April Artist News

published: April 6, 2026

Bomba Spring Classes at La Escuelita Bombera de Corazón

Beginning in April, Ivelisse Diaz’s La Escuelita Bombera de Corazón is seeking participants for their Bomba Spring classes centering Afro Puerto Rican music through the teaching of dance, drums, and Bomba kids.

 

Chair-ish at the Cleve Carney Museum

On view now through April 11, Chair-ish, a new exhibition by Alex Chitty and Norman Teague is featured at the Cleve Carney Museum of Art. The works “create a conversation between the two artists who ‘examine the intimacy of objects we interact with daily.’” The artists’ practices “exist in the gray area where fine art and functional design overlap,” and the exhibition emphasize freedom and exploration as common themes.    

 

Women’s Work that Always Was at OH Art Foundation

On view now through April 12, Women’s Work that Always Was, a solo exhibition of Candace Hunter’s work, explores the persistence and absence of women’s work in art and art history. “When women appeared in Hunter’s life, they were the marvelous mothers who she encountered. This show honors these mothers and daughters— some seen as artists, some seeing motherhood as their art.”

 

Cheryl Pope: ALL THERE IS at Monique Meloche

On view now through May 16, Cheryl Pope: ALL THERE IS is an exhibition of new works by Cheryl Pope. “ALL THERE IS debuts a new body of landscape works that explore the spiritual and emotional resonance of the land as a site of recollection, silence, and shared human experience.”

 

Grelley Duvall Best Actress at Chopin Theater

Showing now through April 19, Best Actress is an all new two-act revue featuring the award-winning performances and iconic cinematic moments that have inspired generations. This event highlights the multimedia mayhem Grelle’s shows have been known for over the years: musical performances, reenactments of famous moments in pop culture history, along with elaborate puppetry and video segments. Choreographed by Erin Kilmurray and featuring performances by Darling Shear and Mary Williamson this show is not one to miss.

 

Dog Day Afternoon on Broadway

Showing now through July 12, Dog Day Afternoon, featuring Esteban Andres Cruz, is the play adaption of the “electrifying, Oscar-winning film that captivated the country.” Taking place in the summer of 1972 in New York City, the story is a “raw, gritty reminder of what happens when passion and desperation collide.”

 

Theater of the Mind at 333 N. Lasalle Street  

Showing now through July 12, Theater of the Mind, is a new theatrical experience that engages the senses. “Inspired by both historical and current neuroscience research, the show takes you on an immersive journey inside how we see and create our worlds…Follow your Guide as they revisit key moments in their life in a surreal, 15,000-square-foot installation with a group of just 16 audience members.” Artists Em Modaff, Shariba Rivers and a cast of 7 all play “David” who will rotate as the guide for each performance. 

 

Cydney M. Lewis: Weeds Grow in All Directions at the Hyde Park Art Center

Showing April 4 through July 12, Cydney M. Lewis: Weeds Grow in All Directions is on view at the Hyde Park Art Center. The exhibition centers Cydney Lewis’s collage works and large-scale assemblages created with everyday materials found in her daily life. “The works in the exhibition reward close looking- to find the extraordinary in the overlooked, to reconnect with energies around us, and to feel the pulse of our shared ecology through playful wonder and poignant reflection.”

 

Windfall at Steppenwolf Theatre

Showing April 9 through May 31, Windfall is a “story about money…When a Chicago father loses his child in a clash with the police, he is visited by three strangers who advise him to take the city’s cash settlement, relocate and forget his grief— or else remain, haunted by memories of the world his child fought so hard to protect.” Alana Arenas stars as the First Lady, Miss Second, The Last One, and Melissa DuPrey is understudying those roles with sound design by Willow James.

 

Inheritance of Hope at Bronzeville Winery

Opening April 9, Inheritance of Hope, with work by Dorian Sylvain, “explores how resilience, identity, and healing are carried forward through art. The exhibition brings “together artists who examine hope as an active, lived practice— expressed through everyday acts of care, creativity, and courage.”

 

Out Here at Court Theatre

Showing April 10 through May 10, Out Here, a new musical developed through a dynamic collaboration between Court Theatre and the University of Chicago, “explores the unexpected freedom in relinquishing control, and how, sometimes, you have to break something apart to create something better.” Out Here features movement direction by Breon Arzell and artist Bethany Thomas as ROBIN. 

 

From Jacking to Footwork: The Dance Systems that Built a Culture at Ramova Theatre

On April 11, Tre Daniels is a panelist in From Jacking to Footwork: The Dance Systems that Built a Culture, also featuring King Charles, Prince Jron, and Kellie Forman. “From jacking to the percolator, juking to footwork, every style was a response to a moment, a community, a feeling. This session traces the lineage: where each movement came from, who was doing it, and why it mattered.” This panel is a part of Chicago EMC’s full day of programming curated to educate, connect, and inspire.

 

Freedom From and Freedom To at Elastic Arts

On April 11, Cristal Sabbagh’s Freedom From and Freedom To invites movement and sound improvisors who are grouped by chance to gather in front of a live audience in this exploration and celebration of artistic circumstance. This month’s program features dance and music artists Ayana Woods, Nejla Yatkin, Jacinda Ratcliffe, Cristal Sabbagh, and more.

 

Ballet Unboxed presents Evolution of Mind-Body: Tracing Our Dance/Ballet History with Ayako Kato at The Rooted Space

On April 12, Tuli Bera presents Evolution of Mind-Body: Tracing Our Dance/Ballet History with Ayako Kato as part of their 3AP-funded Ballet Unboxed project. Featuring Ayako Kato, this free workshop asks, “...Why ballet? What is ballet? Why are artists advancing, drifting away, and/or sticking to their preferred style and forms, where we are, and what we are dancing now?”

 

MUJERES at the Reva & David Logan Center for the Arts

On April 17-18, choreographed by PARA.MAR Founder and Director, Stephanie Martinez, MUJERES is PARA.MAR’s first ever full-length ballet. This 3AP-funded project invites participants to meet the “many versions of Chilean poet and Nobel Laureate Gabriela Mistral’s Locas Mujeres.” Described as a “ritual of endurance, fragmentation, and return,” this trailblazing show's run includes a community preview with pay-what-you-can tickets on April 17.

 

safronia at the Lyric Opera of Chicago

On April 17-18, avery r. young’s safronia, an afro-surrealist opera debuts at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. “safronia weaves gospel, blues, funk, and poetics into a tale of migration, memory, and reclamation. It’s a bold, imaginative work rooted in Black southern legacies and steeped in care.” Artist Meagan McNeal plays safronia and Sydney Charles is featured in the ensemble.

 

Tonika Lewis Johnson, Amanda Williams, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor on Housing Justice (The MacArthur Fellows in conversation) at Ramova Theatre

On April 18, as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival, Chicago-area MacArthur Fellows convene in Tonika Lewis Johnson, Amanda Williams, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor on Housing Justice moderated by National Public Housing Museum Executive Director and previous 3Arts Board Member Lisa Lee. The event is an “illuminating conversation on housing and racial inequality in Chicago and across the country...”

 

Chicago Soul Jazz Collective featuring Dee Alexander No Wind & No Rain Album Release at Winter’s Jazz Club

On April 18-19, Dee Alexander plays with Larry Brown Jr. (guitar), John Fournier (tenor sax), Amr Fahmy (piano), Micah Collier (bass), Keith Brooks (drums), and Ryan Nyther (trumpet) in the No Wind & No Rain Album Release at Winter’s Jazz Club.