Art & Design in Chicago

ART & DESIGN IN CHICAGO is a four-part series exploring the artists, artistic movements and institutions that played a role in the city's design history over the past 150 years. The series focuses on the city's key schools of art, African-American artists, commercial designers, and the innovative artists who struck out on divergent paths to create modern-day Chicago. Each episode, hosted by a Chicago artist or curator, features a story from the art community, including Cubs uniform designers Otis and Dorothy Shepard, and TV commercial director Joe Sedelmaier, creator of the Wendy's advertising campaign "Where's the Beef?" The series also tells the story of the community art center that gave birth to AfriCOBRA, home to generations of African-American artists, including Archibald Motley, Jr. Other profiles include the work of photographer Vivian Maier and The Hairy Who, a group of 1960s artists who made outrageous psychedelic paintings, sculptures and prints. The stories in ART & DESIGN IN CHICAGO point to both celebrated contemporary artists, such as Kerry James Marshall, and well-known local talent, such as painter Gertrude Abercrombie. The series also shines the spotlight on Lorado Taft, a once famous sculptor whose work has since been forgotten, and an unrecognized genius, painter Charles White.