12:00–1:00pm
PUBLIC PROTEST ART | RICHARD BELL IN CONVERSATION WITH CAY SOPHIE RABINOWITZ

Richard Bell’s art practice exists in parallel with the ongoing struggle for First Nations rights in Australia. His statement paintings address legacies of Western colonization, Aboriginal resistance, and awareness of global struggles for social justice, in particular solidarity with the Black Panthers and Black Lives Matter movements. Following major exhibitions last year at Documenta in Kassel and at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, this May, 2023, Bell will be presenting his major work EMBASSY (2013-2023) at Tate Modern, London. At EXPO CHICAGO, where his work is on view for the first time in Chicago, Bell will discuss his practice with Cay Sophie Rabinowitz, founder of OSMOS Magazine, who recently published his essay titled Bell’s Theorem (Reductio ad Infinitum): Contemporary Art—It’s a White Thing!, a follow up to his 2002 manifesto on Aboriginal art in the art world, Bell’s Theorem: Aboriginal Art—It’s a White Thing. Additionally, the Gene Siskel Film Center will premiere a new documentary on his life and work, You Can Go Now, which features Bell together with his close artistic collaborators, such as Emory Douglas, former Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party, who designed the Panther Party’s newspapers and defined an aesthetic of Civil Rights protest. Screenings are scheduled for Wednesday, April 12, at 5:30pm and Saturday, April 15, at 7pm followed by Q&A with Richard Bell. This panel is presented in partnership with OSMOS. 

1:30–2:00pm
SCREENING OF FOR FREEDOMS NEWS (FFN)

2:00–3:00pm
DIRECTORS SUMMIT | DESIGNING INCLUSIVE MUSEUM CULTURES: PART II

Panelists | Nora Burnett Abrams (MCA Denver), Anne Ellegood (ICA Los Angeles), Virginia Shearer (Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design)

The second annual Directors Summit, organized by EXPO CHICAGO alongside experienced museum leader Jill Snyder, brings together a diverse group of emerging art museum leaders from across the United States for a three-day program addressing the shifting dynamics of museum leadership today.

Responding to lessons from the pandemic, reverberations from social uprisings, and the shifts in values and ideals of a younger generation, museum leaders are deeply invested in a more inclusive museum, how it behaves, and how that inclusivity is reflected in the work culture. In part two of two roundtable discussions panelists will explore how new institutional systems lead to enduring structural change. In lively conversation, this cohort of leaders will share lived experiences, experiments, and new pathways forward. This panel is presented in partnership with Sotheby’s and Risk Strategies.

3:30–4:30pm
BEYOND THE BIENNIAL

Panelists | Tizziana Baldenebro (SPACES) (SAIC MArch 2019), Lauren Leving (MOCA Cleveland), Jeremiah  Hulsebos-Spofford (Floating Museum), Faheem Majeed (Floating Museum), Andrew Schachman (Floating Museum) (SAIC Lecturer), avery r. young (Floating Museum). Moderated by Chiara Rimella.

Join Tizziana Baldenebro (Executive Director, SPACES) and Lauren Leving (Curator, MOCA Cleveland), curators of the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale’s U.S. Pavilion alongside members of the Floating Museum, 2023 Artistic Team of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, for a preview of their upcoming presentations in Venice and Chicago. Beyond the Biennial will take stock of the expanding phenomenon of biennials as a platform in themselves. The conversation will explore the potential of thinking about what could happen if coordinating biennials across national boundaries can trace the way common concerns find local expression. Panelists will also consider how these presentations can operate more as laboratories than finalized exhibitions, and how this knowledge sharing is maintained in a new location after it is initially shared. This panel is presented in partnership with the Chicago Architectural Biennial and SPACES. 

4:45–5:00pm
SCREENING OF BRENDAN FERNANDES: FREE FALL, FOR CAMERA (2019)

5:00–6:00pm
ART CRITICS FORUM | SUPPORTING CRITICS OF COLOR

Panelists | Raquel Gutiérrez, Camille Bacon, Jasmine Amussen. Moderated by Maximilíano Durón.

As with much of the art world, art criticism has long been dominated by white writers. More recently, a new generation of critics of color have established themselves as important voices within the dialogue of art and theory—no longer voices on the margins. The voices of critics of color are essential when discussing the work of artists of color, in particular, as they bring an embodied knowledge to their writing and analysis. This panel will bring together three leading art critics to discuss their career paths, how they approach their writing, the struggles they’ve faced along the way, and what they most need today. Presented in partnership with Art in America and Critical Minded, an initiative to invest in cultural critics of color cofounded by The Nathan Cummings Foundation and The Ford Foundation.