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Blog : Voices

News and stories at the Smart.

Into the Archives

last edited on Tue. July 18 2023

Deep dives into objects with he inaugural cohort of the Feitler Center for Academic Inquiry’s Collections Research Associates program

Collective Storytelling

last edited on Mon. July 10 2023

not all realisms curator Leslie M. Wilson, in conversation with Meralis Alvarez-Morales (MAPH 2023), shares a few final reflections on the arc of the exhibition’s history and unexpected connections.

2022 Alum Sticker Commission

by Jad Dahshan, AB 2021, MA 2022

last edited on Thu. September 29 2022

Alum Jad Dahshan shares a fantastical sticker design inspired by their UChicago student experience at the Smart Museum. A limited run of the stickers will be available at the 2022 Student Activities and Resource Fair.

Sonny Rollins, Bob Thompson, and Chicago

last edited on Tue. August 16 2022

On April 19, 2022, tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins connected with Lead Museum Educator Nicole Bond for a wide-ranging discussion about his relationship with artist Bob Thompson, how Thompson made everywhere he traveled home, and how Rollins and other jazz legends are depicted in Thompson’s 1960 work, Garden of Music

Free Life for Bob Thompson

by Arnold J. Kemp

last edited on Mon. February 7 2022

An aural exploration of swinging bebop, hard bop, Beat poetry, free jazz, and deep cuts that blur the boundaries between such creative forms, curated by Arnold J. Kemp for Bob Thompson: This House Is Mine.

Interview with Unyimeabasi Udoh

last edited on Fri. May 21 2021

Unyimeabasi Udoh, a Chicago-based artist and graphic designer, and curator Leslie M. Wilson discuss Unyimeabasi's art practice and approach to creating the look of the exhibition not all realisms: photography in africa in the long 1960s.

Connecting, collecting, and the Smart

last edited on Sun. April 18 2021

For retired pediatrician Janis Mendelsohn, M.D., the Smart feels like home.

About The City

by Kathy Fitzgerald, Lead Museum Educator

last edited on Tue. May 12 2020

Lead Museum Educator Kathy Fitzgerald reflects on Walt Kuhn's painting The City, and the city outside. 

Inside “Down Time”

by Leslie M. Wilson, Curatorial Fellow for Diversity in the Arts, Smart Museum of Art

last edited on Thu. April 23 2020

In a world transformed—if only temporarily—by coronavirus, what on earth is “down time”? Curator Leslie Wilson reflects on matters of observation, attention, longing, and love in two works from the Smart’s permanent collection.

An interview with Naima Green

by Molly Sun, BS and AB ’20

last edited on Mon. December 9 2019

Naima Green discusses work, leisure, and her photographic portrait series Jewels from the Hinterland in the context of the exhibition Down Time: On the Art of Retreat.