The Alchemy of Heresy with Michelle Hartney and Ann Lewis
2023-11-01 17:00 - 18:00 UTC | Zoom
The Alchemy of Heresy with Michelle Hartney and Ann Lewis is a panel discussion about the wave of book bannings happening across the United States. Artists Ann Lewis and Michelle Hartney will introduce their new project, The Alchemy of Heresy, which will be unveiled at the NADA art fair in Miami in December of 2023. Through the installation of a network of sculptural “Little Libraries,” each filled with banned books, this project seeks to challenge the boundaries to knowledge and imagination. Each little library becomes a beacon of defiance, inviting readers to explore the forbidden words and worlds that challenge the status quo.
Register for the Zoom discussion here.

Michelle Hartney is a Chicago based artist and activist. Her work focuses on gender rights, reproductive healthcare issues, and cancel culture. Utilizing fiber, ceramics, wood, embroidery, and social practice, she has completed projects that address birth control access in America, obstetric abuse, post partum PTSD, gender affirming care, and the roles racism and misogyny play in maternal health outcomes in the United States. Her interest in using art to address social issues began during her graduate studies in art therapy at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Hartney often offers cathartic actions for viewers to participate in. She has collaborated with the ACLU, Improving Birth, Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric, & Neonatal Nurses, and Birth Monopoly to raise awareness about reproductive health issues.
Hartney has performed guerrilla activations at The Art Institute of Chicago and The Met, calling on cultural institutions to provide the truth about artists they represent and context about problematic work in their collections. Her work has been published in the New York Times, CNN, BBC Radio, The Guardian, Ms. Magazine, Vice, PBS, Women’s Health, Artnet News, and Hyperallergic.
Ann Lewis is a Providence-based multidisciplinary artist who uses public space and participatory performances to respond to current social and political issues. As an interdisciplinary activist artist, she incorporates painting, installation, sculpture, and participatory means to explore themes related to American identity, power structures, and justice. Ann’s work often includes repetition through graphic elements, and a limited color palette while conveying messages around intersectional social justice issues such as gentrification, women’s rights, and police brutality. Her work is informed by engaging affected communities and reflects relevant scientific data through intuitive use of concept-specific materials.
Notable recent works include Just One Day (2021), a kinetic sculpture representing the estimated 1280 incidents of gender-based violence that happen each day in the United States. This work produced by manually punching over 1,000 holes in waxed canvas, is suspended from the ceiling and makes a full rotation every 72 seconds. Each revolution represents the incident frequency of this systemic national health crisis. Ann’s work and counting… is a chrono-reactive installation detailing every death at the hands of American police officers in 2016 on individual toe tags. Her work has been acquired by the New York Historical Society Museum and the US Library of Congress.
In 2017 she was commissioned by Now + There to complete See Her, which won An Americans for the Arts Public Art In Review Award. This Boston mural was created in community with local returning women and highlighted the humanity and dignity of women transitioning out of incarceration. Ann has since received several large-scale public art commissions, including Same, Same, but Different a 500′ long work at the Pittsburgh International Airport as well as 14,000 square foot mural at the headquarters of Duolingo.
Since receiving her bachelor’s degree in Fine Art from the University of Wisconsin- Madison, Ann’s art has been reviewed in The Guardian, Hyperallergic, The LA Times, Huffington Post, The Boston Globe, and NPR. She has exhibited in solo and group shows throughout the US and abroad, including exhibitions at Petzel Gallery in New York, the Charles H. Wright Museum in Detroit, and Seyhoun Gallery in Tehran, Iran. Through community organizing, participatory performance events, public art, and gallery installations, she continues her dialog of mindful and social evolution. Ann expects to receive her MFA in Digital Media from the Rhode Island School of Design in Spring 2023.

Don’t Tell Comedy show
2023-11-11 20:00 - 22:00 | 21c Museum Hotel Chicago, 55 E Ontario, Chicago, IL, 60611
DON’T MISS OUT ON CHICAGO’S BEST KEPT SECRET.
You’ve found Comedy’s Worst Kept Secret.
BUY TICKETS
SECRET COMEDIANS.
All comedians remain unknown until they take the stage. Every lineup is carefully curated to include the very best local and nationally touring talent. You may discover your next favorite comedian or see a familiar face. You’ll never know who might show up!
SECRET LOCATIONS.
From historic mansions to candy stores, rooftops to rock climbing gyms, we transform just about any environment into a unique setting for live stand-up comedy. The precise location, and other show details, are sent to you at 8:00 AM on Jun 9, 2023. You can also reveal the show details at our website. This show will be happening at an “undisclosed” Indoor location in River North, Chicago.
UNIQUE LIVE EXPERIENCE.
Our shows are run by a local team of comedy lovers, and comedians who are passionate about creating a fun and relaxed environment for experiencing live comedy. There are no two-drink minimums and each show is completely unique. We thrive on good vibes and welcome you to be a part of the DTC community.

The Nutcracker Reading with Ballerinas
2023-11-18 10:00 - 11:00 | 21c Museum Hotel Chicago, 55 E Ontario, Chicago, IL, 60611
On November 18th, enjoy Books and Ballerinas with Ballet 5:8 at 21c Chicago. During this event, your little one will enjoy a dramatic reading of The Nutcracker by a real life ballerina in costume! After reading the story, they will have a dance lesson with the ballerina and learn choreography from the famous ballet set to the iconic music of Tchaikovsky. Coffee and hot chocolate will be served.
Free and open to the public!
RSVP not required.
For more holiday fun, walk over to the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival afterwards! 21c is just one block from Michigan Ave.

Jazz Jam Session with Matt Jarosch Quintet
2023-11-29 19:00 - 22:00 | 21c Museum Hotel Chicago, 55 E Ontario, Chicago, IL, 60611
Jazz Jam Session
Free and open to the public
Jazz jam sessions have long been the place where musicians gather to connect and perform together while honing their skills. The Matt Jarosch Quintet will kick off the night with a 30-minute set before opening the evening to Jazz musicians in the audience to come sit-in!
Musicians can sign up on-site and fill out a jam session info card listing three to five tunes they can play and improvise on from memory. The jam session host will call on musicians to perform and improvise together in front of an enthusiastic live audience. A vocal microphone, drum set, bass, bass amp, and piano will be provided, otherwise bring your axe!
Cash bar available with drink tickets provided for performing musicians. Hungry? Order from Lure Fishbar and they will deliver to you during the performance.

EXPO @ 21c: Museum Tour with Alice Gray Stites, 21c Chief Curator
2024-04-10 16:00 - 17:00 | 21c Museum Hotel Chicago, 55 E Ontario, Chicago, IL, 60611
Free and open to the public. Please RSVP.
Learn about 21c Chicago’s exhibition, OFF-SPRING: New Generations, and the artists behind the works on a guided tour with 21c Chief Curator and Museum Director, Alice Gray Stites.
Meet in the Lobby at 4 pm for this special tour.
Featuring 100 artworks by 60 artists from all over the world, the exhibition explores the role of rituals in shaping identity, relationships, and institutions. Artists featured in the exhibition include Carrie Mae Weems, Deana Lawson, Ragnar Kjartansson, Lalla Essaydi, Gehard Demetz, Adriana Duque, Angela Ellsworth, Anthony Goicolea, and more. Rituals—religious and cultural, institutional, and domestic—provide the thematic infrastructure for OFF-SPRING: New Generations. These sculptures, paintings, photographs, and videos employ iconographic imagery from the sacred to the profane, to explore the development of both personal and group identity, childhood, family, history, and gender politics. At the wedding altar, in the family home, or in the classroom, within the fantasy of childhood play or the familiarity of grown-up habit, these new, old narratives generate a spectrum of meditations on the contemporary construction of self and society.
Image: Deana Lawson, Oath, 2013

Exhibit Tour: OFF-SPRING
2024-04-11 16:00 - 17:00, 2024-04-18 16:00 - 17:00, 2024-04-25 16:00 - 17:00, 2024-05-02 16:00 - 17:00, 2024-05-09 16:00 - 17:00, 2024-05-16 16:00 - 17:00, 2024-05-23 16:00 - 17:00, 2024-05-30 16:00 - 17:00 and 9 more dates | 21c Museum Hotel Chicago, 55 E Ontario, Chicago, IL, 60611
Join 21c Museum Manager Jennifer Murray on an immersive tour of our current exhibit, OFF-SPRING: New Generations, every Thursday at 4:00 pm. The tour meets in the lobby of the 21c Chicago.

About OFF-SPRING: New Generations
Rituals—religious and cultural, institutional and domestic—provide the thematic infrastructure for OFF-SPRING: New Generations. These sculptures, paintings, photographs, and videos employ iconographic imagery to explore the development of both personal and group identity, childhood, family, history, and gender politics. At the wedding altar, in the family home, or in the classroom, within the fantasy of childhood play or the familiarity of grown-up habit, these new, old narratives generate a spectrum of meditations on the contemporary construction of self and society.
About Jennifer Murray, 21c Chicago Museum Manager
Jennifer Murray is an artist, educator, and cultural producer who lives and works in Chicago. As the current Museum Manager at 21c Chicago, she collaborates with artists and arts organizations to create diverse exhibitions and programming. She is the former executive director of Filter Photo, a nonprofit festival, exhibition, and educational space. She was an Instructor of Photography at Loyola University Chicago for fifteen years and consults and mentors artists on project development and exhibition preparation. She received an MFA in photography from Columbia College Chicago.

EXPO @ 21c: Rm 921 with Selina Trepp
2024-04-12 19:30 - 20:30 | 21c Museum Hotel Chicago, 55 E Ontario, Chicago, IL, 60611
Coinciding with EXPO Art After Hours, join us for a unique art viewing experience in Rm 921 at 21c Chicago. On view is Selina Trepp’s stop motion animation, Working the Flow, the second site-specific artwork created for Elevate: Rm 921. Projected onto a 48-foot wall, the film is only viewable after dusk and from the windows of 21c Chicago guests with interior-facing rooms.
For this viewing there will be improvised music by Dan Bitney and LeRoy Bach performed live as a soundtrack to the animation inside the hotel room.
Gather in the hotel lobby to be escorted to Rm 921 by 21c Museum Manager, Jennifer Murray. RSVP required.

EXPO @ 21c: Amplify the Revolutionary Power of Your Voice with Artist Whitney Bradshaw
2024-04-13 11:30 - 13:00 | 21c Museum Hotel Chicago, 55 E Ontario, Chicago, IL, 60611
Free and open to the public. RSVP required. This workshop is limited to 15 participants.

Join Whitney Bradshaw, the feminist artist and activist behind the celebrated social practice project OUTCRY, for an hour-long workshop.

Angry? Want to do something about it? Join Whitney Bradshaw, the feminist artist and activist behind the celebrated social practice project OUTCRY for an hour-long workshop regarding anger, silencing, finding your voice and using it to heal and fight for what you believe in. Whitney will give a brief overview of OUTCRY, lead you through some writing prompts that will help you pinpoint what you’d like to scream about, teach you how to make your very own scream box and provide an opportunity for you to let it all out! You’ll have time to personalize your box by decorating it with images, words, drawings, protest slogans, or whatever else you come up with that best amplifies the message you want to convey.
Basic materials will be provided. Participants are welcome to bring specific pictures or words to decorate their boxes, feel free to bring them along.

ABOUT WHITNEY BRADSHAW
Since 2018, Whitney Bradshaw has been traveling across the United States with OUTCRY, a social practice project for which she leads womxn in empowering, therapeutic and community building scream sessions photographing participants mid-scream to create a collective portrait of resistance, motivate political action, and build feminist solidarity through radical empathy.

OUTCRY scream sessions give women, non-binary, and genderqueer people permission and a brave place to take up space and be loud. Many participants share stories they’ve never told anyone; some scream for the first time ever. And the resulting photographs — exhibited in floor-to-ceiling grids, carried as larger-than-life portraits at protests, or mounted on billboards and projected in public spaces — present women’s unbridled self-expression without regard to society’s expectations.

As restrictions on reproductive choice and LGBTQ+ rights spread around the nation, OUTCRY brings transformation, amplifying women’s voices with an unflinching belief in their power to make both personal and political change. To date more than 500 women have participated in OUTCRY. Together their portraits create a monumental act of resistance.

Bradshaw is an artist, activist, educator, curator, and former social worker living in Chicago. Her work has been shown widely across the United States including solo shows at Atlanta Contemporary, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, the DePaul Art Museum, and Wave Pool Contemporary Art Fulfillment Center. The Museum of Contemporary Photography, the DePaul Art Museum, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and Sara M. and Michelle Vance Waddell collect her work which has been published in Ms. Magazine, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and Vogue. This fall Bradshaw was named one of NewCity Magazine’s top 50 Chicago Artists’ Artists. Both she and OUTCRY are the subject of a documentary film titled OUTCRY: Alchemists of Rage directed by Clare Major which is currently in post-production. Now curator at the Lubeznik Center for the Arts, she was previously the chair of the visual art conservatory at ChiArts, an adjunct professor at Columbia College Chicago, and curator of the renowned LaSalle Bank Photography Collection.

EXPO @ 21c: On Creative Practice, Raeleen Kao and Aimée Beaubien
2024-04-13 13:00 - 14:00 | 21c Museum Hotel Chicago, 55 E Ontario, Chicago, IL, 60611
Free & open to the public.
On Creative Practice brings together two artists in conversation to discuss studio practices, materiality and creation, and what it means to be a working artist today. Join us for this intimate conversation with Raeleen Kao, current Elevate artist at 21c Chicago, and Aimée Beaubien, whose work is currently on view at Hyde Park Art Center.

ABOUT RAELEEN KAO
Raeleen Kao is an over-caffeinated drawer, printmaker, and paper sculptor residing in Chicago with an endless mission to hug every cat and braid every pie crust. She is a recipient of the Luminarts Cultural Foundation Fellowship in Visual Art, the Illinois Arts Council Agency Grant, and the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) Individual Artist Program (IAP) Grant. Her work is represented by Bert Green Fine Art in Chicago and is in the permanent collections of the Kohler Art Museum, the Smith College Museum of Art, the University of Richmond Rare Books & Special Collections, and the North Carolina State University Libraries Special Collections.

ABOUT AIMÉE BEAUBIEN
Aimée Beaubien reshapes the photographic encounter through immersive installation, collage, sculpture and artist books. Exploring the interaction of time, space, and place, she tests the relationship between the real and ideal through intricate layers of plants, photographed plants, interlaced vines, and woven topographies, enhancing the nuanced experience of interpreting photographs and connecting with nature. Her work has been included in national and international exhibitions including Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL), Newport Art Museum (Newport, RI), Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago, IL), UCR Museum of Photography (Riverside, CA), ABC No Rio (New York, NY), Demo Projects (Springfield, IL), Gallery UNO Projektraum (Berlin, Germany), Houston Center for Photography (Houston, TX), Laney Contemporary Fine Art (Savannah, GA), Lubeznik Center for the Arts (Michigan City, IN), Marvelli Gallery (New York, NY), Monaco (St. Louis, MO), oqbo galerie (Berlin, Germany), The Pitch Project (Milwaukee, WI), Randolph Street Gallery (Chicago, IL), SF Camerawork (San Francisco, CA), Temple Contemporary (Philadelphia, PA), TWIN KITTENS (Atlanta, GA), Virus Art Gallery (Rome, Italy). Beaubien is an Associate Professor of Photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she has taught since 1997.

Image:
Aimée Beaubien
Matter in the Hothouse, 2022
photographs, lighting, paracord, gold leaf, bioplastic, plant matter
dimensions variable
detail of installation at SF Camerawork, San Francisco, CA

EXPO @ 21c: Chicago Into the World, Artistic and Cultural Exchange Along a Continuum
2024-04-14 10:00 - 11:00 | 21c Museum Hotel Chicago, 55 E Ontario, Chicago, IL, 60611
Register now; space is limited.

21c Museum Hotel, ART WORKS Projects, CEC ArtsLink, and Villa Albertine invite you to a thrilling conversation, over coffee and pastries on the last day of Expo Chicago, on gaining insights into how distinctive platforms facilitate international artistic and cultural exchanges.

If we understand artists as change makers, organizers, and civic leaders locally, how might we expand the impact of their work through intentional connection with relevant artists and communities across the globe? Join us to learn about the ways these unique platforms support international artistic and cultural exchange for artists, partner with civic and government entities, as well as private foundations, and forge new pathways supporting the essential role of artists in society.
Hear from artists and collaborators who have worked with these organizations about the network impact that can be achieved when we work together.

Learn More

PANELISTS
Assia Drame aka Azzeazy, Visual Artist, Poet and 2024 Villa Albertine Artist in Residence
Azzeazy is a multidisciplinary artist, studying a Master degree at Beaux-Arts de Paris. She was the laureate of the 2023 Sarr prize – Villa Albertine in partnership with Beaux-Arts de Paris awarding her with a one-month research-residency in Chicago. She repairs and play with neuronal pathways through drawing-installation, video art and soundscape. She previously integrated an exchange program at Musashino Art University in Tokyo, and worked on creating collective performance around meditation, sound and themes of parasitism and symbiosis.
Catherine Sarr, founder and CEO of ALMASIKA and the Sarr Collection
Catherine Sarr is the founder and CEO of ALMASIKA, a fine jewelry brand rooted in symbols, shapes, and stories that transcend cultural boundaries. Through the Sarr Collection, with her husband Mamadou-Abou Sarr, she supports emerging artists, notably with the Sarr PRIZE, in partnership with Les Beaux-Arts de Paris, and a residency program in the United States, in partnership with Villa Albertine. Sarr is involved in several philanthropic and civic activities, including being a board member of the Terra Foundation for American Arts and the Committee on Arts of Africa of the Art Institute of Chicago. She was named Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) by the French Governement in 2022.
Megha Ralapati, Program Director of Fellowships at CEC ArtsLink
Megha Ralapati is the Program Director of Fellowships at CEC ArtsLink. Prior to this role, she developed and oversaw the Jackman Goldwasser Residency at Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago, where she forged partnerships with the French Embassy, Goethe Institut, Asian Cultural Council, Northwestern University and other institutions to design intentional cross-cultural artistic exchanges. Megha specializes in artist mobility and has collaborated with community-centered organizations based in the US and internationally like Project Row Houses, ARTPORT Tel Aviv, and Center for Contemporary Art Lagos.
Bora Un, Managing Director of ART WORKS Projects
Bora Un is a nonprofit leader with two decades of experience working across the arts and culture, higher education, NGO, and policy sectors. Under her leadership, AWP celebrated an important 15-year anniversary milestone and executed on a strategic sustainability and growth campaign including securing foundation status in the EU and securing foundational support to scale their signature program, the Emerging Lens Fellowship. As a culturally competent strategic consultant, Bora has advised and worked with a range of global clients on strategic alignment and advancement initiatives leveraging her personal and professional passion for authentic storytelling.
Jennifer Murray, Museum Manager at 21c Chicago
Jennifer Murray is an artist, educator, and cultural producer who lives and works in Chicago. As the current Museum Manager at 21c Chicago, she collaborates with artists and arts organizations to create diverse exhibitions and programming. She is the former executive director of Filter Photo, a nonprofit festival, exhibition, and educational space. She was an Instructor of Photography at Loyola University Chicago for fifteen years and consults and mentors artists on project development and exhibition preparation.

Image: Julien Creuzet, Installation view for In/Situ during EXPO Chicago 2023, Courtesy the artist and DOCUMENT, Chicago | Lisbon

Puppy Yoga: Stretch, Relax, and Bring your Puppy
2024-05-12 10:00 - 11:30, 2024-06-23 10:00 - 11:30, 2024-07-28 10:00 - 11:30 | IL
May 12 Tickets: Reserve Now
June 23 Tickets: Reserve Now
July 28 Tickets: Reserve Now
August 25 Tickets: Reserve Now
Get ready to unwind and have a pawsome time at our Puppy Yoga event! Join us for a unique yoga experience where you can stretch, relax, and bond with adorable puppies. Come join us for a paws-itively fun yoga session with adorable puppies to help you relax and unwind!
You’ll enjoy a gentle and fun yoga session, suitable for all levels, while bonding with your furry friend if you don’t have a dog no problem! You’ll also get to meet other dog lovers, share tips, and have a blast. It’s a great way to de-stress, boost your mood, and improve your health.
Don’t miss this chance to experience the joy of puppy yoga. Book your spot today and get ready to unleash your inner zen!

Art, Jazz, + Wine Cocktail Reception
2024-05-29 17:30 - 19:30 | 21c Museum Hotel Chicago, 55 E Ontario, Chicago, IL, 60611
Join us on May 29th for our Art, Wine, + Jazz Cocktail Reception!

Sip on a glass of wine and enjoy an immersive guided tour of our current exhibition, OFF-SPRING at 21c Museum Hotel Chicago. Learn about contemporary art, the artists behind the work, & enjoy a lively jam sesh with The Matt Jarosch Jazz Quintet.

Click here to see our March event on Instagram!

Free and open to the public.
