Bessie Green-Field Warshawsky Gallery and Green-Field Gallery

Out in Chicago

Now Open through March 26, 2012

From its earliest days, Chicago has served as a dynamic crossroads of people and cultures—all who came to Chicago seeking a better life and creating new communities. Out in Chicago explores the stories of a group of Chicagoans who have been here since the city’s beginnings but whose lives have often been lived in the shadows. 

For more than 150 years, a complex community of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Chicagoans has been at turns surviving, struggling, and thriving, often on the edge of mainstream awareness.  In the nineteenth century, the forces that made Chicago a national metropolitan center also brought diverse LGBT people to the heartland and fostered their development as a community.

"Chicago’s LGBT history is not just a story about one group of people in one neighborhood. It’s a history that has happened throughout the city and over time."

 — Jill Austin, co-curator

Out in Chicago spans diverse stories and perspectives and explores issues such as language, gender expression, formation of identity, the role of LGBT people in politics and culture, and family relationships. It balances private stories with public perspectives in relation to gender, community, and identity  and spotlights the inspiring and charged heritage of this diverse Chicago community, whose history truly belongs to all of us.

Multimedia

 
Exhibition Highlights

Preview selected pieces from the exhibition.

> View a Flickr gallery of highlights from Out in Chicago

Events

Out at CHM

Entering its ninth year, Out at CHM explores the long and storied history of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in Chicago. Held on select Thursdays. Cocktails begin at 5:30 p.m.; programs begin at 6:30 p.m. 

Bayard Rustin at 100: Rediscovering a Forgotten Hero

Thursday, February 9, Cocktails begin at 5:30 p.m.; programs begin at 6:30 p.m. 

Bayard Rustin (1912–87) was instrumental in bringing Gandhi’s protest techniques from India to America in the 1940s, a mentor to Martin Luther King Jr., and an organizer of the seminal 1963 March on Washington. Despite his achievements, Rustin was expunged from history—largely because he dared to be an openly gay man during a fiercely homophobic era. Join filmmaker Bennett Singer (codirector of Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin, shown as part of the LGBT Film Series on January 28) and Rustin’s life partner Walter Naegle for a conversation on Rustin’s life and legacy—including his rediscovery by a new generation of Americans committed to social and economic justice.

Cost: $12, $10 members and students

> Purchase tickets 

When Identities Collide: Sexuality & Black Feminism

Saturday, February 18, 1:00-4:00 p.m.

Join us for an insightful look at the role lesbians play in Black feminism with scholar Kimberly Springer, author of Living for the Revolution: Black Feminist Organizations, 1968-1980, an essential reference on the history of the women's movement.

1:00 p.m. 

Our program begins with self-guided tours of the critically-acclaimed exhibition, Out in Chicago, spanning diverse stories and perspectives to explores issues of language, gender expression, identity, the role of LGBT people in politics and culture, and family relationships.

2:00 p.m. 

After touring the exhibit, Kimberly Springer will explore the history of lesbians in the Black feminist movement and the future of queer, feminist, women of color organizing.   Jennifer Brier, co-curator of Out in Chicago and Acting Director of Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, will share insights on gender, community and identity and the heritage of Chicago's diverse LGBT community.

Cost: Free. Reservations required.   

> Make a reservation

In collaboration The Public Square, Gender and Women's Studies Program at University of Illinois at Chicago, and Center for the Study of Race, Politics, & Culture at the University of Chicago.

Curators Bare All

Thursday, March 8, Cocktails begin at 5:30 p.m.; programs begin at 6:30 p.m. 

We laughed, we cried, we curated Out in Chicago. Join curators Jill Austin and Jennifer Brier as they share the thrills and chills of mounting an exhibition on Chicago’s LGBT history and confess to their own trials and tribulations. See the exhibition before it closes and gain their unique perspectives on telling queer history in a public museum.

Cost: $12, $10 members and students

> Purchase tickets 

Out at CHM 2012 is sponsored by The Pauls Foundation

Northern Trust is the lead corporate sponsor for the Out in Chicago exhibition. Generous support for the entire Out at CHM project is provided by The Elizabeth Morse Charitable Trust. Additional support is provided by The Chicago Community Trust, Pauls Foundation, Sara Lee Foundation, UBS, Polk Bros. Foundation, and The Goodworks Fund.

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