Talk | LGBTQ+ Activism in Chicago: Past, Present & Future
March 07, 20262:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Conversation of Intergenerational Dialogue Project during MCA Chicago’s Prime Time: City in a Garden (2025). Photo: Alexis Ellers.
About the Event
Join us for a community dialogue about LGBTQ+ Activism in Chicago: Past, Present & Future in partnership with The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project. Held in connection with City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism in Chicago, this gathering fosters storytelling, reflection, and exchange across generations to cultivate community, connection, and imagination for Chicago’s collective future.
Access Information
CART captioning is provided at this event. To request additional accessibility services, please contact us at [email protected] or 312-397-4076.
About the Collaborator
The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project brings together racially, socioeconomically, and gender diverse cohorts of LGBTQ+ younger and older adults (60+) from the greater Chicago area for a year-long series of biweekly themed dialogues, collaborative art-making, and shared meals. Founded in 2019, the project is a hybrid community/education/research partnership between LGBTQ+ faculty members at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, University of Illinois Chicago, and University of Chicago and the Pride in Aging Program at Center on Halsted (the Midwest’s largest LGBTQ+ Community Center). To date, more than 160 people have participated.
Funding
Event
Lead support for the 2025–26 season of MCA Talks is made possible by The Richard and Mary L. Gray Lecture Series through a generous gift to the Chicago Contemporary Campaign.
Generous support is provided by The Antje B. and John J. Jelinek Endowed Lecture and Symposium on Contemporary Art; the Kristina Barr Lectures, which were established through a generous gift by The Barr Fund to the Chicago Contemporary Campaign; The Gloria Brackstone Solow and Eugene A. Solow, MD, Memorial Lecture Series; and the Allen M. Turner Tribute Fund, honoring his past leadership as Chair of the Board of Trustees.
Exhibition
Lead support for City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism in Chicago is provided by the Harris Family Foundation in memory of Bette and Neison Harris, the Zell Family Foundation, Cari and Michael Sacks, and R. H. Defares.
Major support is provided by Laura and Tony Davis, Linden Capital Partners; Robin Loewenberg Tebbe and Mark Tebbe; and Charlotte R. Cramer Wagner and Herbert S. Wagner III of Wagner Foundation.
Generous support is provided by Dr. Daniel S. Berger and Scott Wenthe; Katherine Mackenzie and Murat Ahmed; and Gary Metzner and Scott Johnson.
This exhibition is supported by the MCA’s Women Artists Initiative, a philanthropic commitment to further equity across gender lines and promote the work and ideas of women artists.
