Amanda Williams. Photo courtesy of John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

By CGN Staff

Congratulations to Amanda Williams, the MCA Chicago's 2026 Visionary Honoree. On October 5th at 11am, the MCA will honor Amanda Williams and Bank of America at its annual Visionary Luncheon celebrating arts philanthropy in Chicago.

The Visionary luncheon celebrates arts philanthropy in Chicago and extraordinary women artists. This year's event features a program with multidisciplinary artist and MacArthur Fellow Amanda Williams and the presentation of the 2026 Arts Philanthropy Award to Bank of America for its commitment to arts and culture in Chicago.

Amanda Williams (b. 1974, Evanston, IL) deconstructs the physical and social systems of inequity. Informed by her architectural background, Amanda’s multidisciplinary practice communicates through a chromatic language of abstraction and material means. Recent exhibitions include Amanda Williams: We Say What Black This Is, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, GA (2025) and Prospect.6 triennial, New Orleans, LA (2025), for which Amanda presented In Her Rich Deposits of (Blue). Amanda is also coauthor of the forthcoming permanent monument to Shirley Chisholm, Our Democracy, Our Destiny, in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Amanda is the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (2022), has been named a Gordon Parks Foundation Fellow (2026), a Chicagoan of the Year (2023), and a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant awardee (2017). Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, among others. Amanda earned a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University, NY. She lives and works in Chicago, IL.

Rita Sola Cook, President of Bank of America Chicago, as well as Division Executive for the Midwest and Ohio Valley Division of Bank of America Private Bank. Drawing on almost thirty years with the firm, she provides strategic direction and sustained leadership in overseeing the delivery of impactful banking and wealth management capabilities to individuals, families, businesses, and institutions.

Last year's event honored Julie Mehretu.

This year's event will take place at the Four Seasons Hotel at 120 E. Delaware Pl. in Chicago

Details and tickets are available on the MCA's website.