Schedule

ART WORKS Projects presents a site-specific installation of Borders Cruzadas: A Collaborative Story, a visual narrative project in partnership with international photographers Oscar B. Castillo and Wil Sands, which compiles documentary photography, video, archival materials, and oral histories as a response to the critical issues arising from this global migration crisis. Drawing from his personal ties to the ongoing crises in his home country of Venezuela, Castillo, in partnership with Sands, spent months documenting and collaborating with migrants en route to the U.S. border  as they face challenging conditions, personal anguish, and political uncertainty as it pertains to safe and legal pathways to a better life.

A site-specific installation during the Night of Ideas will provide a glimpse into the project leveraging the universal power of photography and storytelling to foster a more inclusive and empathetic public discourse on immigration.

Americans are changing—and so are our housing needs. Housing for a Changing Nation explores how developments in American society and experience, including shifts in demographics, the economy, and the environment, are forcing us to reexamine the concept of house and home. Learn how local architects are reimagining the notions of home and community at a moment when much of our existing late 19th- and 20th-century housing stock has become outdated. This exhibition by the Chicago Architecture Center will be on view throughout the night.

In light of Chicago’s 2024 Night of Ideas, Muoto‘s visionary installation The Ball Theater travels from The Venice Architecture Biennale to the Chicago Architecture Center for Night of Ideas. The installation will be composed of 40 microphone stands, each holding a suspended speaker.  The speakers, which will be handheld or placed on stands, will echo “World News” (Nouvelles du Monde), in French, English and other languages – all part of the Radio Utopia project by the Cresson Lab ( School of Architecture of Grenoble). The Ball Theater is a ground for fictional experimentation, research, and debate. It is in other terms, a radio theater. How can sound convey different realities of contemporary worlds? The Ball Theater responds to Lesley Lokko’s “Laboratory of the Future” theme, offering spectacular sound architecture, an alternative space for reflection, and a laboratory for imagination and celebration, suggesting a new approach to current crises, through questioning, letting go, and the search for alternatives and imaginaries.

A true sound laboratory for a night, the Ball Theatre/Radio Utopia project will give us a chance to hear how the world sounds and the echoes of “World News,” i.e. sound recordings of community ambiances, neighborhood atmospheres, futuristic or nostalgic stories, extracts of conversations…

The exhibition chronicles the work of this trailblazing French design firm, with an emphasis on projects that marry architecture and ecology, that create innovate new public spaces in cities, and that reinvent existing buildings through sensitive rehabilitation efforts. The work presented spans all scales, from architecture and the city to the smallest living organism. Large format photography, artifacts, and architectural models bring to life the design thinking behind each project.

From 6.30pm, every 30 minutes, students from IIT’s College of Architecture will present their work on the Loop, inspired by Chartier-Dalix : Mohammad Arabamazar, Juliana Cardozo Chamorro, Cameron Carter, Jinchen Chen,  Zhicong Fang, Maurice Gaston, Lauren Geske, Caleb Hadley and Jorge Mayorga, under the supervision of Prof. Ron Henderson

The exhibition also shares the speculative research ChartierDalix conducted this fall during an eight-week residency at the Chicago Architecture Center with Villa Albertine Chicago, as official contributors to the 5th Chicago Architecture Biennial. The inquiry has been focused on efforts to revitalize the Loop, Chicago’s central business district. Like many downtowns, Chicago has seen its share of recent challenges with COVID-19, inflation, and the emergence of remote work arrangements. 

Poems While you Wait will compose typewriter poetry on demand on subjects of the requestors’ choosing, drawing inspiration from Night of Ideas’ theme : “Outside the Lines – Shaping Narratives and Urban Futures“.

Let your inspiration and creativity run free with LEGO^®! In this interactive workshop, visitors will be invited to use design challenge cards and large buckets of white, architecture-style bricks to create their own skyline. An activity for designers of all ages.

The Lycée Français de Chicago (LFC) and the Ecole Franco-Américaine de Chicago (EFAC), will present their students’ models for 20 minutes each. These models have been created to echo the Chicago Architecture Biennial in Autumn 2023. A teacher from each school, accompanied by around 10 students (aged 10 to 13), will present this work. The public can then build their own models in the LEGO® workshop.

The Mobile Street Art Cart Project will guide participants through hand screen printing posters. Using the graphic created for the event, William Estrada will discuss the theme of the evening and invite participants to personalize the posters as a collaborative process that invites conversations, mutual consideration, and create an opportunity to experience joy with each other.

Over the two years since the start of the “77 Flavors of Chicago” podcast, Sara and Dario have visited all 77 community areas and discussed everything from history, architecture, food, and social dynamics. In their time exploring the city, the couple learned that systems in place differ deeply from one community to another. The 180+ year history of the city has created explicit lines that separate communities that are a block away from each other. This talk will address these observations and what Sara and Dario have learned from the people doing the work in the communities. They will also share a brief history of the formation of the 77 community areas and how that one piece affects the lives of many.

Eleanor Gorski, CEO & President of the Chicago Architecture Center and Yannick Tagand, Consul General of France in Chicago will kick off this new edition of  Night Ideas.

Deeply rooted in her heritage and lived experiences as an Indigenous woman, Starla draws inspiration from the resilience of her matriarchal ancestors. Their enduring spirit, despite facing removal, assimilation, relocation, and other genocidal policies, forms the foundation for this talk and her multifaceted roles.

If you want to know more about the rich history and culture of the city of Chicago – Dilla’s talk is a must-hear ! As his videos and presentations authentically reflect the rich tapestry of the city’s past, this 30-minute talk will shed a bright light on Chicago’s people, architecture, and its impact on the world.

How do artists, through being active, valued citizens, steward accurate understandings of their communities? How can we all creatively support and participate in restorative transformation and cross the bridges that divide us? Join esteemed artists and co-founders of Englewood Arts Collective as they share their motivations, successes, and lessons learned working with artists, officials, and residents alike to both represent authentic truths and reimagine audacious futures for Chicago. The talk will be followed by a Q&A with the audience.

Englewood Arts Collective (EAC) exists as a powerful force of caring, experienced, entrepreneurial teaching artists, who are all deeply rooted to the Greater Englewood, Chicago community. Composed of 10 prominent leaders and behind-the-scenes changemakers, EAC co-founders have been dedicated to the work of creative expression through the lens of joy and representation since 2017. EAC and their large network of affiliated artists actively orchestrate events and projects that not only showcase, but also celebrate the diverse talents from historically disinvested neighborhoods like Englewood. With a collaborative philanthropic spirit at its core, Englewood Arts Collective enriches, advocates for, and enacts impactful transformations benefitting the quality of life not just for artists, but communities everywhere.

Author Bernard Turner will present and sign copies of A New View of Bronzeville (2021), which tells the history and culture of Bronzeville as it evolved from the Black Belt into the Black Metropolis.

With her project “Inequity for Sale”, artist Tonika Lewis Johnson has embarked on a physical and virtual artistic exploration of homes in the greater Englewood area sold under land sale contracts in the 50s and 60s. Through her intervention on the territory, a cartography, a virtual tour and podcasts, she brilliantly brings a sensitive and concrete vision of the consequences of these practices on the lives of residents and their neighborhoods. Philip Ashton teaches at UIC and is an expert on housing policy, mortgage discrimination, lending disparities and access to credit. Explore or better understand the inner workings of this system by listening to this fascinating conversation.

Join international photojournalist Wil Sands in conversation with Bora Un, Managing Director, ART WORKS Projects (AWP), for a conversation about their ongoing visual storytelling project Borders Cruzadas: A Collaborative Story. Sands, along with his creative partner Oscar B Castillo, have been collaborating with and documenting the experiences of migrants from many points across Central and South America to Chicago.

During this conversation, Bora and Wil will discuss how documentary photography, in particular in the form of visual storytelling, can be a powerful tool in bridging empathy and knowledge gaps in how we react and respond to complex global issues with local resonance. The goal of Borders Cruzadas is to actively engage migrants, community members, and key stakeholders to facilitate solutions-driven dialogue and engagement around the complex challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in handling the influx of migrants who continue to arrive in the City of Chicago and what is means to be a “sanctuary city.”

Attendees will be able to view a site-specific installation and preview of Borders Cruzadas which will be on view from 5-9pm and will also be able to contribute to the conversation through an activation wall inviting guests to respond to the question: “What does it mean to be a sanctuary city?”

Foster meaningful dialogue and engage with Englewood Arts Collective members to reimagine Vacant Lots in Englewood. Co-create a community collage that unpacks the sentiments, aspirations, and notions others and you bring to the creative table during the Night of Ideas!

Author Natalie Moore will present and sign copies of The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation (2019). Her book shines a light on contemporary segregation in the city’s South Side. With a memoirist’s eye, she showcases the lives of these communities through the stories of people who reside there. The South Side shows the impact of Chicago’s historic segregation, and the ongoing policies that keep the system intact.

Nicolas Tixier, Marc Higgin and Georgi Stanishev will unveil the unique installation of the “Ball Theater” and introduce “Radio Utopia,” a project curious wonderers will be invited to explore throughout the night.

By engaging and amplifying the experiences of those directly affected, Borders Cruzadas aspires to create a tool for understanding and, ultimately, impact local policy decisions surrounding immigration. Through this activation wall, visitors will be invited to reflect on the conversation and pop-up exhibition by offering their ideas on what it means for Chicago to be a sanctuary city. 

In August 2019, after reading an article about Alice Guy-Blaché entitled Et si Méliès était une femme? (What if Méliès had been a woman?), Isabelle Olivier began researching women pioneers of cinema and eventually wrote the live soundtrack to a silent film screening in 2021. In an enchanted interlude, Harpist Isabelle Olivier will present and accompany Alice Guy’s silent film The Consequences of Feminism (1906).

This conversation will shed light on issues such as vacant lots, the origins of this phenomenon in Chicago, and the creative solutions being developed locally to combat food insecurity on different scales: community, city, state. The three panelists, with their different experiences, actions and expertise, embody complementary approaches that enable this crucial subject to be considered in all its complexity.

As is the case with everything, cities require water to survive. However, sources of water across the world are dying or becoming enclosed by private interests.  This talk explores current global trajectories and speculative possibilities for watersheds and infrastructure in Chicago and beyond.

Author Daniel Kay Hertz will present and sign copies of his book The Battle of Lincoln Park (2018), which deals with how this neighborhood has shifted from a Puerto Rican enclave to the North Side we know today, addressing issues of urban planning and gentrification. 

Back Home is a play about a pan-African family living in Chicago’s south shore neighborhood. This intergenerational play is set in 2010 during President Obama’s first term in office and the housing crash. A birthday party takes a surprising turn when the arrival of an unexpected guest exposes familial conflict and ideological differences that seek to undermine the sanctity of home and trouble the meaning of community.

Selected Scenes will be performed by Chicago State University students and alumni Robiki Bijou, Allison Bolden, Earle Chisolm-El, Genn Jackson, Chris Taylor.

The great myths serve as seminal narratives, inviting us to think about spaces and the place of women within them. If the Trojan War immediately evokes the great male heroes, the character of Andromache allows us to reflect on ruins, places of memory, spaces of worship – in short, on the way women give meaning and depth to places destroyed by warriors, but also buried under the bodies of builders.