Public Culture Lecture Series

Currently on hiatus

The Public Culture Lecture Series, co-organized by Randall Szott and InCUBATE, seeks to highlight examinations and enactments of public culture. Rather than following a preformed idea of what public culture actually is, the lecture series treats it as an open question and invites attendees to explore the question with us. A variety of creative people (artists, public art scholars, historians, cooks, collectors, etc.) will present the ways that the notion of “the public” emerges in their work and/or informs it. The series includes talks, workshops, and tours, that bring together a wide spectrum of perspectives on how contemporary culture intersects with everyday life. The Public Culture Lecture series grew out of InCUBATE and Randall Szott's event series, "In Search of the Mundane" at threewalls in October/November 2009. Its premise was to be a living exhibition: a series of public events that open up the space of the gallery to living and doing, calling attention to the wide spectrum of people interested in the beauty and political potential of the ‘everyday.’ 

Past Programs
Tuesday, January 25: Penelope Bingham, Who Cooks? American Cookbooks and Changes in Gender Roles
Tuesday, February 15: Chad Elias, How to Do Things With Words in Public Space
Thursday, March 24: Sara Daleiden, Los Angeles Urban Rangers
Saturday, April 9: Ericka Nelson, The Worlds Largest Collection of the Worlds Smallest Versions of the Worlds Largest Things
Tuesday, April 19: Katie Hargrave
Angela Ray's “The Lyceum and Public Culture in the Nineteenth Century United States”  
Claire Pentecost’s lecture on “Optimism and Everyday Life” 
Ryan Griffis lecture on Temporary Travel Office
Megan Stielstra on "Storytelling as an Everyday Art"
Robert Gardner's tour of Maxwell Street Market
Hui-min Tsen's tour of the Chicago’s underground pedway system 
A tour with Public Collectors of Anthony Elm's artist and exhibition ephemera 
Mark Bazer's live interview show with artists Tony Tassett, Kelly Kaczynski, and Bad at Sports' Duncan Mackenzie and Richard Holland
Dr. Ben Reitman's walking tour of Chicago's hobohemia