, as well as additional street parking on neighboring streets. Please leave enough time for transportation and parking. The program begins promptly at 6:00 pm CT.
This program is part of the AWM’s American Prophets: Writers, Religion, and Culture exhibit and programming series, which examines the relationship between American writers and religion. American Prophets opens November 2025 and is supported by a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative.

Summer Youth Social Powwow
2025-05-31 12:00 - 19:00 | Trickster Cultural Center, 190 S Roselle Rd, Schaumburg, IL, 60193, United States
This youth-led community event is FREE and open to the general public event. This “Summer Youth Social Powwow” event aims to foster community relations, youth literacy, cultural exchange with a powwow and provide local community resources at Trickster Cultural Center.

All My Relations: Pride Celebration
2025-06-07 14:00 - 19:00 | Trickster Cultural Center, 190 S Roselle Rd, Schaumburg, IL, 60193, United States
The 2025 “All My Relations: Pride Celebration” would like to honor diversity through Native drum and dance, various artists, resource exchanges, and vendor fair at Trickster Cultural Center in Schaumburg, IL.

Constructing Architectural Networks: Ukraine [VIRTUAL]
2025-06-12 12:00 - 13:00 | Zoom
Join us for a discussion with architects working on material logistics and mutual aid networks during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This program is hosted in collaboration with the exhibition Constructing Hope: Ukraine which is currently on view at the CAC through September 1, 2025.
The second exhibition of this work in the United States after premiering at the Center for Architecture in New York in 2024, Constructing Hope: Ukraine focuses on decentralized reconstruction efforts, presenting the work of grassroots initiatives happening inside and outside of Ukraine. The speakers, Kseniia Kalmus (artist and co-founder of Livyi Bereh) and Ada Wordsworth (founder and director of KHARPP), will sit with the exhibition curators to discuss their work to provide support for rebuilding and repairs across Ukraine. Come join this special opportunity to hear first-hand accounts of how supporting locally can create a collective good.

Book Signing and Presentation: Paris to Pamirs
2025-06-13 18:30 - 21:00 | 2249 West Superior Street, Chicago, IL 60612, 2249 West Superior Street, Chicago, IL, 60612, United States
Join author Jaroslaw Martynuik at the Ukrainian National Museum, June 13 at 6:30pm for a presentation and signing of his latest book, Paris to Pamirs: Eurasian Odysseys.
Paris to Pamirs is a sequel to Monte Rosa: Memoir of an Accidental Spy, a volume that documented the author’s life from WWII to his years in Paris, where he worked for the IEA/OECD and later as an undercover researcher for Radio Liberty. The fall of Communism in 1991 opened opportunities for travel east of the defunct Iron Curtain. Over the next three decades, Jaroslaw Martyniuk traveled to forty countries between the Atlantic Ocean and the high Pamir mountains in Tajikistan, which border China and Afghanistan in Central Asia. Like a latterday Marco Polo, Martyniuk takes his reader on an adventure from Western and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Baltics, Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia, to Istanbul, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.

‘Beyond Closure’: A Screening & Discussion
2025-06-17 08:00 - 17:00 | Kennedy-King College Theater, 740 W. 63rd Street, Chicago, 60621
Join us at Kennedy-King College for a screening of Beyond Closure (2024) and a panel discussion on community responses to Chicago’s 2013 school closures.

The documentary Beyond Closure (2024) by On The Real Film and Borderless Studio recalls the history of Chicago’s 2013 school closures—the largest mass closure in U.S. history—and shares inspirational stories of community reclamation. Join us at Kennedy-King College in Englewood for a screening and panel discussion, in partnership with Go Green on Racine.
Taking a deeper look at three schools in Austin, Bronzeville, and Englewood, Beyond Closure amplifies community voices leading the repurposing of Emmet, Woods, and Overton schools. They reflect on the local impact of these closures, the struggle to reclaim school buildings for the public good, and the intertwined inequity, racism, and injustice that led to shuttering of 50 neighborhood schools all at once, mainly in low-income communities of color.
After the film, a panel discussion will bring together architects and community developers working on “The Regenerator,” a nexus for housing, healthcare, and jobs within the former Woods Academy, to address challenges overcome in the adaptive reuse. Borderless Studio’s Paola Aguirre Serrano moderates.
Watch the trailer.

Stitching Stories: The First Thread
2025-06-18 11:00 - 2025-06-22 17:00 | 3500 S Morgan Street, 3500 S Morgan St 3F, Chicago, IL, 60609, United States
Stitching Stories: The First Thread is a pop-up exhibition that brings together Asian and Black artists whose works explore cultural exchange, storytelling, and visions of shared futures through textile arts. This exhibition marks an inaugural step toward building a coalition of artists and community members committed to cross-cultural connection and solidarity.
The project grew out of an extended planning process and a series of six community workshops, where Asian and Black artists engaged directly with participants through textile-making, storytelling, and relationship building. These collective efforts reflect a broader vision of collaboration, mutual support, and cultural exchange.
Stitching Stories is also an open invitation—for artists, organizers, and all who believe in bridging communities—to take part in deepening understanding across racial and cultural lines.
This pop-up exhibition is free with museum admission. Admission can be purchased online or at the front desk. With purchase of admissions ticket, you are able to view the pop-up exhibition as well as the three open exihibits at the Heritage Museum of Asian Art!
Organizers and Partners
Heritage Museum of Asian Art, Needles and Threads Quilters Guild, HerArt Foundation, and the Abrahamic Center for Cultural Education
Supported by Healing Illinois
Events
Opening Reception: June 14, 2–4 PM
Juneteenth Special Activation: June 19, 2–4 PM
Closing Artist Conversation: June 22, 2–4 PM

Accessibility: The museum is wheelchair accessible. Audio Description will be available for those who need it during events.

Stitching Stories: The First Thread Closing Artist Conversation
2025-06-22 14:00 - 16:00 | 3500 S Morgan Street, 3500 S Morgan St 3F, Chicago, IL, 60609, United States
About this event

Event lasts 2 hours
ALL AGES
Free venue parking

Stitching Stories: The First Thread is a pop-up exhibition that brings together Asian and Black artists whose works explore cultural exchange, storytelling, and visions of shared futures through textile arts. This exhibition marks an inaugural step toward building a coalition of artists and community members committed to cross-cultural connection and solidarity.
The project grew out of an extended planning process and a series of six community workshops, where Asian and Black artists engaged directly with participants through textile-making, storytelling, and relationship building. These collective efforts reflect a broader vision of collaboration, mutual support, and cultural exchange.
Stitching Stories is also an open invitation—for artists, organizers, and all who believe in bridging communities—to take part in deepening understanding across racial and cultural lines.
This pop-up exhibition is free with museum admission. Admission can be purchased online or at the front desk
Organizers and Partners
Heritage Museum of Asian Art, Needles and Threads Quilters Guild, HerArt Foundation, and the Abrahamic Center for Cultural Education
Supported by Healing Illinois
