Exhibitions — Design Museum of Chicago

“Yet once you’ve come to be part of this particular patch, you’ll never love another… But never a lovely so real.”

— Nelson Algren, Chicago: City on the Make

Nelson Algren’s raw love letter to Chicago speaks to the soul of a city made of equal parts beauty and struggle, resilience and reinvention. His words resonate deeply with the journey of Arts of Life—an organization born on the margins and grown into a transformative creative force. For 25 years, Arts of Life has built something “so real”: a studio collective where artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities lead with vision, passion, and purpose.

On View

Community on the Make
Arts of Life 2000 – 2025
August 11 – September 30, 2025

Design Museum of Chicago
72 E Randolph St
Chicago, IL 60601

Pop-up Exhibits Around Chicago

Great Ideas of Humanity:
One of a Series
September 21, 2023 – Ongoing
Chicago Cultural Center (78 E Washington)

ID@85: 85 Years of Making the Future
October 19, 2022 – Ongoing
Institute of Design (3137 S Federal)

Coming Soon

Design on Draft: Breweries & Beyond
October 23, 2025 – April 13, 2026

Design on Draft celebrates the often-overlooked artistry behind beer branding. From iconic labels to inventive packaging and marketing, graphic design shapes our experience of beer. It’s how breweries create culture, build identity, and bring people together—one story, one sip, one space at a time.

Design on Draft is co-curated and co-presented by the Design Museum of Chicago and the Beer Culture Center.

Past Exhibits

Great Ideas of Humanity:
One of a Series
June 27 – August 4, 2025

Chicago Public Schools
All-City Visual Arts Exhibitions 2025
April 25 – June 2, 2025

Letters Beyond Form: Chicago Types
November 9, 2024 – April 4, 2025

20 Years of the Chicago Design Archive
August 2, 2024 – February 21, 2025

Voices Embodied: Reverberations
July 13 – October 13, 2024

Chicago Public Schools
All-City Visual Arts Exhibitions 2024
May 3 – June 2, 2024

Chicago: Home of House
May 1 – December 16, 2024
Navy Pier (600 E Grand)

SOLVE: Puzzle Design Exhibit
December 8, 2023 – March 31, 2024

At the Precipice
July 14 – October 30, 2023

Chicago Public Schools
All-City Visual Arts Exhibitions 2023
April 27 – June 2, 2023

Free & Open Chicago
November 17, 2022 – April 2, 2023

The Correct Time
July 16 – October 17, 2022

Chicago Public Schools
All-City Visual Arts Exhibitions 2022
May 11 – June 22, 2022

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
April 15 – April 16, 2022

All Together Now: Sound × Design
November 13, 2021 – April 3, 2022

Chicago Public Schools
All-City Visual Arts Exhibitions 2021
January 1 – December 31, 2021

A Designed Life: Contemporary American Textiles, Wallpapers, and Containers & Packaging, 1951–1954
June 12 – September 19, 2021

View of exhibition featuring five black square panels with circular photographs of different sizes applied to them. In front of those panels are three long, clear plexiglass panels featuring a long rainbow squiggly line and white text representing a…

Chicago: Home of House
May 8 – June 30, 2021

Chicago Public Schools
All-City Visual Arts Exhibitions 2020
May 29 – December 31, 2020

Photograph of front entrance wall at Expo 72 gallery. Pink wall with white abstract shapes and black text reading “Great Ideas of Humanity: Passing the Torch.” Wall also features black introductory text (out of focus).

Great Ideas of Humanity:
Passing the Torch
February 25 – December 31, 2020

Setting the Stage:
Objects of Chicago Theatre
June 29, 2019 – January 5, 2020

Photograph showing gallery with bright blue walls on either side. Two visitors are walking in the gallery, looking at artwork.

Chicago Public Schools
All-City Visual Arts Exhibition 2019
April 10 – May 12, 2019

Blue and red lines rotating around two black circles in a starburst pattern.

Keep Moving: Shifting Gears
November 17, 2018 – January 18, 2019

Photograph of two people in the gallery looking at a bicycle.

Keep Moving: Designing
Chicago’s Bicycle Culture
October 27, 2018 – March 3, 2019

Red gallery wall with “Great Ideas” written on it repeatedly. Posters are installed to its right.

Great Ideas of Humanity:
Out of the Container
April 20 – August 18, 2018

group of people playing with a rainbow parachute; they are standing underneath it with their hands up, keeping the parachute above them afloat

HEY! PLAY! Games in Modern Culture
October 20, 2017 – March 10, 2018

Gallery with several mannequins and a large graphic installation on the back wall. Header reads “We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours.”

Confluence • 20+
Creative Ecologies of Hong Kong
October 14 – November 4, 2017

Gallery with yellow and blue structures with framed posters hung on them, red and black backlit striped sculpture in the middle, framed posters hung on right wall with table shaped like America on top of a brass half circle on the floor.

Dan Friedman: Radical Modernist
April 28 – August 12, 2017

Person looking at posters hung on wall, one is a red eye. Two tables with small objects are in the foreground, one is a horizontal wooden sculpture made of triangles alternating pointing up and down.

ChicagoMade: Great Ideas of Humanity
December 1 – December 3, 2016

Projected letters in dark gallery with people conversing.

City of Ideas: Architects’ Voices and Visions
October 28, 2016 – February 25, 2017

Gallery with white paper hanging from the ceiling and raw plywood panels creating the floor. The same kind of raw plywood panels make tables and hutches. The tables have art installed on them, including a paper tree and the hutches have art hanging …

Unfolded: Made with Paper
April 5 – August 26, 2016

Room with two rows of images of buildings resting on rails on either side. Back wall is covered with a sheer curtain. Dark colored I-beams make up the room’s support. A brass, cloverleaf table is in the center of the room with architectural models a…

New Horizon: Architecture from Ireland
October 2, 2015 – January 30, 2016

Gallery with wall covered in Astroturf and notecards with handwriting on the left. A red tool chest with open drawers is in the middle of the image.

The State of Detroit
April 28 – August 29, 2015

Gallery with brightly painted walls of pink, orange, purple, and blue. A monitor is on the left with a table with books in the foreground. 4 plywood cases are in the center of the room with a tall teal tube behind. The other colorful walls have larg…

Deborah Sussman Loves LA!
November 13, 2014 – February 28, 2015

Gallery with 4 wooden tabletop cases in the middle of the room. The white walls have posters, monitors, and art installed.

Starts/Speculations: Graphic Design in Chicago Past and Future
June 12 – September 30, 2014

Long white wall in a raw industrial space. Twelve Michael C. Place posters are hung on the wall.

Work at Play
June 1 – June 30, 2013

Interior of a CTA elevated train car. The car is empty except for black, red, and green 3D letters hung from nylon cords over the seats.

A–Z: Art on Track
September 22, 2012

Group of people gathered in space with raw wood pillars and exposed brick walls.

700 N. Sacramento Inaugural Pop-up
June 1 – June 30, 2012