The Lullaby Project

Spring 2022

Inspired by the lyrical exhibition Bob Thompson: This House Is Mine, the Smart Museum of Art invites University of Chicago student musicians, singers, composers, writers, and poets to create original lullabies for local parents, grandparents, and caregivers.

Through this second iteration of the Lullaby Project, the Smart is seeking to commission original songs from students as a musical gift to families in Chicago. Up to 12 original lullabies will be compiled for our family audiences—bringing some light, cheer, and hopefully sleep to the restless babies among us—with additional opportunities to perform them live as part a day-long happening that will mark the closing of This House Is Mine. 

Call for submissions

We invite current University of Chicago students—undergraduate, MA, MFA, PhD—to send submissions in the form of recorded songs, recorded instrumentals, sheet music, or written lyrics. Please send by the 11:59 pm deadline on April 30, 2022 to: 

Erik L. Peterson
Manager of Family Programs and Student Engagement
eriklpeterson@uchicago.edu

Selection

The lullabies included in The Lullaby Project will be selected by a committee consisting of Music Department faculty members, Smart Museum staff, and the Smart Museum’s Student Advisory Committee. Each selection will be awarded $150. 

Artists will retain all rights to their original music and lyrics. The Smart Museum will reserve the right to create a flash drive with the music files for families to pick up for free, as well as to promote the lullabies for educational purposes on the Smart Museum website and social media channels. The Smart Museum will not sell or license the music to be sold by any other entity. 

Questions?
Contact eriklpeterson@uchicago.edu.

Lullaby Project and Take Care

The first iteration of the Lullaby Project was offered in 2021 and the lullabies debuted as part of the Take Care, Be Well livestream event, marking the end of the Smart Museum’s exhibition Take Care, and situated one year after Chicago’s COVID-19 stay-at-home order.

Image: Bob Thompson, Garden of Music, 1960. Oil on canvas. 79 1/2 × 143 in. (201.9 × 363.2 cm). Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut. The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund. © Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York. Photo: Allen Phillips / Wadsworth Atheneum.