*This program is no longer active. However, videos of each lecture from this program series are available below.

A monthly lecture and dinner series in which artists gather to hear from and meet exciting thinkers from outside of the arts. Together they share beautifully crafted meals, courtesy of Land & Sea Dept.

Past Speakers:

Free Write Arts & Literacy (July 11, 2018)

The eighteenth volume of Elective Studies Supper Club (ESSC) for Illinois artists, entitled “The Mixer” featured a partnership with Free Write Arts & Literacy, bringing about a convergence of ESSC and the Envisioning Justice initiative. This event brought artists, policymakers and criminal justice system-involved individuals to xxxx. This lecture is part of the Envisioning Justice series.

Dr. Randall Horton & Angel Pantoja (June 6, 2018)

The seventeenth volume of Elective Studies Supper Club for Illinois artists, featuring a lecture Poet and Associate Professor of English at the University of New Haven Dr. Randall Horton and Poet and Chicagoan Angel Pantoja, who gave a talk entitled “You Can’t Go Home Again: Navigating the Return from Prison to Treacherous Material Realities.” The discussion was moderated by Tracie D. Hall, Director of The Joyce Foundation’s Cultural Program division. This lecture is part of the Envisioning Justice series.

Reuben Miller (May 2, 2018)

The sixteenth volume of Elective Studies Supper Club for Illinois artists, featuring a lecture by Reuben Jonathan Miller, an Assistant Professor in the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration, who gave a talk entitled “Halfway Home: Race, Citizenship and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration.” This lecture is part of the Envisioning Justice series.

Beth E. Richie (April 11, 2018)

The fifteenth volume of Elective Studies Supper Club for Illinois artists, featuring a lecture by gender violence, race, and criminal justice policy expert Dr. Beth E. Richie (University of Chicago), who gave a talk entitled “Arrested Justice: Black Feminist Reflections on Violence and The Build Up of a Prison Nation.” This lecture is part of the Envisioning Justice series.

Heather Schoenfeld (March 7, 2018)

The fourteenth volume of Elective Studies Supper Club for Illinois artists, featuring a lecture by sociologist of law Heather Schoenfeld, who gave a talk entitled “Building the Prison State: The Origins of Mass Incarceration.” This lecture is part of the Envisioning Justice series.

Hilary Strang (March 1, 2017)

The thirteenth volume of Elective Studies Supper Club for Illinois artists, featuring a lecture by alternate reality media expert Dr. Hilary Strang (U of Chicago), who gave a talk entitled “Why 1984 Might Not Be A Must-Read, or Some Reflections on Science Fiction, Estrangement and the Possibilities of Possible Worlds.”

John Novembre (February 1, 2017)

The twelfth volume of Elective Studies Supper Club for Illinois artists, featuring a lecture by alternate reality media expert Dr. John Novembre (U of Chicago), who gave a talk entitled “Visualizing Human Genetic Diversity.”

Patrick Jagoda (December 7, 2016)

The eleventh volume of Elective Studies Supper Club for Illinois artists, featuring a lecture by alternate reality media expert Dr. Patrick Jagoda (U of Chicago), who gave a talk entitled “Alternate Reality Games: Experiments in Serious Play.”

Eugenia Cheng (November 2, 2016)

The tenth installment of Elective Studies Supper Club for Illinois artists featured Dr. Eugenia Cheng from the School of the Art Institute, who gave a talk entitled “How to Bake Pi.”

Shane Larson (October 5, 2016)

The ninth installment of Elective Studies Supper Club for Illinois artists re-welcomed Dr. Shane Larson from Northwestern University and the Adler Planetarium, who gave a talk entitled “Solitude in the Cosmos: Looking for Friends in the Great Cosmic Dark.”

Beryl Satter (May 4, 2016)

The eighth installment of Elective Studies Supper Club for Illinois artists featured Dr. Beryl Satter of Rutgers University-Newark, who gave a talk entitled “Cons and Contracts: What the History of Real Estate Speculation in Chicago can Teach America.”

Corrie Moreau (April 6, 2016)

In the seventh volume of Elective Studies Supper Club for Illinois artists, Dr. Corrie Moreau of the Field Museum talked about “The Evolution of Symbiosis in Ants and How I Became a Cartoon Character.”

Sabina Shaikh (March 2, 2016)

This sixth installment of Elective Studies Supper Club welcomed Sabina Shaikh, of The University of Chicago. She discussed the relationship between economics and environmentalism in a talk entitled “How Humans Value the Environment.”

Prexy Nesbitt (January 6, 2016)

The fifth volume of Elective Studies Supper Club featured a lecture by activist and educator Prexy Nesbitt about the effects of race, class, and gender on policing. See Prexy’s talk, entitled “Race, Class & Gender: The Boiling Cauldron of ‘Policing’ in Chicago,” here.

Allison McCracken (November 4th, 2015)

The fourth volume of Elective Studies Supper Club featured a lecture by Dr. Allison McCracken of DePaul University about the gender politics of crooning. See Allison’s talk, entitled “Real Men Don’t Sing,” here.

Rachel Havrelock (October 7th, 2015)

The third volume of Elective Studies Supper Club for Illinois artists, featuring a lecture by Dr. Rachel Havrelock of the University of Illinois at Chicago, talking about the political importance of access to clean water. See the video of her talk, “The Politics of Fresh Water.”

Sean Gibbons (August 5th, 2015)

Microbiologist Sean Gibbons (The University of Chicago; Argonne National Laboratory) treated a room full of Chicago-based artists to a talk about the microbes that live in and around us. Check out the video of his talk, “We Contain Multitudes.”

Shane Larson (July 1st, 2015)

Astrophysicist Shane Larson (Adler Planetarium; Northwestern) kicked off this series on July 1st, talking to an intimate group of Chicago-based artists about the difficulty and importance of thinking about ourselves as part of a bigger universe. Check out the video of his talk, “Always Looking Home: Finding Ourselves in a Big Universe.”

A quarterly workshop led by artists whose practice is innovative and unique. Attending artists gain fresh perspective and new tools for their own practices by learning from unique and exceptional people within their field.

Past Artist Workshops:

Young Jean Lee (January 9th, 2017)

Writer, director, and filmmaker Young Jean Lee spoke about how to collaborate with people outside of your race, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity when the artistic subject matter is a culture other than your own, about the benefits and limitations of producing your own work, and about how to speak and write compellingly about yourself and your artistic work. See the photos from the class here.

Todd Shalom (Sept 12th – Sept 15th and Sept 17th, 2016)

Artist Todd Shalom taught a master class on the participatory walk form in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. The walks use sensory-based techniques, reinvented folk rituals and other exercises to investigate and intervene in the daily life of the city, its variously defined communities and the politics of individual and group identity. Over the course of a week, Todd lead class attendees through various ways to read and respond to their surroundings in a co-investigation of the everyday.

Manual Cinema (May 15th, 2016)

Internationally- acclaimed performance collective Manual Cinema led a course about the group’s work and gave people hands-on training in the elements of cinematic puppetry and visual storytelling. During the final hour of the class, participants had the opportunity to devise their own short, narrative pieces to share with the group. See photos from the class here.

Dana Michel (February 28th, 2016)

Choreographers, dancers, and performance artists had an opportunity to learn from innovative solo performer Dana Michel in this dynamic, on-your-feet workshop. Check out the photos from the class here.

Christine Sun Kim and Danielle Linzer (September 26th, 2015)

Renowned artist and educator Christine Sun Kim and Director of Access and Community Programs for the Whitney Museum of American Art Danielle Linzer taught a workshop in ASL Vlogs. The duo shared their process — lessons learned, best practices, and opportunities for the future. Check out photos from their shoot at MCA here.

Ike Holter (June 19th, 2015)

Playwright Ike Holter taught a workshop that examined what it means to incorporate historical and political research into a play through the lens of a particular style, as well as how to find action in a script and put a myriad of voices in conversation with one another. See photos of the class here.