Schedule
Design as Activism Symposium
Schedule
Join us for two days of thought-provoking activations, workshops, discussions, and more.
Note: Registration for the Saturday programming is now full. To watch select panels and keynotes virtually, visit the livestream available here.
Day 1 - Pop-Ups & Activations
Friday, September 13th
Visit a variety of events across Chicago. Participating community partners will demonstrate their projects and engage audiences as participants.
Note: Transportation will not be provided between sites. We ask that all attendees make their own transportation arrangements.
Healing Session: We Are All Loving Energy
Meditation
Location:
Chicago History Museum
1601 N. Clark St
Chicago, IL 60614
Facilitator:
Aneela Dean
Breath, Meditation Self-Realization Coach
Take a moment to slow down with a deep relaxation sound bath as Aneela Dean takes us through a guided meditation. During this session, participants will close their eyes and allow the ambient sounds to relax their nervous system, while slowing down their breath and turning towards being in their energy. Wind down as body and love energy guide you into expanding your heart energy out into the planet.
Presented as part of Healing Centered Practices, a series of free, customized healing workshops held in conjunction with Art Design Chicago exhibitions. Healing Centered Practices is organized by 6018North, Red Line Service, and artist Rhonda Wheatley.
Location:
Chicago History Museum
1601 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60614
Tours facilitated by:
Museum Staff
Chicago activists in the 1960s and ’70s used design to create powerful slogans, symbols, and imagery to amplify their visions for social change. In this guided tour, see more than 100 posters, fliers, signs, buttons, newspapers, magazines, and books from the era, expressing often radical ideas about race, war, gender equality, and sexuality that challenged mainstream culture of the time.
Intro to Craftivism
Workshop
Location:
Chicago History Museum
1601 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60614
Facilitator:
Shannon Downey aka Badass Cross Stitch
Art Activist
Get acquainted with craftivism, learn to embroider, stitch something brilliant, and make friends—all in just two hours! Craft-based activism is used as a tool of resistance, coalition building, and even espionage!
Learn from Shannon Downey—a leader in the modern craftivism movement. Shannon will provide an introduction to the history of craftivism and ways you can get involved in the modern movement. Shannon will then teach you how to embroider and help you work out your stress in no time. We guarantee you walk away feeling better than when you arrived.
Inaugural Celebration: Puppet of Care
Event
Location:
Buttercup Park
4901 N. Sheridan Rd.
Chicago, IL 60640
Facilitators:
Red Line Service Community Artists
We especially invite people with lived experience of houselessness to join us.
Red Line Service is led by artists with lived experience of homelessness working together with professionals to reduce barriers to arts participation for all.
Join us to welcome Red Line Service’s large-scale 12-foot puppet of care! Celebrate the puppet’s first day with an afternoon in the park. Learn how it works and help us teach the puppet how to care for others in our world. Sing, dance, and play, enjoy Q&A with our puppeteers, and even suggest a name!
Light refreshments will be provided.
Produced as part of Designing Belonging, a Red Line Service program supported by the Art Design Chicago initiative of the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Voices Embodied: Reverberations
Curator-Led Exhibition Tour
Location:
Design Museum Chicago
72 E. Randolph
Chicago, IL 60601
Facilitator:
Alex Stark
Artist, Curator, and Queer Disability Advocate
Join us at the Design Museum of Chicago for a walk-through, discussion, and Q&A with curator and founder of Voices Embodied: Reverberations Alex Stark.
The exhibition highlights the collective sentiment around disability and the importance of designing a mutually inclusive world that we can all share and benefit from. Each work speaks to the idea that through perspectives outside of our own, we learn to appreciate each other more and grow as a result. With artwork displayed in close proximity, a mutually designed and accessible future is emphasized.
Unearthing Layers, Connecting Stories: Reflections on Environmental Justice in Everyday Life
Community Reading & Workshop
Location:
Archer (William Beatty) Park
4901 S. Kilbourn Ave.
Chicago, IL 60632
Facilitators:
Marya Spont-Lemus & Clarissa Aljentera
Readings by:
Bernie Groves, Clarissa Aljentera, Fiona Cook, Honni Harris, Marya Spont-Lemus, and Yanina Villagomez
Join us for a Community Reading and Workshop and engage in creative writings on local environmental justice issues.
Creatively respond to shared stories about the places around you, and connect these themes to your own life and with others. This workshop is available in English, Spanish, and Mandarin (as needed).
Day 2 - Invited Speakers, Workshops, and Conversations
Saturday, September 14th
The second day of the symposium will gather leaders and community organizers who will discuss community-led design approaches that bring about positive impact and consider the evolving partnership between design and activism.
Advanced registration is required and Saturday sessions are now full. The event keynotes and a selection of panels will be available to view online.
To watch select panels and keynotes virtually, visit the livestream available here.
All Saturday sessions will take place at the Institute of Design at Illinois Tech (Kaplan Building) located at 3137 S. Federal Street, Chicago, IL 60616.
Registration Begins
Coffee & tea provided
Location:
Kaplan – 1st Floor
Welcome to Design as Activism
Opening Remarks
Speaker:
Jessica Meharry
Visiting Assistant Professor, Institute of Design
Location:
The Pitch – 1st Floor
I’m Not Really Political: Activating Designers in the Work of Sustaining Democracy
Opening Keynote
Speaker:
Anne H. Berry
Director, School of Design, University of Illinois-Chicago
Location:
The Pitch – 1st Floor
In politically fraught climates, engaging designers in conversations about the role of government in society can be daunting. And yet, whether or not we choose to participate in political action or political discourse, politics is still embedded in our everyday lives.
From the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to the Americans with Disabilities Act, design and communication are inextricably linked to democracy. This presentation will serve as an entry point for discussion about the responsibilities that even the most politically reluctant designers among us carry in order to help maintain a healthy democracy.
Break
How To Share Your Power: A Conversation About Co-Design
Panel
Facilitator:
Sara Cantor
Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director, Greater Good Studio
Panelists:
Ahmad Jitan
Director of Organizing and Advocacy, IMAN (Inner-City Muslim Action Network)
Nicole Robinson
Chief Executive Officer, YWCA Metropolitan Chicago
Lesley Kennedy
Director of Strategy and Organizational Development, Chicago South Side Birth Center
Location:
Tellabs – 1st Floor
Despite consensus on the need to redistribute power for equity, it’s rarely practiced. This panel with local non-profit leaders explores co-design frameworks, barriers, and strategies for shifting power.
Generating Community Processes through Participatory Design
Workshop
Facilitator:
Lucía Garcés Dávila, MA
Participatory Design Facilitator and Educator
Location:
Steelcase West – 2nd Floor
In this workshop, participants will explore a generative theme as part of a critical pedagogy approach, applying visual dialogues and creating a shared language to address cultural, social, and environmental practices.
Why Design Needs to be Anti-Racist
Workshop
Facilitator:
Chris Rudd
Founder & CEO, ChiByDesign
Location:
Steelcase East – 2nd Floor
Design knows very well how to be racist and how to make racism digestible for society. Design has long struggled to get a seat at the table, but how can designers best use that position to serve the underserved and create products and services that are antiracist?
Designing for Ourselves: A Conversation on the Impact of Local Design Languages
Conversation
Facilitators:
Amira Hegazy
Adjunct Associate Professor, University of Illinois Chicago
Sir Charles
Lettering Artist, Made in Chi Town with Love
Location:
Room 226 – 2nd Floor
Sir Charles uses his lettering work to represent Chicago’s South Side neighborhoods with integrity and love. Focusing on localized design, this conversation will consider ways that community-built aesthetics can help us directly speak and design messages that are effective and affirming.
Design for Disability at the Intersection of Policy, Built Environment, and Trauma Awareness
Conversation
Facilitator:
Cheryl Dahle
CEO, Flip Labs
Panelists:
Dimitri Nesbitt
Knowledge Mobilization Specialist, Center for Racial and Disability Justice at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
Ruth Aguilar
Senior Ligas Family Advocate, The Arc of Illinois
Location:
Room 227 – 2nd Floor
Most, if not all of us, will become disabled one day. Despite that near-universal experience, our designers, institutions, and governments do a consistently shabby job anticipating the needs of those with disabilities or even consulting them in the design process. Ableism is deeply embedded in socialization and civic participation, and encoded in buildings and services that not only fail to be accessible but also potentially create new trauma for disabled people navigating a world that was not built for them. This panel explores the systemic and cultural issues behind this ongoing injustice, as well as ways that design can lead the way to a more just future.
Drop-In Activity
Facilitator:
William Estrada
Multidisciplinary Artist & Educator
Location:
Studio – 2nd Floor
Learn about this pop-up collaborative print shop meant to temporarily exist in communal spaces. Focused on teaching basic accessible printing techniques and using art as a tool for mobilization, experience graphic images that amplify the stories and concerns of historically marginalized groups in order to learn from each other and organize for just futures.
Nodes and Networks: A Playful Build
Drop-In Activity
Facilitators:
Andrés Lemus-Spont
Co-Creator, ¡Anímate! Studio
Marya Spont-Lemus
Co-Creator, ¡Anímate! Studio
Location:
Studio – 2nd Floor
In this collaborative build workshop, participants will construct a temporary sculpture/environment that evolves over the course of the session. Be sure to learn more about ¡Anímate! Studio’s values and approaches in an afternoon conversation with Andrés and Marya as they discuss the hows and whys of their shared community arts practice.
Lunch
Location:
Pitch – 1st Floor
All participants and attendees are welcome to enjoy a boxed lunch (with gluten-free and vegetarian options).
Collaboration Across Collective Networks
Panel
Facilitator:
Summer Coleman
Design Director and Owner, Severe Side Productions LLC
Panelists:
Nick Adam
Associate Partner and Design Director, Span Studio
Cecilia Cuff
CEO, The Nascent Group
Dave Pabellon
Associate Professor, Columbia College Chicago
Location:
Tellabs – 1st Floor
How does activism in design take root, and what can it grow? This panel will delve into how diverse social environments and actions from their youth shaped their lives and design practices. These practices not only reflect their personal values but also actively engage with and uplift the communities they love.
MAPPED: Making a People’s Pathway for Engaging Design
Workshop
Facilitators:
Emma Jasinski
Senior Community Designer, Design Trust Chicago
Clio Lyons
Operations Manager, Design Trust Chicago
Location:
Steelcase West – 2nd Floor
MAPPED is Chicago’s public platform for documenting community projects across the city—built, envisioned, or planned. Join this interactive workshop to learn how to contribute to this collaborative design library of community visions.
Matriarchal Design Futures: A Collective Work in Progress
Workshop
Facilitators:
Heather Snyder Quinn
Assistant Professor, DePaul University
Claire Rosas
Designer, Grammarly
Location:
Steelcase East – 2nd Floor
What would happen if a matriarchal design pedagogy was considered? What if our patriarchal training was unlearned? What if we abandoned solutionism for unknowing, thereby replacing design-for-consumption with design for the pluriverse?
In this workshop, we share Matriarchal Design Futures, a non-capitalistic, non-hierarchical framework that centers the practices and values of caregiving and nurturing.
Designing for Impact in the Built Environment
Conversation
Facillitators:
Elizabeth Blasius
Architectural Historian and Partner, Preservation Futures
Katherine Darnstadt
Founding Principal, Latent
Location:
Room 226 – 2nd Floor
Preservation Futures is a Chicago-based firm exploring the future of historic preservation through research, action, and design. Latent is a progressive Chicago based architecture firm working at the intersection of design and community development to create social, economic and environmental impact. Through a historical lens and contemporary case studies, Elizabeth and Katherine will lead a conversation about their approaches to designing and preserving the built environment with the goal of increasing justice, equity, and resiliency.
¡Anímate!: Values, Approaches, and Contexts in a Community-Based Arts Practice
Conversation
Facilitators:
Andrés Lemus-Spont
Co-Creator, ¡Anímate! Studio
Marya Spont-Lemus
Co-Creator, ¡Anímate! Studio
Location:
Room 227 – 2nd Floor
Since 2015, ¡Anímate! Studio has led free public workshops in 50+ South and Southwest Side neighborhoods. In this informal talkback, Andrés and Marya reflect on their approach of using art and design to explore values and build community power.
Break
Just Transition Visioning Project: Building Collaborative Community Processes
Panel
Facilitator:
William Estrada
Multidisciplinary Artist and Educator
Panelists:
Ashley Williams
Executive Director, Just Transition Northwest Indiana
Kaitlyn Stancy
Graphic Designer/Professor, Indiana University Northwest
Location:
Tellabs – 1st Floor
Panelists will share insights from The Visioning Project, which uses art workshops and visionary activities to imagine a Just Transition for the region. Join us to discuss how communities can move toward a regenerative, pollution-free future.
Reparative Futures Processes for Radically Hopeful Visions
Workshop
Facilitators:
Jessica Meharry
Visiting Assistant Professor, Institute of Design at Illinois Tech
Luce James
Design Strategist, Ascendant
Location:
Steelcase East – 2nd Floor
New paths forward emerge when past injustice is examined to imagine better futures. A reparative futures approach can alter the orientations and methods of anti-oppressive design work and generate a different set of affective, joyful outcomes. In this workshop, we will explore how radically hopeful visions created through critically conscious reparative futures practices offer an additional way to engage with reparative processes, bringing in creativity and consideration of relational connections.
Walking the Walk: Define Your Values, Design Your Practice
Workshop
Facilitators:
Nermin Moufti
Co-founder + Design Director, Field of Practice
Kristin Lueke
Co-founder + Design Director, Field of Practice
Location:
Steelcase West – 2nd Floor
Discover what it means to design for change in this interactive session. Reflect on your creative journey, explore shared values, and discuss the challenges and rewards of intentional practice.
Power Dynamics in Design Processes
Conversation
Facilitators:
Sharon Bautista
Qualitative Research Manager, Code for America
Sharlene King
Strategy Designer and Innovation Consultant, Design at Salesforce
Justin Walker
Business Strategy and Design Operations Lead, ChiByDesign
Location:
Room 226 – 2nd Floor
Power dynamics are ever-present in design projects. How much decision-making power should designers have? How can we structure projects to accommodate varying levels of involvement? This conversation explores different approaches to co-design and client engagement, focusing on clients’ willingness to invest in capacity building and power-sharing. While most commercially viable projects tend to supplement power, there is potential for transformative power-sharing models.
Exploring New Forms of Being
Conversation
Rafa will discuss his design career trajectory, the formation and methodologies behind his studio, and a current project showcasing how Duo is creating new types of built environment interventions that benefit society.
Break
Designing Civic Imagination and Repair
Closing Keynote
Speaker:
Chandra Christmas-Rouse
Director, Metropolitan Planning Council
Location:
Tellabs – 1st Floor
Our democracy needs repair and imagination must be part of the solution, says urban planner, systems designer and artist, Chandra Christmas-Rouse.
In our closing keynote, Chandra will unpack how to design a future for our local democracies, cities, where we all belong. She will share her work in designing civic imagination and repair to create systems change and how designers can learn to practice imagination and repair in every space they’re in.