Current Exhibits

Exhibits at the Chicago Public Library highlight unique CPL collections, Chicago history, local artists and more.

Illustrated Press: Chicago
Home in One Place: A South Side Story
Kathy Has a Question
February 23, 2013 – July 28, 2013

Harold Washington Library Center
Congress Corridor, Ground Floor
400 S. State Street

The Chicago Public Library presents the exhibits Home in One Place: A South Side Story and Kathy Has a Question by The Illustrated Press. Founded by Chicago journalist Darryl Holliday and graphic artist Erik Nelson Rodriquez, The Illustrated Press produces comics journalism stories. One reviewer called their first book, The Illustrated Press: Chicago, “a love letter” to their city. Work from The Illustrated Press can be found in various Midwest outlets, including WBEZ, The Progressive magazine and Gapersblock.com. Kathy Has a Question was produced in partnership with Curious City, a co-production of Jennifer Brandel, WBEZ and AIR - the Association of Independents in Radio – with funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Home in One Place can be found in The Illustrated Press: Chicago.

Horizon
April 5, 2013 – June 30, 2013

Harold Washington Library Center
Special Collections Exhibit Hall, Ninth Floor
400 S. State Street

Horizon features the work of 53 book artists. Juried by the Guild of Bookworkers, artists were given the theme “horizon” to interpret. Founded in 1906, the Guild of Book Workers is a national organization dedicated to the book arts, including bookbinding, conservation, printing, papermaking, calligraphy, marbling and artists’ books.

Faith in the Struggle: Rev. Addie L. Wyatt’s Fight for Labor, Civil Rights and Women’s Rights
March 23, 2013 – March 15, 2014

Woodson Regional Library
Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature
9525 S. Halsted Street

The Chicago Public Library’s Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature presents an exhibit recognizing the life and work of the late Rev. Addie L. Wyatt, who served as co-pastor of Chicago’s Vernon Park Church of God with her husband, the Rev. Claude Wyatt, Jr., and was one of the leading human rights activists in 20th century America. This exhibit traces Wyatt’s life and work from her birth in Brookhaven, Miss., to her passing in 2012, from her part in the epic Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to Chicago to her rise in the labor unions to her fight for women’s rights.

Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month Featured Artist: Myung-Soon Chay
May 1, 2013 – May 31, 2013

Harold Washington Library Center
Third Floor
400 S. State Street

The Chicago Public Library is celebrating Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month (May) with a series of art exhibits of works by Asian/Pacific American artists. These exhibits can be seen at library locations throughout the city. Harold Washington Library Center features artist Myung-Soon Chay. Chay has had many years to master her art of colorful quilts and gorgeous embroidery. Her exhibit is based on ancient Korean temple roofing tile designs, embroidering gold thread on black fabric.

Bodies and Patterns: A Relationship in Question, the Art of Elizabeth Merritt Kong
April 30, 2013 – May 31, 2013

Harold Washington Library Center
Flat Exhibit Cases, Eighth Floor
400 S. State Street

In honor of Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, the Art Information Center presents an exhibit by Elizabeth Merritt Kong. Her mixed media screen prints represent an ongoing consideration of the relationship between sequence and bodies; social, cellular and otherwise. What does it mean for a life to be formulated by sequence? How do we recognize a shift or disruption in this sequence? These relationships and their possible outcomes are investigated in these images. Originally from southern California, the artist resides in Chicago.

Chicago’s Got Soul Second to None
Through May 31, 2013

Harold Washington Library Center
South Wall Case, Eighth Floor
400 S. State Street

This exhibit highlights the history of soul music, with a spotlight on the Chicago scene and such soul and R&B favorites as Jerry Butler, Lou Rawls, Sam Cooke, Curtis Mayfield, Quincy Jones and The Staple Singers. The biographical information, personal quotations, photographs, record album covers and advertisements show that our city has enjoyed soul music second to none.

Called to the Challenge: The Legacy of Harold Washington
Ongoing

Harold Washington Library Center
Harold Washington Exhibit Hall, Ninth Floor
400 S. State Street.

This exhibit highlights three themes from Washington’s personal and political legacy – his life, his image and his work. Harold Washington, 42nd mayor of Chicago, was the city’s first African American mayor. He was a reformer who changed Chicago politics and a person who never lost sight of the place from which he came and the influences that inspired him. This exhibition is drawn largely from the Harold Washington Archives & Collections of the Special Collections and Preservation Division of the Chicago Public Library.