Artistic Resources Around Campus

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.

Founded in 1915, The Renaissance Society is one of the leading North American venues for international contemporary art, with changing public exhibitions in its galleries throughout the year. The Renaissance Society also offers employment opportunities for students with work study.

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.
 

The Experimental Station is a not-for-profit (501-c-3) incubator of innovative cultural, educational, and environmental projects and small-scale enterprises. Founded in 2002 by Connie Spreen and DoVA alum Dan Peterman, the Experimental Station works towards building independent cultural infrastructure on the South Side of Chicago. They do this by fostering a dynamic ecology of innovative educational and cultural programs, small business enterprises and community initiatives. Since 2006, they have both built their own programming to address a variety of identified local needs and have fostered, hosted, and sponsored numerous other initiatives such as the Blackstone Bicycle Works, 61st Street Farmers Market, the Invisible Institute, and 90 Days, 90 Voices to name a few.

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.

Founded in 1961 by husband and wife team, Dr. Margaret Taylor Burroughs and Charles Burroughs, the DuSable Museum of African American History is a Chicago community institution and the first non-profit Museum dedicated to the collection, documentation, preservation, study and the dissemination of the history and culture of Africans and African Americans. Through exhibits, educational programs, the archives, and special activities, the Museum continuously explores the African American experience and accomplishments of the past and present to further advance the education of the future.
 

Sweet Water Foundation’s work seeks to cultivate the continued healing of the neighborhood, its land, and its people, and re-rooting people in community through arts, culture, and housing. As such, The Commonwealth has become an arts and culture destination on Chicago’s South side, offering a wide range of intergenerational arts + cultural programs, workshops, and events and providing much needed space for artists, local organizations, and residents alike to imagine other possibilities for their community.
 

Founded in 1940, the South Side Community Art Center is the oldest African American art center in the United States and is a Chicago Historic Landmark. SSCAC showcases established artists and nurtures emerging creators. Through educational and artistic programs, exhibitions, talks, tours, and more, the center strives to engage, educate and connect community members to African American art and artists.