Lines are foundational to how maps communicate. They guide you home from a new restaurant, tell you how tall a mountain is, and warn you not to stray too far in the wrong direction. They sometimes even tell you about the life a map has lived. Over centuries, mapmakers have developed (and abandoned) an amazing variety of ways to use lines to bring our world to life. This exhibition follows lines on maps to their extremes in examples from mundane textbooks to avant-garde art. Through these lines, maps rationalize their world view, even as they reveal perspectives that are neither universal nor neutral.
Mapping Outside the Lines is generously supported by Rand McNally.
Curator
David Weimer, Robert A. Holland Curator of Maps and Director of the Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography
Exhibition-Related Programming
Public Programs at the Newberry are free and open to all. Registration required in advance.
Folded Map™ Project Screening and Discussion, November 6, 5:30pm
Join us for a screening of Folded Map™ Project – The Movie followed by a discussion led by Tonika Lewis Johnson.
Mapping Migrations, November 15, 11am
Artist, Sandy Rodriguez, and Newberry Curator of Maps, David Weimer, will lead an artmaking workshop exploring how you can repurpose maps to make your own map of Chicago.
Exhibition-Related Adult Education
Adult Education classes at the Newberry require registration in advance and a modest fee.
How Maps Work, four sessions, starting November 4, 2pm
Taught by David Weimer, this class will trace the development of maps and mapping in Europe and the Americas by looking at what, at different points in the last 500 years, has made a map a map. In conjunction with the exhibition, we will engage with some contemporary artists’ work with maps to think about why maps continue to matter to us in the digital age.
