This summer, enjoy Julia Huff in the Smart Museum of Art’s sun-dappled sculpture garden. Free and open to the public, the Smart Museum of Art is home to acclaimed special exhibitions and a permanent collection that spans five thousand years of artistic creation. Visit smartmuseum.uchicago.edu to learn more.

The Smart Museum of Art’s outdoor sculpture garden, 5550 S. Greenwood Ave., Chicago. Sunday, July 18 at 2:00pm.  This event is free and open to the public.

Think night on the town meets playing in the mud. Every 2nd Friday of the month, join us for a late night clay-making, dance-partying, gallery-hopping good time. We’ve got 45 minute clay sessions back in our studios, a live DJ and drink specials all night. This month we welcome a special guest. Jazz bassist Frank Russell will provide us with a back beat to our clay play.

Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 S. Cornell Ave., Chicago. Friday, June 11, 2010. 8:00pm-12:00am (midnight). This event is free. For more information, please call 773-324-5520 or visit www.hydeparkart.org.

Hanah Jon Taylor is a veteran member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).  In 1990, he was commissioned by the University of Chicago to organize and direct its first improvisational jazz orchestra.

Willie Pickens is one of Chicago’s most in-demand pianists for visiting artists.  He has performed several times at the famed Chicago Jazz Festival and has been the featured pianist on impresario Joe Segal’s Jazz Cruises, where he has shared the stage with Clark Terry, Louie Bellson, and Red Holloway, among others.  Learn more »

International House, 1414 East 59th Street, Chicago. Assembly Hall. Saturday, June 5, 8:00-10:00pm. General admission tickets are $10 (an additional $2 discount for Passport holders), $5 for students with ID, and free to I-House residents.

Lauded for its boldness in showcasing cutting-edge compositions, the Jazz X-tet is a versatile collection of 12-18 musicians, frequently joined in performance by noted Chicago-area professionals.  The X-tet’s three-concert season offers a variety of pieces, from jazz standards to hip-hop, often in arrangements that are custom-designed for the ensemble by its own members.  In rehearsal and performance, the X-tet focuses on developing the improvisational skills of its musicians, as well as on deepening their understanding of the wide-ranging jazz idiom.  The group has issued two CDs, and frequently performs for University of Chicago events on campus and elsewhere in the city.  In addition to the Jazz X-tet itself, several small jazz combo groups are set up each year to provide training and experience to interested musicians.

Fulton Recital Hall, Goodspeed Hall, 4th Floor. 1010 E. 59th St., Chicago. Thursday, June 3 at 8:00pm. This event is free to the public.

Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone Ave., Chicago. Wednesday, May 19, 6:00pm-7:30pm.  This event is free. For more information go: www.jot.org.

Friends of the Garden was created in 2009 with a vision to at last provide sustaining support to the Japanese Garden created by Fredrick Law Olmstead in 1893 on the Wooded Island as part of the Columbian Exposition.  We embrace the full history of the Garden to which the Meiji Emperor made original donations and which has received repeated support from the people of Japan and the City of Chicago.  Since 1973, the City of Osaka has been the “best friend” of the Garden, and that is why the Garden was rededicated as the Osaka Garden by the City of Chicago.

Join us on Saturday Aug 28 for Summer in the Osaka Garden featuring a volunteer gardening activity, Taiko Drumming and a Judo Demonstration.

The Garden is located on the north end of the Wooded Island, best accessed by the bridge on the north end of the island.

More info to come!

World Class Jazz presents Latin Inferno: James Sanders Conjunto with special guests Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre and Papo Santiago! CRDT’s pieces will include elements of improv and explore dynamic relationships with our distinct contemporary Latin flavor. Choreography by Michelle Manzanales, Raphaelle Ziemba, Dionna PridGeon, and Artistic Director Wilfredo Rivera.

Steeped in the Afro-Cuban musical tradition, violinist James Sanders can be seen and heard across Chicago from symphonies to Latin clubs and everywhere in between.

Come out to enjoy a free concert and the chance to win two free dinner giveaways!

Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park, 201 E. Randolph St. (between Michigan Ave. and Columbus Ave.), Chicago. Thursday, August 26th, at 6:30pm. This event is free and open to the public. For more information visit www.cerquarivera.org.

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.

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.

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.