2024/2025 Performance Residency Dates

The Legacy Project

Featuring Roy Kinsey

At its core, Dandelions: Gods Don’t Cry is about resilience, transformation, and self-acceptance. The dandelion, often dismissed as a weed, symbolizes Blackness, queerness, and survival—thriving in places where it wasn’t meant to, adapting, and still standing tall.

Re-Writing the Declaration

Directed by Quenna Lené Barrett

Catalyzed by the Movement for Black Lives, Re-Writing the Declaration is a devised, participatory play inviting audiences to center Black women, and femmes, nonbinary, and trans folx of color, in order to free us all.

STAY IN THE KNOW!

Sign-up to receive news, events, updates, and opportunities from Arts + Public Life

 

Launched in 2011, Arts + Public Life (APL), an initiative of UChicago Arts at the University of Chicago, has been providing residencies for local artists and creative entrepreneurs, arts education for youth, and artist-led programming and exhibitions. We believe our greatest achievements are our relationships, and we want to thank you for a decade marked by meaningful exchange and ambitious cultural production.

Events and Programs

Make Your Reservation Today!

Check out the new APL event calendar to learn more about upcoming exhibitions, events, and programs at APL’s venues on the Arts Block, including the Arts Incubator, Green Line Performing Arts Center, L1 Retail Store, and the Arts Lawn.

All of our venues, Arts Incubator, Green Line Performing Arts Center, L1 Retail Store, and Arts Lawn, are wheelchair accessible. If you need additional accommodation in order to participate in our programs, you can include a note when you RSVP or contact us for assistance at artsandpubliclife@uchicago.edu.

Group of people celebrating indoors, with one woman taking a photo and others smiling and clapping, against a backdrop of framed artwork.

Arts + Public Life events are free and open to the public.

A Dynamic Hub of Exploration, Expression, and Exchange

Arts + Public Life fosters neighborhood vibrancy through the arts on the South Side of Chicago.

 

Artist Residencies

 

Arts Education

Exhibitions

 

Creative Entrepreneurship

Programs + Events

 

Cultural Stewardship

 

We can’t wait to see you on the Arts Block

A creative corridor in the heart of Washington Park, the Arts Block is a vibrant collection of cultural and commercial spaces on historic Garfield Boulevard. The Arts Incubator, Green Line Performing Arts Center, L1 Retail Store, and Arts Lawn are operated and managed by Arts + Public Life.

 

The Arts Lawn

335-347 E. Garfield Boulevard

Green Line Performing Arts Center

329 E Garfield Boulevard

L1 Creative Business Accelerator + Retail Store

319 E Garfield Boulevard

Arts Incubator

301 E Garfield Boulevard

SUPPORT SOUTH SIDE ARTISTS

Arts + Public Life (APL) thrives thanks to supporters who help foster the vibrant creativity happening every day on the Arts Block. Learn more about how you can be a part of sustaining a rich ecosystem of South Side artists, youth, and entrepreneurs.