Newberry Library
Founded in 1887, the Newberry is an independent humanities research library that remains free and open to the public. Rich collections on Renaissance and Native American history, as well the history of mapmaking, are each paired with academic research centers. Also of interest to design researchers is the library’s John M. Wing Foundation on the History of Printing. Our visit began with a presentation by Paul Gehl, Curator Emeritus, who provided a brief history of Chicago typography and the development of the Wing collection. Jill Gage, Custodian of the Wing Foundation, then introduced a showing of printed manuscripts and ephemera including production materials from her forthcoming exhibition Making an Impression: Immigrant Printing in Chicago.
Art Institute of Chicago
As a more established institution of art and design exhibitions, the Art Institute provides a teaching opportunity to analyze works in exhibition contexts. At the museum’s Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, Associate Director of Academic Programs and Research Leslie Wilson introduced us to the library reading rooms and its goals. She reviewed her 2023 exhibition not all surrealisms at the Smart Museum of Art and how she approaches exhibiting print materials such as periodicals in a photography exhibition. In the museum’s American Art galleries, Associate Curator Liz McGoey led us to discuss the integration of functional works into the museum’s permanent collection galleries. Viewing a range of works including a storage jar by David Drake, the group conducted an in-gallery exercise of material culture analysis as well as discussion of gallery themes.
Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection
The Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, housed within the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Library and Special Collections, includes over 12,000 items in various formats. The collection is searchable and archivists are available to curate and suggest viewings for internal and external visiting classes. For the Chicago Designs Workshop, JFABC assembled works that reflect neighborhood and community-based research with an emphasis on Chicago works. These included:
Brandon Johnson, Thee Almighty & Insane: Chicago Gang Business Cards from the 1970s & 1980s, Zing Magazine Press, 2017.
Nia Easley, The Last Green Book postcard set
and by workshop participants:
Trashing the Neoliberal City: Autonomous Cultural Practices in Chicago 2000–2005, 2007. [designed by J. Dakota Brown]
Jude Agboada, My Name is Ghana, 2017.
Jane Addams Hull-House Museum
Two buildings are all that remains of the complex that was Hull House, and it now operates as a historic house and site for ongoing art installations and programs. At the Chicago settlement house, Jane Addams, with many other social activists, educators, and artists, offered services to immigrant and working-class communities in Chicago from its founding in 1889 until the mid-1960s when most of the complex was demolished for the construction of the University of Chicago’s Circle Campus (the organization continued elsewhere until its shuttering in 2012). For the workshop, we met in the refectory to discuss the uses of historic houses for interpreting historical design. On a guided tour, we studied artifacts including 1893 visualizations of census data gathered by the Department of Labor in the area, showing occupations, languages, and racial/ethnic distributions; Jane Addams’ desk and bedroom, with installations that preserve queer and disability histories; and components of the Labor Museum with looms and ceramic items from Hull House’s art classes in the early 20th century.
Pilsen Art and Community House
PACH hosted the workshop for a discussion of design histories that are not archived in many libraries or museum collections, namely the history of Chicago’s gang “writing” or graffiti signs. Amira Hegazy and Sir Charles, a former gang member who has developed Made in Chicago With Love, discussed the history of gangs using print shops to develop “calling cards” that marked territory and declared identity. Participants walked the neighborhood to observe visual signs of local community, from shop signs and yard art to the painted mural tunnels along West 16th street.
Hyde Park Art Center
The HPAC–a neighborhood art center operating since 1939–offered us space to explore The United Colors of Robert Earl Paige, the first exhibition to survey the career of one of the leading fabric artists and textile designers in the United States. In addition to an exhibition tour led by Paige and curator Allison Peters Quinn, the HPAC showcased a wide range of programming that connected local audiences to the community design history Paige's work represents and carries forward.
Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Carter G. Woodson Branch, Chicago Public Library
The Harsh Collection is one of the major repositories of African American design history in the country–from the records of beauty mogul Marjorie Stewart Joyner to the posters produced at the South Side Community Art Center. In a workshop that featured hands-on analysis of a dozen graphic artifacts, participants learned about the local design scene that flourished in Black Chicago during the interwar period (and beyond) while raising questions about the politics that shape the establishment and care of Black design archives.
The Chicago Designs workshop is part of Art Design Chicago, a citywide collaboration initiated by the Terra Foundation for American Art that highlights the city’s artistic heritage and creative communities.
We also acknowledge the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as the institutional host of this program for 2024.