September 18 - October 14, 2025
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 18
Project by SERVICE WORKS
SERVICE WORKS is a speculative, semi-visible service platform that partners with a range of individuals and institutions to create access to socially relevant resources, opportunities, and information through craft, relational art practice, and social design.
MADE IN CHICAGO is led by artists June Ahn, Jessica Bader, Heather Coffey, Brian Gillis, Erikson Groth, and Carrie Ohm.
Project Summary
MADE IN CHICAGO is a relational art project and proof of concept for a low batch tableware production methodology that can be embedded within ceramics programs at a range of institutions. By engaging this methodology within an existing curriculum, artists develop a foundation for industrial ceramics that has commercial, social-economic, and cultural value.
Colleges and universities have a long history of making objects for use by industrial methods on campuses. In the 19th century, institutions like Tulane University, North Dakota University, the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred, and Washington University ran subsistence potteries that made ware for those campuses and the surrounding region. Such academic communities also used craft media to make furniture, textiles, flatware, and brooms, while often managing farms, dairies, and community canaries.
MADE IN CHICAGO extends an academic production tradition and the Harold Washington College mission to empower its community through accessible, student-centered vocational training and career development, community engagement, and personal enrichment.
MADE IN CHICAGO is cooperatively produced under the banner of SERVICE WORKS by makers from the Chicago community, and will continue to take shape during the exhibition’s run as production tools and related ware continue to be produced.