Between 1850 and 1950, progressive artists, designers, and architects decisively reshaped the everyday world of objects. Advocating for design reform – and by extension, social reform – they promoted a host of competing ideologies that embraced aesthetic revolution and technical innovation. Drawn entirely from the Smart Museum’s collection, this exhibition explores the interweaving history and iconic forms that defined the domestic world of modernism.

The Smart Museum of Art, 5550 S. Greenwood Ave., Chicago. Exhibit runs July 8 – September 5. Summer Hours: Tuesday – Friday, 10:00am – 4:00pm; Saturday – Sunday, 11:00am – 5:00pm. This event is free and open to the public.

Join us next Monday, July 19th from 10:00am – 12:00pm for Making Tiles with Anita Garrison. To see Anita’s handcrafted mosaic and polymer art, take a look at her website. And check out our facebook page for photos of all the fun we’ve had so far! It’s not to late to join in!

Join Artisans 21 every Monday June 21st through August 23rd as our own practicing artists will lead children ages 5-12 through lively, imaginative projects.

Artisan 21, 1373 E. 53rd St., Chicago. Every Monday from June 21st – August 23rd, 10:00am-12:00pm. Registration is $25 for one session, or $180 for all nine.   To register or to learn more, please visit our website, enroll by phone at 773-288-7450 or in person. Drop-ins are welcome if space permits.

The Op Shop is hosting a series of Paired Evenings of Performance and Public Dinners where members schedule performances and match each one with a dinner host.  Each host invites a group of friends and acquaintances, and the performers are encouraged to do the same.  Following the performance, a public potluck dinner that mixes audiences and explores ideas of performance and public space.

In addition to these evenings, we are inviting artists and community members to participate in a 4 hour experience in which they will interact with the space and the public, be it through performance, dialogue, art exhibit, collaborative/creative action or studio time.  Each week we will announce the people you can expect to encounter.

Op Shop, 5225 S. Harper Ave., Chicago. July 17 – August 16, Monday – Friday from 2:00pm – 6:00pm; Saturday and Sunday 12:00pm – 4:00pm. Free and open to the public.

Come enjoy this free drop-in day of art activities and performances and treat the entire family. Every second Sunday of the month from 1-4pm the Hyde park Art Center has a FREE day of art-making activities for the whole family.

Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 S. Cornell St., Chicago. Sunday, August 8 from 1:00pm-4:00pm. For more information call 773.324.5520 or visit www.hydeparkark.org. This event is free and open to the public.

Join us on August 14 at 2pm, as the Hyde Park Art Center debuts the documentary, “I am the Queen,” directed and produced by Josue Pellot and Henrique Cirne-Lima. “I am the Queen” takes a look at the often unobserved life of Chicago’s Puerto Rican transgendered community documenting the Cacique Pageant, the first annual transgendered pageant held in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood. The film exposes the restructuring of the family unit experienced by pageant participants who are often distanced from their biological family only to find kinship among others in the Puerto Rican transgendered community.

Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 S. Cornell St., Chicago. Saturday, August 14 at 2:00pm. For more information call 773.324.5520 or visit www.hydeparkark.org. This event is free and open to the public.

This exhibition follows the daring travels of James H. Breasted, the founder of the Oriental Institute, through the Middle East following World War I. In his quest for sites for his new institute to excavate, he encountered war-torn landscapes, hostile tribes, and harsh travel conditions. The photos, archival documents, and artifacts that trace Breasted’s expedition also address issues concerning the relationship between past and present, archaeology and politics, and America’s role in the Middle East that are as relevant today as they were nearly a century ago.  Learn more »

Oriental Institute, 1155 East 58th Street