All events on Thursday July 17
Previous day|Next day- Music: Rock/Pop
- Pitchfork Music Festival Preview
- Thursday July 17 (6:30pm) @ Millennium Park
- Free
- Recent Sub Pop signees Fleet Foxes are raking in the adulation for their self-titled full-length debut, but they deserve the hubbub — and with a... View details »
- More Flavor: Discussion
- Public Enemy: It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
- Thursday July 17 (3pm) @ Chicago Cultural Center's Studio Theater
- Public Enemy's classic 1988 album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, was a ringing indictment of ghetto streets, police brutality, and... View details »
- Film
- The Sorrows of Satan
- Thursday July 17 (8pm) @ Doc Films
- Ambitious and influential filmmaker D.W. Griffith is a titan of early cinema. After working independently for years, Griffith joined Paramount Pictures and was promptly assigned... View details »
- Music: Rock/Pop
- The Watson Twins
- Thursday July 17 (10pm) @ Lakeshore Theater
- Giveaway
- Though they've been together since 1998, the Watson Twins only really rose to prominence after Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis tapped the pair's pipes on her... View details »
- More Flavor: Food/Wine
- Summer BBQ Festival
- Thursday July 17 (6–8pm) @ Lincoln Park
- Some of Chicago's summer food festivals are overblown spectacles, rather than gastronomic delight. But Green City Market's Summer BBQ Fest has its priorities straight, recruiting... View details »
- More Flavor: Festival
- We (heart) Chicago Festival
- Thursday July 17 (10pm) @ The Empty Bottle More times »
- Chicago never disappoints come festival season. Even the smaller satellite fests — like this week's three-day We (heart) Chicago — come stacked. Tonight opens with... View details »
- More Flavor: Lecture
- Standard Operating Procedure and W.J.T. Mitchell
- Thursday July 17 (7:30pm) @ School of the Art Institute of Chicago Ballroom
- In the wake of Abu Ghraib, the potential power of a single image is brutally apparent. Tonight, a joint film screening and lecture at the... View details »
The following events are ongoing.
- Art
- Jeff Koons
- Thursday July 17 (10am–5pm) @ Museum of Contemporary Art More times »
- It's easy to forget that art star and auction darling Jeff Koons made his name as a provocateur. His Made in Heaven series includes photographs... View details »
- Film
- The Visitor
- Thursday July 17 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema More times »
- Some character actors should really never be leading men (Jude Law), and some just haven't been given the chance. Richard Jenkins (I Heart Huckabees, 2004)... View details »
- Art
- Ladylike
- Thursday July 17 (1–6pm) @ Gosia Koscielak Gallery More times »
- Free
- In a post-third-wave landscape of mommy wars, Sex and the City fever, and continuous political upheaval, feminism is having a bit of an identity crisis.... View details »
- Art
- Christa Donner
- Thursday July 17 (10am–4pm) @ International Museum of Surgical Science More times »
- For decades, the International Museum of Surgical Science has spotlighted the macabre wonders of invasive surgery. But along with historical displays of bizarre artifacts and... View details »
- Performing Arts: Comedy
- Campaign Supernova!
- Thursday July 17 (8pm) @ The Second City e.t.c. More times »
- From the director of the recent hit Between Barack and a Hard Place comes another election-season winner, Campaign Supernova!, performed by Second City. Where... View details »
- Art
- Collecting for Chicago
- Thursday July 17 (10:30am–9pm) @ The Art Institute of Chicago More times »
- You may not have noticed, but the Art Institute's Department of Prints and Drawings has been running in stealth mode — its world-class collection was... View details »
- Art
- Videodance
- Thursday July 17 (9am–8pm) @ Hyde Park Art Center More times »
- Free
- Since 1978, the Centre Pompidou in Paris has paired visual artists with choreographers and dancers at its annual Vidéodanse festival. The results of these... View details »
- Art
- Mario Ybarra, Jr.
- Thursday July 17 (10:30am–8pm) @ The Art Institute of Chicago More times »
- Free
- In his first solo museum exhibition, Mario Ybarra, Jr. presents a witty comparison of Chicago and Los Angeles through the exploits of William Wrigley, Jr..... View details »
- Art
- Alex Katz: Subject to Reversal
- Thursday July 17 (10am–5:30pm) @ Richard Gray Gallery More times »
- Free
- At 81, Alex Katz has only recently emerged as one of America's major contemporary artists. The Richard Gray Gallery shows why the artist's profile has... View details »
- Art
- Jim Tansley
- Thursday July 17 (8am–7pm) @ Chicago Cultural Center More times »
- Free
- Jim Tansley's abstract paintings and drawings combine seemingly familiar lines with expanses of soft color to create arrangements that appear both carefully structured and completely... View details »
- Art
- David Hockney
- Thursday July 17 (11am–6pm) @ The Arts Club of Chicago More times »
- Free
- David Hockney gained recognition in the '60s for his flat, single-panel paintings of swimming pools, but he also creates more narrative-based work, like pieced-together canvases... View details »
- Art: Photography
- Brian Ulrich and Jason Lazarus
- Thursday July 17 (10am–6:30pm) @ City Gallery More times »
- Free
- Jason Lazarus and Brian Ulrich take an irreverent glimpse behind the scenes of the art market with About Art, their photographic exhibition at City Gallery... View details »
- Film
- When Did You Last See Your Father?
- Thursday July 17 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema More times »
- Adapted from writer Blake Morrison's 1993 memoir about his bullying father's death from cancer, When Did You Last See Your Father? tackles potentially maudlin material... View details »
- Film: Documentary
- Poisoned by Polonium: The Litvinenko File
- Thursday July 17 @ Facets Cinémathèque More times »
- The tragic turn of events surrounding Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko's poisoning and subsequent death unfolded like a seedy crime novel. The exiled ex-KGB agent-turned-critic was... View details »
- Art
- Michael Jones McKean
- Thursday July 17 (11am–6pm) @ ThreeWalls More times »
- Free
- Michael Jones McKean's ramshackle constructions combine disparate found objects with wood, clay, and papier-mâché. His work has a strong physical presence, and the unusual artifacts... View details »
- Performing Arts: Theatre
- It Came from the Neo-Futurarium
- Thursday July 17 (8pm) @ The Neo-Futurarium More times »
- Substandard cinema usually has a special place on Blockbuster's back shelves, but the Neo-Futurists drag it back into the spotlight by transforming the best worst... View details »
- Performing Arts: Theatre
- Gutenberg! The Musical!
- Thursday July 17 (8pm) @ Royal George Theatre Center More times »
- Aspiring Broadway composer/lyricists trying to attract angel investors usually consider more contemporary material than Johannes Gutenberg's invention of the printing press. Yet that's the sputtering... View details »
- Film
- Tell No One
- Thursday July 17 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema More times »
- Herein lies living proof that the French can spin a gorgeous existentialist drama in any genre. Pediatrician Alex (François Cluzet) has never gotten over the... View details »
- Film
- Brick Lane
- Thursday July 17 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema More times »
- With its sunflower hues poking through England's grime, Brick Lane cleaves to the trajectory of an East-to-West immigration tale. Teenager Nazneen leaves her small Bangladeshi... View details »
- Art
- Jane Fisher
- Thursday July 17 (11am–5:30pm) @ Packer Schopf Gallery More times »
- Free
- Figurative painter Jane Fisher returns to Chicago with her latest series of paintings: a simple celebration of humanity entitled Big Heads and Bigger Women. The... View details »
- Art
- ISN'T IT
- Thursday July 17 (11am–5pm) @ Tony Wight Gallery More times »
- Free
- At first glance, ISN'T IT appears to be a loose collection of sculptures that brings modest materials to life. But the exhibition rewards close viewing,... View details »
- Film
- My Winnipeg
- Thursday July 17 @ Music Box Theatre More times »
- In My Winnipeg, Guy Maddin fashions both a valentine and a Dear John letter to his hometown, with a hypnagogic blur of sliding typography, found... View details »
- Film: Documentary
- Up the Yangtze
- Thursday July 17 @ Music Box Theatre More times »
- Earthquakes and social protest make headlines, but a far more complex and subtle catastrophe is taking shape in the shadow of China's Three Gorges Dam,... View details »
- Performing Arts: Comedy/Improv
- The Improv Match Game
- Thursday July 17 (10pm) @ The ComedySportz Theatre More times »
- Although Improv Match Game panelists concoct impromptu answers to broad questions, it's less an exercise in traditional improv comedy than a faithful revival of the... View details »
- Film
- The Wackness
- Thursday July 17 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema More times »
- The Wackness is the sort of movie whose most redeeming qualities are least likely to be advertised in its trailers. About a teenage weed dealer... View details »
- More Flavor: City Gem
- Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary
- Thursday July 17 @ Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary More times »
- Free
- If nothing else, taking up birdwatching gives you a convenient excuse to bring terms like "Magnificent Frigatebird" and "Purple Gallinule" into conversation. In this sancturary,... View details »
- Art
- Discarded Paintings by Gifted Amateurs
- Thursday July 17 (11am–7:30pm) @ Intuit More times »
- Free
- Whereas most found-art exhibitions make aesthetic objects out of forgotten knick-knacks, the focus of this exhibition is, more literally, fine art that's found. Discarded Paintings... View details »
- More Flavor: City Gem
- Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool
- Thursday July 17 (7:30am–7:30pm) @ Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool More times »
- Free
- Escape the roaring cars on Lake Shore Drive and the crowds at Lincoln Park Zoo by slipping through the unobtrusive entrance to the Alfred Caldwell... View details »
- More Flavor: City Gem
- Flower Power
- Thursday July 17 (9am–5pm) @ Garfield Park Conservatory More times »
- Free
- If the concrete trek and throngs of spectators at Friday's Fourth of July festivities leave you pining for something a little more spacious and herbaceous,... View details »
- Performing Arts: Theatre
- Superior Donuts
- Thursday July 17 @ Steppenwolf Downstairs Theatre More times »
- Chicago theatergoers might know better, but for a long time, most people only recognized Tracy Letts as "that guy from the Festivus episode of Seinfeld."... View details »
- Film
- Outsourced
- Thursday July 17 @ Gene Siskel Film Center More times »
- What do you do if the only way to save your job is to fly off to India and train your replacement? Well, if you're... View details »
- Film
- The Leopard (1963)
- Thursday July 17 (6:30pm) @ Gene Siskel Film Center More times »
- Neo-realist filmmaker Luchino Visconti adapted Italian author Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's The Leopard with an elegant, epic eye. While Claudia Cardinale and Alain Delon lend... View details »
- Art
- Several Landscapes and 3 Landscapes in the Modern Style
- Thursday July 17 (noon–6pm) @ Western Exhibitions More times »
- Free
- If you relish summer group exhibitions and air conditioning, head to the two landscape-themed shows at Western Exhibitions. Director Scott Speh works with several artists... View details »
- Art
- Gisela Insuaste
- Thursday July 17 (10am–5pm) @ Museum of Contemporary Art More times »
- Local artist Gisela Insuaste mines the terrain of personal recollection and material culture for her multidisciplinary installations. In painting, drawing, and three-dimensional forms, Insuaste conjures... View details »
- More Flavor: Sports
- Taste of Fitness
- Thursday July 17 (6pm) @ Various locations More times »
- Free
- Let's be honest — exercising in gyms is boring and expensive. But the Chicago Park District has a solution to the ubiquitous dilemma: free outdoor... View details »
- Performing Arts: Theatre
- Bloody Bess
- Thursday July 17 (7:30pm) @ Storefront Theater More times »
- Bloody Bess isn't a pirate story for children, and it's definitely not your standard, polite downtown theater — the show's full of swashbuckling swagger, clamoring... View details »
- Art
- Boys of Summer
- Thursday July 17 (11am–5pm) @ Monique Meloche More times »
- Free
- A good group exhibition can feel like a free buffet serving top-quality market produce; it all looks so enticing, and you don't know where to... View details »
- Film: Documentary
- Gonzo
- Thursday July 17 @ Various locations More times »
- The father of gonzo journalism and a '60s-counterculture icon, Hunter S. Thompson revolutionized American prose with his drug-fueled, first-person narrative style. His maverick ways allowed... View details »
- Art
- A Declaration of Immigration
- Thursday July 17 (10am–5pm) @ National Museum of Mexican Art More times »
- Free
- It may be a country founded by those who arrived from elsewhere, but the United States arguably has a long way to go when it... View details »
- Art
- Chicago Imagism: 1965-1985
- Thursday July 17 (10am–5pm) @ Russell Bowman Fine Art More times »
- Free
- Chicago Imagism began with a group of artists from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago who first showed their work at the Hyde... View details »
- Art: Photography
- Beyond the Backyard
- Thursday July 17 (10am–8pm) @ Museum of Contemporary Photography More times »
- Free
- Recognized as a fixture in Americana, the backyard has, over the previous two decades, become a space favored almost as much by postmodern thinkers as... View details »
- Art: Architecture/Design
- Design in the Age of Darwin
- Thursday July 17 (10am–8pm) @ Block Museum, Northwestern University More times »
- Free
- What effect did Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species have on the development of early modern architecture? What can we make of the canon-splitting... View details »
