CHF Announces Fallfest Graphic! Headliners Including Tom Hanks, Abbi Jacobson, George Saunders, Doris Kearns Goodwin, And More

Today, the Chicago Humanities Festival announced a number of headliners for the Fall iteration of its first year-long theme, Graphic! This group of acclaimed presenters include two-time Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks, Broad City co-creator Abbi Jacobson, Two Dope Queens co-creator Phoebe Robinson, presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, artist Chris Ware, writer Alice Walker, columnist Rebecca Traister, Maestro Daniel Barenboim and his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, historian Jill Lepore, chef José Andrés, Getty Images photographer John Moore, photographer and Folded Map creator Tonika Johnson, and comic book artist Alex Ross.

The 29th annual Fallfest will run from Saturday, October 27 to Sunday, November 11, consist of more than 85 events and activations, and feature dedicated neighborhood programming in Bronzeville, Evanston, Hyde Park, and South Shore.

This year's Fallfest will explore the opportunities, limits, and expressions of our rapidly changing visual culture and chart a multitude of thematic threads. In the realm of photography for example, Graphic! will feature Getty Images photographer John Moore, who took the photograph that became a symbol of the Trump Administration's family separation policy. Another photographer, Tonika Johnson will discuss her Folded Map project, which began as a way of documenting Chicago's entrenched segregation and grew into a project where neighbors living on different sides of the city were brought together-a step towards dismantling perceptions of difference.

"We're in a moment when images and visual technologies more broadly are powerfully influencing how we communicate and interpret events," said Marilynn Thoma Artistic Director Alison Cuddy. "Taking the time to understand all the implications - who is or isn't represented, how current visual forms differ from narrative modes - is an absolutely critical, and exciting opportunity."

In keeping with the theme of Graphic!, Fallfest 2018's Lead Partner is the Terra Foundation for American Art. Fallfest 2018 Graphic! is part of Art Design Chicago, an exploration of Chicago's art and design legacy, an initiative of the Terra Foundation for American Art with presenting partner, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation. There will be seven Art Design Chicago Terra Foundation programs this fall including the conversation with Ware.

"We're presenting an exciting series of Art Design Chicago programs exploring the city's rich legacy and its forward-looking present. We'll feature luminaries who have already had meaningful impacts both locally and abroad, as well as new voices shaping Chicago's present artistic moment," said Festival executive director Phillip Bahar. Also of note, Hanks and Walker will each be receiving the 2018 Kohl Education Prize from the Dolores Kohl Education Foundation and 2016 Chicago Tribune Literary Award winner Philip Glass and Third Coast Percussion will perform the world premiere of Perpetulum, Glass's first composition for a percussion ensemble. The 2018 Chicago Tribune Literary Award winner is historian Ron Chernow (author of Grant and Hamilton). Man Booker Prize winner and Chicago-area native George Saunders (Lincoln in the Bardo) and Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Fraser (Prairie Fire: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder) will be honored with the 2018 Heartland Prizes for Fiction and Nonfiction respectively. Johnson's Folded Map conversation will be presented in partnership with the Metropolitan Planning Council.

The full line-up of Fallfest 2018 Graphic! programs will be revealed on Friday, September 14th - the same day as CHF's Member Preview Party.

Additionally, the Chicago Humanities Festival is programming and producing Creative Chicago: An Interview Marathon with Hans Ulrich Obrist (Artistic Director, Serpentine Galleries, London). Creative Chicago, Obrist's first American interview marathon, will be presented in conjunction with EXPO CHICAGO and Art Design Chicago on Saturday, September 29 from 1-6 PM and feature architect Jeanne Gang, artists Theaster Gates and Amanda Williams, writers Fatimah Asghar and Eve Ewing, and many more. It is free and open to the public.

Creative Chicago: An Interview Marathon is part of Art Design Chicago, an exploration of Chicago's art and design legacy, an initiative of the Terra Foundation for American Art with presenting partner, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation.

Tickets to CHF members go on sale Tuesday, September 18 at 10 AM. Tickets go on sale to the public on Tuesday, September 25th at 10 AM. Visit chicagohumanities.org to learn more and purchase tickets. You can also call the CHF Box Office at 312-605-8444 Monday through Friday from 10 AM to 5 PM.

The Chicago Humanities Festival believes that humanity thrives when people gather, connect, and open themselves to ideas that go beyond their individual experience. For nearly 30 years, the Festival has been curating live events that allow audiences to connect with today's most provocative thinkers-both established and emerging-and to see the world differently. Under the leadership of Executive Director Phillip Bahar and Marilynn Thoma Artistic Director Alison Cuddy, CHF is one of Chicago's most vibrant civic institutions and a platform for celebrating the social life of ideas. chicagohumanities.org

Art Design Chicago is a spirited celebration of the unique and vital role Chicago plays as America's crossroads of creativity and commerce. Initiated by the Terra Foundation for American Art, this citywide partnership of cultural organizations explores Chicago's art and design legacy with more than 30 exhibitions and hundreds of events in 2018. Support for Art Design Chicago is provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art and Presenting Partner, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation. Additional funding for the initiative is provided by Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Joyce Foundation. The Chicago Community Trust, Leo Burnett, Polk Bros. Foundation and EXPO CHICAGO are providing in-kind support. artdesignchicgao.org

Since it was established in 1978, the Terra Foundation for American Art has been one of the leading foundations focused on the historical art of the United States. Headquartered in Chicago, it is committed to fostering exploration, understanding, and enjoyment of American art among national and international audiences. To further cross-cultural dialogue on American art, the foundation supports and collaborates on innovative exhibitions, research, and educational programs. The foundation also provides opportunities for interaction and study through the presentation and ongoing development of its own art collection in Chicago, recognizing the importance of experiencing original works of art. Implicit in such activities is the belief that art has the potential both to distinguish cultures and to unite them. www.terraamericanart.org

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