*Space is limited to 40 guests, we expect this evening to fill quickly. 

Tour: 5:30 - 7:00 pm, Art Institute of Chicago (Main Lobby)
Cocktail Reception: 7:00 - 8:30 pm, The Cliff Dwellers’ Club (200 S. Michigan Ave)

What do we envision when we hear the words ‘artist’s circle’?  Do we go straight to evening conversations at Gertrude’s Stein’s Salon in 1900s Paris?  Do we include The New York School artists, friends or foe who drank and dialogued at the Cedar Tavern on 10 St? Or do we time travel to the 1700s Dutch Era and imagine a young apprentice learning at the hands of a master? Behind every work of art, lies a relationship that helped inspire, mold and even lead a work of art to become a masterpiece. On a very special evening this spring, we invite you to engage with works not merely as art history - but as the result of conversations, collisions and collaborations between the artist and their circle of influence. 

The Chicago-Midwest ICAA presents The Artist’s Circle, an intimate tour of the Art Institute of Chicago guided by two docents who will bring extraordinary works to life through context, questions and influences that inspired them.

This is not a lecture, it is a salon-style conversation - the kinds that used to happen in Gertrude Stein’s smoke-filled living room, and the halls of avant-garde Black Mountain College - among people who care deeply about beauty and art. 

After the tour we cross Michigan Avenue to the legendary Cliff Dwellers' Club, Chicago’s historic gathering place for artists, architects, and writers since 1907. In its beautiful library - with its incomparable view of the Museum and Avenue - we’ll continue our conversations over drinks and appetizers, in the spirit of the salon that inspired the very works we’ve just experienced. The Cliff Dwellers was founded for exactly this kind of evening, and we intend to honor that tradition.