Collection in Conversation with Pablo Helguera
August 2, 2025, through July 5, 2026.
Curated by the artist and educator Pablo Helguera in collaboration with the museum’s curatorial and learning teams, this exhibition is based on a series of conversations Helguera held with Chicago-based artists, writers, educators, and activists. Together, they reflected on the role of art in uncertain times and how misalignment or confusion can lead to new creative possibilities. Organized in response to the group’s discussions, Collection in Conversation spans all three floors of the museum’s iconic stairwell galleries and explores themes that emerged during conversations with participants. Accompanied by the voices of the individuals whose unique perspectives on the present informed the selection of works, this exhibition presents well-known works from the collection in an entirely new context—a conversation between Chicagoans reckoning with the present.
