Art Spaces Around Campus

Logan Center Exhibitions presents international contemporary art programming at the Logan Center Gallery and throughout the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago. Reflecting the spirit of inquiry at the university, Logan Center Exhibitions focuses on open, collaborative, and process-based approaches to cultural production. 

Working closely with artists, students, scholars, and community members, Logan Center Exhibitions presents innovative exhibitions by emerging and established artists; supports ambitious new commissions and research projects; disseminates knowledge through publications; and facilitates connections through talks and other public programs.

Each spring, Logan Center Exhibitions collaborates with the Department of Visual Arts to host the BA and MFA Thesis Exhibitions in the Logan Center Gallery.
 

The Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago is a site for rigorous inquiry and exchange that encourages the examination of complex issues through the lens of art objects and artistic practice. Through strong community and scholarly partnerships, the Museum incorporates diverse ideas, identities, and experiences into its exhibitions and collections, academic initiatives, and public programming. The Smart Museum also provides employment opportunity to DoVA students through work study.

Founded in 1915, The Renaissance Society (The Ren) is one of the leading North American venues for international contemporary art, with changing public exhibitions in its galleries throughout the year. Visitors to the Ren find a uniquely intimate platform for encountering artistic expressions that give form to, challenge, and complicate currents in contemporary thought. Events—including artist talks, lectures, screenings, concerts, readings, and more—offer further opportunities for discovery and discussion. They maintain robust archives, which can be accessed by all visitors, art historians, students, and other institutions by making an appointment. The Ren also offers employment opportunities for students with work study.
 

Through faculty research projects, a global fellows initiative, and exhibitions, the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society explores novel approaches to complex human questions at the University of Chicago and beyond. The Neubauer Collegium Gallery, supported by the Brenda Mulmed Shapiro Fund, presents art in the context of academic research. Their exhibitions explore the ways that thought and creative expression respond to and shape each other. Curated by Dieter Roelstraete since 2017, the gallery provides space for scholars, artists, practitioners, and the public to engage with the arts as a form of knowledge.
 

Providing an unquestioned resource to the University of Chicago and wider city community, Doc Films screens movies every night of the academic year, dedicating one night a week to a particular theme, often featuring movies that could not be seen elsewhere. Besides regular screenings, Doc hosts a variety of special events, such as conversations with directors, faculty members, critics or other experts as well as sneak previews and student films produced by Fire Escape Films. Doc is exclusively run by volunteers who manage every aspect from programming film series to projecting films. They also annually elect the Doc Executive Board.

Doc Films is on record with the Museum of Modern Art as the longest continuously running student film society in the nation, looking back on a more than 75 year old history.
 

The mission of the Special Collections Research Center, the principal repository for and steward of the Library's rare books, manuscripts, University Archives, and the Chicago Jazz Archives, is to provide primary sources to stimulate, enrich, and support research, teaching, learning, and administration at the University of Chicago. Special Collections makes these resources available to a broad constituency as part of the University's engagement with the larger community of scholars and independent researchers.
 

The Hyde Park Art Center has been a leader in advancing contemporary visual art in Chicago since 1939. With an expansive reach and bold personality, the nonprofit organization brings artists and communities together to support creativity at every level. The Hyde Park Art Center offers opportunities for students to take classes and employment opportunities for students with work study. The Hyde Park Art Center also curates Ground Floor, a biennial exhibition of work from recent alumni from the top-rated art schools offering Master of Fine Art degrees in Chicago, including the University of Chicago.

An initiative of UChicago Arts, Arts + Public Life (APL) is a dynamic hub of exploration, expression, and exchange that centers people of color and fosters neighborhood vibrancy through the arts on the South Side of Chicago. As a neighborhood platform for arts and culture in Washington Park, APL provides residencies for Black and Brown artists and creative entrepreneurs, arts education for youth, and artist-led programming and exhibitions. APL also manages the Arts Incubator.

Rebuild Foundation is a platform for art, cultural development, and neighborhood transformation. Their projects support artists and strengthen communities by providing free arts programming, creating new cultural amenities, and developing affordable housing, studio, and live-work space. Founded and led by artist Theaster Gates, Rebuild is part of a network of sister organizations that collaborate to extend the social engagement of Gates’ studio practice to the South Side of Chicago and beyond.