The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is excited to announce Collection in Conversation with Pablo Helguera, a community-informed exhibition running from August 2, 2025, to July 5, 2026, in the MCA’s stairwell galleries. For this exhibition, the MCA invited artist and educator Pablo Helguera to draw a selection of works from the museum’s permanent collection, inspired by conversations with Chicago artists, writers, activists, and educators.
In the fall of 2024, the MCA invited twenty individuals with different backgrounds and life experiences to meet and discuss the role of art in moments of uncertainty and possibility. This exhibition, which is curated by Helguera and representatives from the MCA’s curatorial and learning teams in response to the group’s discussions, will be organized by theme throughout the three floors of the MCA’s stairwell galleries, confronting trauma, resistance, complicity, and the power of individuals and movements during times of uncertainty. Each floor of the exhibition will be accompanied by the voices of individuals whose unique perspectives from the conversations informed the selection of works. With this exhibition, the MCA experiments with a new mode of presenting its permanent collection—in conversation with the people it is meant to serve.
Chicago participants include Olivia Gude, Tempestt Hazel, Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford, Ankit Khadgi, Maira Khwaja, S. Y. Lim, Stephanie Manriquez, Magdalena Moskalewicz, Nissa Rhee, Monica Rickert-Bolter, Mérida M. Rúa, Pia Singh, Carlos Salazar-Lermont, Sufyan Sohel, and several others who wish to remain anonymous.
Collection in Conversation with Pablo Helguera is organized by guest curator Pablo Helguera with Miguel Aguilar, Manager of Learning, School Partnerships and Curriculum, and Iris Colburn, Curatorial Associate.
ABOUT THE CURATOR
Pablo Helguera (b. 1971, Mexico City, lives in New York) is an artist working in installation, sculpture, photography, drawing, socially engaged art, and performance. Helguera’s work focuses on a variety of topics ranging from history, pedagogy, sociolinguistics, ethnography, memory, and the absurd, in formats that are widely varied including the lecture, museum display strategies, musical performances, and written fiction. His project, The School of Panamerican Unrest, is one of the most extensive socially engaged public art initiatives on record. Helguera has exhibited at major institutions worldwide and received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has held key roles in museum education, including at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Guggenheim Museum. Currently, he teaches at The New School and writes the weekly column Beautiful Eccentrics. He is the author of Education for Socially Engaged Art (2011) and The Parable Conference(2014).
SUPPORT
Lead support is provided by the Pritzker Traubert Collection Exhibition Fund, Cari and Michael Sacks, and the Zell Family Foundation.
ABOUT THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART CHICAGO
The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. The MCA interweaves exhibitions, performances, collections, and educational programs while providing a place for audiences to contemplate and discuss contemporary art in pursuit of a creative and diverse future. The MCA believes in the values of inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility (IDEA) as a platform to enact structural change. The museum is generously supported by its Board of Trustees; individual and corporate members; private and corporate foundations, including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; and government agencies. The MCA is a proud member of Museums in the Park and receives major support from the Chicago Park District.
The MCA is located at 220 E. Chicago Avenue and is open 10 am to 5 pm Wednesday to Sunday and Tuesdays from 10 am to 9 pm. Tuesday evenings (5-9 pm) are free for Illinois residents. The museum is closed on Mondays. Admission is free for all youth 18 and under, members of the military and veterans, and MCA members. Free admission for anyone 18 and under is generously provided by Liz and Eric Lefkofsky, and Northern Trust. Find more information about MCA's exhibitions, programs, and special events at mcachicago.org or at 312.280.2660.
Howardena Pindell, Free, White and 21,1980. Single-channel video (color, sound). Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; gift of Garth Greenan and Bryan Davidson Blue, 2014.22. © 1980 Howardena Pindell. Image courtesy Garth Greenan Gallery.
