Jump to content

21Minus | Live

June 20, 20261:00 pm - 6:00 pm

White sculptures hang from a metal structure under a white canopy. Two people gather around the artworks and a man lying on the ground looking at one of them.
21Minus | What Was, What is, Jun 17, 2023. Photo: Shelby Ragsdale, © MCA Chicago. 2026/03/21Minus_2023-76.jpg
A person writes on a brown wall filled with other paper and a wooden bed filled with black and white images and text. The largest text written on the wall reads do you remember how you drew as a child
White sculptures hang from a metal structure under a white canopy. Two people gather around the artworks and a man lying on the ground looking at one of them.
21Minus | What Was, What is, Jun 17, 2023. Photo: Shelby Ragsdale, © MCA Chicago. 2026/03/21Minus_2023-76.jpg
A person writes on a brown wall filled with other paper and a wooden bed filled with black and white images and text. The largest text written on the wall reads do you remember how you drew as a child

Join us as youth take over the MCA with installations, workshops, performances, videos, and music, all made by artists under 21 and community partners who support Chicagoland youth.

21Minus is a one-day showcase curated and produced by TCA with support from Lead Artists Olive Stefanski and Miguel Limon, and Ahmad Bracey, Manager of Youth and Schools. During 21Minus, museum admission is free for people ages 21 and under and their families.

This year’s 21Minus focuses on live works of art including but not limited to:

  • Performance art
  • Durational (audience can come and go and can be longer than 30 minutes but less than 3 hours)
  • A work that has a discreet beginning and end time with audience viewing the whole time (less than 30 minutes)
  • Music /Bands/DJs (any style)
  • Ensemble musical or theater performance
  • Drum line/Marching band
  • Vocal performance (singing of any genre/singer-songwriter/choir/rapping)
  • Films/Video art
  • Theater
  • Puppetry
  • Drama/Monologue/One-person show
  • Magic
  • Immersive theater
  • Clowning and/or miming
  • Dance (any style)
  • Comedy
  • Workshop/Skillshare /Activations
  • Reading of an original work of literature (poetry/short story/excerpt from your novel/nonfiction, etc)
  • Fashion show
  • Drag
  • Live radio broadcast