The Smart Museum of Art and DuSable Museum of African American History have been jointly awarded a $250,000 grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art in support of the special exhibition South Side Stories. 

The collaborative exhibition opens in September 2018 as part of Art Design Chicago and explores the artistic production and cultural legacy of Chicago’s South Side. It will be presented in two parts. At the Smart Museum, Rethinking Chicago Art, 1960–1980 [working title] will examine watershed cultural moments and artists who worked and exhibited on the South Side—from the Black Arts Movement and the Hairy Who, to the Wall of Respect and visionary outsider artists. At the DuSable Museum, Holdings [working title] will consider the ways in which individuals, artists, and institutions collect, shape, and embody history, and how these histories—whether personal memories or institutional archives and collections—are subsequently shaped and reshaped over time through research, curatorial forgings, individual motivations, and incorporation into contemporary artistic practices

South Side Stories is the first major exhibition presented jointly by the Smart and DuSable. The museums are founding members of the Museum Campus South consortium and are located three blocks from one another on the mid South Side.