PARIS IN BLACK / CHICAGO: WALKTHROUGH & PUBLIC DIALOGUE
2026-02-07 10:00 - 12:00 (America/Chicago) | DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, 740 East 56th Place, Chicago, IL, 60637
Curator-Led Exhibition Walkthrough & Public Dialogue
Saturday, February 7, 2026
10:00 AM–12:00 PM
DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center
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ABOUT THIS EVENT

In connection with PARIS IN BLACK: Internationalism and the Black Renaissance, the South Side Community Art Center (SSCAC) invites the public to a curator-led exhibition walkthrough and dialogue at the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center.
Led by Danny Dunson, Director of Curatorial Affairs and Arts Education at the DuSable and curator of PARIS IN BLACK, this program brings together two sister institutions shaped by shared histories of Black migration, artistic modernism, and cultural exchange between the late nineteenth century and the mid-twentieth century.
PARIS IN BLACK examines how Black artists, writers, and intellectuals navigated the racial constraints of the United States by moving across borders—particularly to Paris—during periods spanning post-Reconstruction, the interwar years, and the rise of modernism. These international movements unfolded alongside the Great Migration, when millions of Black Americans relocated from the South to northern cities like Chicago, reshaping Black cultural life, institutions, and artistic networks.
The exhibition includes select works on loan from SSCAC’s permanent collection and archival holdings, including Archibald Motley, Sunday in the Park (1941). Positioned within the exhibition’s broader exploration of Black internationalism, the work anchors global narratives of movement and exchange within the social life, modernity, and visual culture of Black Chicago.
Founded in 1940, the South Side Community Art Center emerged in direct response to the exclusion of Black artists from mainstream museums and galleries, establishing a permanent site for Black artists working across modernist, social realist, and diasporic traditions within both local and international contexts.
The walkthrough offers a structured way to move through the exhibition together—slowing down with the work and creating space to reflect on artistic movement as both physical migration and aesthetic strategy. Following the walkthrough, participants will gather for a facilitated public dialogue connecting Paris, Chicago, and the enduring role of Black institutions in sustaining artistic life, memory, and possibility.
This program is open to the public. Admission is free.

SATELLITE EVENT | DESIGN DIALOGUE: A RENEWED SOUTH SIDE COMMUNITY ART CENTER
2026-02-25 18:00 - 19:15 | Chicago Architecture Center (Lecture Hall), 111 E. Wacker Drive
Join us for a captivating look at the South Side Community Art Center as we embark on the biggest transformation in our storied 85-year history.

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Presented by the Chicago Architecture Center, in conversation with the South Side Community Art Center
February 25, 2026
6:00–7:15 PM
Tickets: $10 General · $5 CAC & SSCAC Members · Free for Burnham Society
Chicago Architecture Center (Lecture Hall) | 111 E Wacker Drive
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ABOUT THIS EVENT
Join the South Side Community Art Center at the Chicago Architecture Center for an in-depth conversation on the Center’s historic renewal and future vision.
This public program brings together lead architect Ann Lui, preservation architect k. kennedy Whiters, and SSCAC Executive Director Monique Brinkman-Hill, moderated by architecture critic Lee Bey. Together, they will reflect on SSCAC’s legacy and share insights into the design and preservation work guiding its $15 million redevelopment.

SATELITTE EVENT: A BLACK WOMEN IN THE ART CONVENING
2026-04-12 12:00 - 14:00 | Blanc Gallery, 4445 S Martin Luther King Dr,, Chicago, IL, 60653
Join SSCAC at Blanc for a Black Women in the Arts Convening—an afternoon centered on Black women and being together in creative community.

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Blanc Gallery
4445 S Martin Luther King Dr, Chicago, IL 60653
12 pm to 2 pm
Sunday, Apr 12

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ABOUT THIS EVENT
South Side Community Art Center invites you to join us for an afternoon of gathering, connection, and reflection.
After a pause in 2025 as SSCAC continued its capital campaign and transitioned back into our historic building, we are returning to this convening in 2026—this year gathering at Blanc, a Black- and woman-led space—as we create space once again for Black women, femme, and non-binary artists, curators, and cultural workers to come together.
Rooted in SSCAC’s legacy of supporting Black women in the arts, this gathering centers the role of Black women as stewards of institutions, collaborators across disciplines, and builders of cultural life.
The convening is intentionally intimate and lightly structured, with time to be in community.
Join us for drinks, small bites, and music as we come together.
This gathering is LGBTQIA inclusive. All who are aligned with the space are welcome.

The Sound of the South Side: Jazz, Form, and Freedom
2026-04-21 - 2026-12-01
In honor of International Jazz Day, 2026, experience the virtual exhibition, The Sound of the South Side: Jazz, Form, and Freedom.

SATELLITE EVENT: CREATIVE WOLD BUILDING WORKSHOP SERIES
2026-05-23 10:00 - 12:00 | The First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, 6400 South Kimbark Avenue,, Chicago, IL, 60637
Join us for a writing & mixed media workshop centered on reflection, creative growth, and building a sustainable creative practice.

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The First Presbyterian Church of Chicago
Saturday, May 23
10 am – 12 pm
6400 South Kimbark Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637
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ABOUT THIS EVENT
The Creative World-Building Workshop Series, facilitated by Rhonda Wheatley, is an in-person program supporting artists and the broader creative community in building sustainable creative practices through writing, reflection, and mixed-media artmaking.
Each session offers space to slow down and reconnect with your creative process through journaling, guided reflection, and intuitive making. Participants explore themes of transformation, world-building, and future visioning while developing practices that feel grounded and self-directed.
Workshops are free to attend, with a $10 suggested donation.
Please RSVP in advance to attend.
