Beginning in 1891, Hull-House was home to Chicago's first public art gallery, the Butler Art Gallery, housed in the Social Settlement's first building. The gallery and the settlement's many arts programs—including painting, sculpture, weaving, drawing, ceramics, and book-binding—engaged a variety of artists and local community residents across the city
Join Jane Addams Hull-House Museum for a two and a half day symposium—with presentations, discussions, tours and performances—that explore the history of arts and social change in the city. The symposium will bring together contemporary artists, scholars, activists, educators and students in conversation to explore the history of Hull-House artists, the Social Settlement’s arts programs and the ways in which they influenced visual and performing arts in Chicago and beyond. Sessions will highlight four contemporary and historical practices of arts that are featured in the current Hull-House exhibition Participatory Arts: Crafting Social Change (September 6, 2018 – May 3, 2019): craft and book binding, art therapy, ceramics and murals and performance and theater. The Settlement’s residents believed that participation and access to the arts was a fundamental part of participating in a democratic society. The symposium will explore the historical and contemporary possibilities of art to incite participatory, collective, and community-engaged work. The symposium is FREE and open to the public with RSVP.
The symposium Participatory Arts: The Legacy of Chicago’s Hull-House Artists, and the exhibition Participatory Arts: Crafting Social Change (September 6, 2018-May 3, 2019) are part of Art Design Chicago, an initiative of the Terra Foundation for American Art exploring Chicago’s art and design legacy, with presenting partner The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation. Participatory Arts is funded by the Terra Foundation for American Art and The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation. The Chicago Community Trust has also provided generous support.
October 23
Opening Reception
6:00-8:00 PM
Enjoy our symposium kick-off reception, refreshments and music with Hull-House DJ Sadie Rock. The Museum will be open for extended hours during this time for attendees to visit the new exhibition Participatory Arts: Crafting Social Change.
October 24
Refreshments, Introductions & Overview
9:00-9:30 AM
‘Connecting Head and Hands’: Art, Labor, and Voice
9:30 AM-12:00 PM
Speakers Include: David Sokol, Professor Emeritus of Art History at UIC; Annie Storr, Brandeis University; Rima Lunin Schultz, Author and Historian; Regin Igloria, Bookbinder/North Branch Projects; Hannah Higgins, Department of Art History at UIC
Lunch & Tour of Participatory Arts exhibition
12:00–1:30 PM
Cows Can Be Purple: Art, Personhood and Art Therapy Origins at Hull-House
1:30-4:30 PM
Speakers Include: Cassandra McKay Jackson, Director of the Master of Social Work program at Erikson Institute; Kathy Preissner, Clinical Associate Professor, Academic Fieldwork Coordinator, Department of Occupational Therapy, UIC; Leah Gipson, Artist & Assistant Professor and Program Director in the Art Therapy Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Jennifer La Civita, Chairperson of the Master of Arts in Counseling, Art Therapy Department, School of Professional Psychology, Adler University
Albany Park Theater Project Performance
4:30–5:30 PM
October 25
Refreshments, Introductions & Overview
9:30-10:00 AM
Art, Representation and Community Building: Ceramics and Murals
10:15AM-12:00PM
Speakers Include: Kymberly Pinder, Dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico; Cheryl Ganz, Co-author of Pots of Promise: Mexicans and Pottery at Hull-House, 1920-40; Cesareo Moreno, Visual Arts Director and Chief Curator, National Museum of Mexican Art; Rosa Cabrera, Director, Rafael Cintrón Ortiz Latino Cultural Center, UIC; Nicole Marroquin, Ceramicist & Associate Professor in the Department of Art Education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Lunch & Tour of “The Awakening of the Americas” Mural at UIC's Rafael Cintrón Ortiz Latino Cultural Center
12:00-1:30 PM
Art, Difference, and Embodiment: Theater and Performing Arts at Hull-House and in the City
1:30-4:30 PM
Speakers Include: Lori Barcliff Baptista, Associate Dean/Senior Lecturer, Performance Studies Northwestern University; Coya Paz, Artistic Director, Free Street Theater; Willa Taylor, Director of Education and Community Engagement, Goodman Theatre; Christine Dunford, Director, UIC School of Theater and Music; Stuart Hecht, Associate Professor of Theatre, Boston College; Aretha Sills, Associate Director of Sills/Spolin Theater Works; author of Improvisation for the Theater granddaughter of Viola Spolin and daughter of Paul Sills (creator/director of The Second City and Story Theater).
Free Street Theater Performance
4:30-5:30 PM
Closing Reception
5:30-7:30 PM
Want to participate more? Click below for links to the exhibition Participatory Arts: Crafting Social Change at Hull-House and the Artist Workshop Series!
