Past Exhibitions : 2025
Expanding the 50th: Shared Stories
March 25, 2025 – July 13, 2025
Expanding the 50th: Shared Stories offers an updated presentation of the institution’s anniversary exhibition to explore the histories that have made up the Smart Museum over the last five decades. In honor of its anniversary, the Smart has commissioned four artists to create new works as interventions in the Museum’s and our shared histories.
Theaster Gates: Unto Thee
September 23, 2025 - February 22, 2026
A self-designated “keeper of objects,” the artist Theaster Gates investigates the value of things and their potential to hold layered meanings. He has been dedicated to investing in the care of these objects as a way to nurture stories and voices—often Black stories and voices—largely overlooked by history or institutional structures. This is Gates's first solo museum exhibition in his hometown of Chicago.