Arts and Culture

As a partner in the South Side’s rich and storied arts community, we work to provide cultural opportunities, resources, and programs that reflect our community, resonate across the city, and are renowned around the world.

Supporting the work of artists and providing engagement opportunities to arts-lovers through our community relationships is vital to the mission of the University of Chicago. Over the past two decades, UChicago’s longstanding commitment to the arts has supported platforms for artists and access to arts programming through artist residencies, arts education, cultural entrepreneurship, and artist- and community-led programs and events.

We partner with people and organizations in our surrounding neighborhoods to deepen the study, impact, and celebration of South Side cultural production, and foster connections between UChicago, the South Side, and the broader city of Chicago.

The University supports and amplifies arts and culture on Chicago’s South Side, presenting a diverse array of concerts, live theater, films, exhibits, readings, and festivals each year.

News

04/04/2024

Block Club Chicago: Mavis Staples urges south siders to use art as activism in first UChicago show In 62 years

The 84-year-old South Sider wielded her iconic voice, reminisced on friendships with Martin Luther King Jr. and Prince, and inspired local youth to “take up the baton” for social justice.

02/06/2024

Martin Luther King III urges UChicago community: “Stand up for truth; stand up for justice”

At MLK commemoration, the civil rights advocate and global humanitarian recalls family’s legacy and lessons on activism

12/07/2023

Film archivist keeps Chicago families’ memories alive

Justin D. Williams of UChicago’s South Side Home Movie Project sees preservation as ‘a form of grief work’

Profiles

Bess Cohen
StoryArts Summer Camp

Bess Cohen co-founded StoryArts Summer Camp, an affordable, summer program for middle school students that launched in 2015.

Jennifer Bransfield
Community Neighborhood Initiatives

“It was encouraging to get all those people in the same room and thinking about how we can work together and how that can be scaled to work in other neighborhoods as well. We’re a small nonprofit developer, but this opportunity got us in the White House. The Civic Leadership Academy has been a life-changing experience for me.”

More profiles