Celebrate lifelong learning at the Art Institute’s free Reflections festival—the annual kick-off day for Art Insights, a program that brings free slide talks to older adult community groups and retirement communities.
The day starts with a keynote lecture, followed by a variety of activities that explore the Art Institute’s global collection. Engage in conversations about art, enjoy music in the galleries, and get moving in a dance workshop with teaching artists from Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Parkinson’s Project. Exercise your creative side in brief workshops with the Arts for Brain Health Coalition exploring music, movement, theater, and art-making. Take home a souvenir postcard as a free educational keepsake.
Reflections is free to all older adults and accompanying adult partners and group leaders. Please use the museum’s Modern Wing entrance (159 East Monroe Street) beginning at 9:30 a.m.
Register with lunch
Reflections offers an optional lunch in the Chicago Stock Exchange Room for a fee of $21 per person. Reservations are necessary for lunch and space is limited. Tickets for lunch are non-refundable.
Reserve lunch tickets with a credit card.
Schedule of activities
Please note: Information is subject to change; each guest will receive a detailed booklet of activities upon arrival. To view the booklet in advance, please download the pdf.
9:30–10:15
Doors open for Reflections festival participants, Modern Wing Entrance, 159 E. Monroe Street
Opening remarks:
Lucas Livingston, assistant director of accessibility and lifelong learning
Dr. Debra E. Weese-Mayer, President, Hulda B. and Maurice L. Rothschild Foundation
Rubloff Auditorium*†
10:15–11:00
Lecture: Mythologies of African Art
Rubloff Auditorium*
Costa Petridis, Chair and Curator of Arts of Africa and the Americas
10:30
Art Institute opens to the general public
10:30–2:30
Informal Gallery Talks
Various galleries
10:30–11:00, 11:30–12:00, 12:30–1:00
Rhythmicity**
Ryan Learning Center, Studio A
Rick Neuhaus
You’ve got the rhythm in you. Play YOU!
10:30–11:10, 11:30–12:10, 12:30–1:10
Memory Ensemble**
Ryan Learning Center, Classroom 4
Lookingglass Theatre Company
Engage your instincts, creativity, and spontaneity with Lookingglass Theatre Company to explore and create improvisational theater.
11:15–11:45, 12:15–12:45, 1:15–1:45
Therapy That Moves You**
Pritzker Garden (rain day location: Griffin Court)
Chicago Dance Therapy
Explore movement with Chicago Dance Therapy as a way to express, communicate, and connect with yourself and the world around you.
11:15–2:00
Drawing in the Galleries
Gallery 396
Leslie Baum, artist
Learn the basics of drawing with original works of art.
11:30–12:30
Ticketed Luncheon
Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room
11:30–1:30
Music in the Galleries
Woman’s Board Grand Staircase, Gallery 200
Kara Bershad, harpist
11:45–12:15, 12:45–1:15, 1:45–2:15
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago Workshop
Studio B, Ryan Learning Center
Open to all levels of mobility, these abbreviated participatory workshops showcase how dance creates joy and community.
12:00–12:30
Lecture: All That Glitters: the Art of Adornment
Fullerton Hall*†
Jasmeet Sekhon
12:00–12:30, 1:00–1:30, 2:00–2:30
Art in the Moment**
Gallery 394
Deb Del Signore
Enjoy art-making in the galleries with a professional art therapist.
12:30–2:00
Hands-on Station
Classroom 3, Ryan Learning Center
Discuss and explore works of art through touch using 3-D printed sculptural replicas, carved relief interpretations, and fabric recreations of master paintings.
1:00–1:30
Lecture: The Aging Artist: Transformation and Triumph
Fullerton Hall*†
Mark Pohlad
2:30
Program concludes. The museum is open until 5:00.
*All auditoria in the Art Institute are equipped with assistive listening devices available inside the auditorium’s entrance. CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) captioning service is provided for today’s lectures by Efficiency Reporting. To access these captions, please visit artic.edu/captions.
**Presented in partnership with the Arts for Brain Health Coalition.
†Lecture will be live-streamed nationwide via Art Institute partner Well Connected. Visit the Modern Wing registration table for more information.
For more information, please email lifelonglearning@artic.edu.
Persons with disabilities who would like to request an accessibility accommodation for an Art Institute program are encouraged to email access@artic.edu as far in advance as possible.
Please visit the museum’s Accessibility page for more information.
Sponsors
Art Insights and Reflections are generously funded by the Hulda B. and Maurice L. Rothschild Foundation.
Additional support is provided by Cigna.