THE VISUALIST

Chicago’s real-time archive for current and past events

ART EVENT LISTINGS

The Visualist provides a non-curated  calendar of current visual events in the Chicago area. This service is ad-free, communal, egalitarian, and publicly available. Our list contains programming that is open to the public, helping viewers find events that would otherwise be available only to those in the know. The Visualist doesn’t run on its own, it requires constant research and Chicago’s art community to maintain the comprehensive calendar that we share. By using our online form, anyone can add to the weekly calendar and archive. We manually review submissions for spam, typos, and clarity before posting them publicly.

ART EVENT ARCHIVE

The Visualist is also a growing archive of Chicago’s visual art history. Chicago and its suburbs have a deep cultural past, and many of its exhibitions and public art events are at risk of being lost. Through our archive we are preserving our shared history of not only well-publicized events that took place in well established spaces, but also apartment galleries, basement performances, mobile projects, happenings, or any kind of visual art event you can think of. It is this type of work with its ephemeral nature that is so important and in danger of being lost to time if we do not preserve it. The Visualist records events after 2015 with a reasonable sense of fidelity. Additional entries back through 1949. Help us add to this archive by submitting past events using our online form. We manually review each submission before posting it publicly.

WHY DO WE NEED THE VISUALIST TODAY?

Our visual culture asserts our shared identity as Chicagoans, connecting us through our heritage while helping us imagine a future. Seeing our collections of events creates a picture of our history that is more than the sum of its parts.  It is through this lens that The Visualist works to provide access to Chicago’s visual arts events. We promote cultural encounters that are not prescribed by algorithms or dictated by corporate interest. We value shared experiences over content sharing. We value preserving our collective work as it is happening.

WHO IS BEHIND THE VISUALIST?

The story of the Visualist begins with newspapers and websites like The Chicago Reader, The Chicago Defender, and Spaces.org, whose attention to events and their listing helped encourage our comprehensive view of Chicago and all of its communities. On The Make was developed by Karly Wildenhaus whose project is situated in the bones of The Visualist itself. Finally, Jenny Kendler, Chad Kouri, and Steve Ruiz built The Visualist before offering it to its current stewards, Meg and Michael at culture/MATH.

The Visualist is managed by the people at culture/MATH, a 501c3 non-profit that’s run by fun-loving volunteers with far too many hats. Every event submission helps to keep the Visualist running. If you have any questions or suggestions, please let us know at: Visualistchicago@gmail.com

The Visualist, Always Open.
The Visualist, What you need is, a place, a time, and some contact information
The Visualist, Submit to us.
The Visualist, You are here.
The Visualist, Our community is really big.
The Visualist, Let’s organize some culture together.
The Visualist, Lets share.
The Visualist, Three Sixty Five.
The Visualist, You don’t need to know us to visit more often.
The Visualist, You send us your stuff.
The Visualist, Not to be confused with the take-out menus.
The Visualist, Hard Core Smarty Neighborhood Stuff about Art.
The Visualist, Don’t make us rhyme please.
The Visualist, Archive Everything.
The Visualist, Makes everything better.
The Visualist, It’s your project.
The Visualist, Gets more dates.
The Visualist, Not in a box Not in a shoe.
The Visualist, Starring Hugh Jackman.
The Visualist, Walked into a bar. Ouch!
The Visualist, It’s only dirt.
The Visualist, Extra Credit for looking.
The Visualist, Searches you’ll find.
The Visualist, Makes it look easy
The Visualist, We’re awed by your Mastery of Fine Arts.
The Visualist, It’s a good day for sharing.
The Visualist, We’re looking when you can’t.
The Visualist, Luvs Spaces.org
The Visualist, PoMo, PoCards
The Visualist, We don’t sing so good.
The Visualist, Because V is for so many other things too.
The Visualist, Tastes like it sounds.
The Visualist, Our time is your time.
The Visualist, Nothing like the last show you missed.
The Visualist, C’mon.
The Visualist, Is it an exhibit if no one sees it?
The Visualist, Let’s make a different kind of calendar
The Visualist, The Visualist, The Visualist
The Visualist, It goes with everything
The Visualist, Follow Me.
The Visualist, Hot live action for slow slow mail
The Visualist, Your gallery likes people too
The Visualist, Or V if you’re nasty.
The Visualist, Are you gonna eat that?
The Visualist, Because Spaces need Astronauts
The Visualist, Loves your show.
The Visualist, Knows it when it sees it.
The Visualist, Likes Cats.
The Visualist, Did the reading.
The Visualist, Agrees with Sartre.
The Visualist, Is not the last Rod Stewart Fan.
The Visualist, Overslept
The Visualist, Says, goodnight Gracie.
The Visualist, Remembers Torpedo.
The Visualist, Is handcrafted to fit right in.
The Visualist, Kills nostalgia.
The Visualist, Older than someone’s brother.
The Visualist, Line Please?
The Visualist, Tehee.
The Visualist, Love’s your basement.
The Visualist, We Art Chicago.
The Visualist, Stands in line like the rest of us.
The Visualist, One Chip, Two Chip, Red Chip (whatever)
The Visualist, Drinks socially.
The Visualist, Didn’t take the bus for the transfer
The Visualist, Trusts
The Visualist, Because you’re making history.
The Visualist, Follows what came before.
The Visualist, Eventing the wheel over and over
The Visualist, Get the fuck out, see stuff.
The Visualist, Chose funny and make things well
The Visualist, Go Go Go
The Visualist, Agrees and asks questions
The Visualist, Look what we did here.
The Visualist, Our emoji is more
The Visualist, Often and Early.
The Visualist, Is my name too.
The Visualist, We’re in this because you’re in this
The Visualist, For both day and evening.
The Visualist, Marginalia for the soul.
The Visualist, As common as any Tuesday gets.
The Visualist, Is it Stray Off Course, or is it Stay of Course.
The Visualist, No secrets, No sorrows.
The Visualist, If you look for something you’ll find something here.
The Visualist, Like a petting zoo for old bread.
The Visualist, Drink up and get shit done.
The Visualist, Reinventing New York one artist at a time
The Visualist, Frodo lives.
The Visualist, Over the mark but under the wire.
The Visualist, Sunday’s aren’t our jam.
The Visualist, Groks.
The Visualist, This intentional archive for made-up things.
The Visualist, Stinks of onions.
The Visualist, Knows you’re out there.
The Visualist, Like a one wing dove.