Join us in the Currency Exchange Café for a Table Talk on the exhibition, Opening Reception: Chicago on My Mind presented by the Curatorial Collective.

Table Talks are intimate lunches at the Currency Exchange Café in Washington Park that bring a curious public into conversation with visiting artists from Chicago and beyond. Featuring a specially-designed menu created by the chefs at the Café, Table Talks offer the unique opportunity to share conversation about art and life over an artist-inspired meal and with artists at the forefront of contemporary creative practice.

Lunch is provided for all who attend. This event is free and open to the public, but space is extremely limited and RSVP is required.

There is room for 12 participants at this upcoming Table Talk.

Spaces will be reserved on a first-come, first-serve basis. Please include any dietary needs and/or accommodations requests.

Please RSVP to npatin@uchicago.edu with “Table Talk” in the subject line. You will receive a confirmation and more details shortly after.
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Exhibition Runs Jan 20 – Feb 26, 2017
Gallery Hours: Mon – Fri, 10am-6pm

Arts and Public Life’s inaugural Resident Curatorial Collective present Chicago On My Mind, an exhibition which shares a story of many Chicagos. Expanding on the intended curatorial vision of the 1969 exhibition Harlem on My Mind presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Chicago on My Mind explores cultural values driven by Chicago-based social and civic-minded collection practices.

This exhibition takes form through a collaborative spirit between Curatorial Collective residents La Keisha Leek and Sadie Wood, and ten private collectors who are practicing artists, curators, cultural producers, educators, and founders of independently run arts organizations. Each participant, having stakes in the Chicago arts community, is treated as co-curator throughout the selection process of works featured in the exhibition. Chicago on My Mind creates a documented history and contemporary narrative that links to feminist and civil rights movements, the erasure of black masculinity through the prison industrial complex, immigrant rights, displacement, hope, and resilience.

A key focal point to the practices of Leek and Woods is to further the reach of the local. Curation, as a point of departure, inserts the artist and social understandings of the city into a larger discourse of the intersections of art and politics. Chicago on My Mind features select works from the collections of Janice Bond, Dwamina K. Drew, Lou Mallozzi, Rob McKay, Cesáreo Moreno, Sabina Ott, Edra Soto, Tricia Van Eck, Raub Welch, and Eric Williams. Amongst a group ranging from emerging to established artists featured in the exhibition are Hebru Brantley, Shani Crowe, Stephen Flemister, Lamont Hamilton, Dayo Laoye, Harold Mendez, Melissa Potter, and Kara Walker.

Presented by the University of Chicago’s Arts + Public Life Initiative. Additional exhibition support is provided by the Department of Exhibition and Performance Spaces (DEPS) at Columbia College Chicago.

Image: Kara Walker, Freedom A Fable, 1997. Private Collection of Sabina Ott

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RELATED PROGRAMMING

Opening Reception
Friday, January 20, 6:00–8:00pm
Arts Incubator, 301 East Garfield Boulevard

Collector’s Talk + Closing Reception
Friday, February 24, 6:00–8:00pm
Arts Incubator, 301 East Garfield Boulevard

Closing Night After Party
Friday, February 24, 8:00–10:00pm
BING Reading Room, 307 East Garfield Boulevard

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This exhibition is wheelchair accessible. Persons with disabilities who need an accommodation in order to participate in these events should contact Arts + Public Life for assistance at 773.702.9724 or artsandpubliclife@uchicago.edu.

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Tags: Arts and Public Life, Chicago, Currency Exchange Cafe, Hyde Park, Table Talk