Created in collaboration with The Visualist, Chicago’s leading visual arts calendar, Sixty’s Art Picks is a wide selection of Midwest arts events, handpicked for our audience of artists, cultural workers, and curators, prioritizing the spaces and events of historically marginalized peoples. Our list is broad but by no means comprehensive; please look at venue calendars to find more events.
All times are listed in Central Standard Time unless otherwise noted. Click here to get our Art Picks and latest articles delivered to your inbox monthly. You can find Art Picks from previous months here.
Before attending any in-person events, we hope you’ll read this open letter cowritten by a group of disabled queers to the Chicago party community, demanding COVID-safe protocols and mindful gathering to protect the most vulnerable members of our community during the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of this letter is to reach organizers who plan events and cultivate spaces for queer community building and joy. Please remember to mask; the pandemic is on-going.
Click a button below to jump to a specific week of events.
June 1-July 25, 2026
Craftivism and Creative Resistance
Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, 160 Gallery: 273 E. Erie St., Milwaukee, WI
Free
Tuesday, June 2, 6PM
Chicago Poet Laureate Mayda del Valle with Poetry Editor-in-Chief Adrian Matejka
The Arts Club of Chicago: 201 E Ontario St, Chicago
Free
Wednesday, June 3, 6PM
Harlem Masimba West Artist Talk
Spudnik Press: 1821 W Hubbard St, Suite 302, Chicago
Free
Wednesday, June 3, 6:30-8:30PM
Sixty on Stage: Poetry & Prose!
Elastic Arts: 3429 W Diversey Ave, #208, Chicago
Free
June 4-7, 2026
Door County Contemporary art fair
Peninsula School of Art: 3900 County Road F, Fish Creek, WI
Free
June 5-September 13, 2026
Miatta Kawinzi: An Alphabet of Unfolding
Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts: 724 S. 12th St, Omaha, NE
Free
June 5-September 13, 2026
MOTHER TIME: Measuring ourselves within the landscape
Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts: 724 S. 12th St, Omaha, NE
Free
Friday, June 5, 5-8PM
Louis Thayer Hills Memorial Exhibition and Art Sale
Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts: 926 E Center St, Milwaukee, WI
Free
Friday, June 5, 5-8PM
Body Sovereignty
ARC Gallery: 1463 W Chicago Ave, Chicago
Free
Friday, June 5, 5-8PM
FIRST FRIDAY RECEPTION | Around the Bend 2026
South Bend Museum of Art: 120 S Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, South Bend, IN
Free
Friday, June 5, 5-9PM
Her
Chicago Grand Gallery: 2842 W Chicago Ave, Chicago
Free
Friday, June 5, 5-9PM
First Friday: Faeded
Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis: 3750 Washington Blvd, St. Louis, MO
Free
Friday, June 5, 5-9PM
The 7th Annual Fourth and Rogers Block Party
FAR: 505 W 4th St, Bloomington, IN
Free
Friday, June 5, 6-9PM
Samuel Schwindt: Pleasure Puncture
Ignition Project Space: 3839 W Grand Ave, Chicago
Free
Friday, June 5, 6-9PM
It’s Here, Am I
Side Street Studio Arts: 15 Ziegler Ct, Elgin, IL
Free
June 6-7, 2026
The 79th Annual 57th Street Art Fair
57th Street, between Woodlawn and Kenwood Avenues, Hyde Park, Chicago
Free
June 6-September 20, 2026
Jeff Carter: The Singer Pavilion Project
Hyde Park Art Center: 5020 S Cornell Ave, Chicago
Free
Saturday, June 6, 2-8PM
Design & Art 17
Dock 6 Collective: 2100 N Major Ave, Chicago
Free
June 8-September 5, 2026
Really BIG PRINTS! A Decade of Street Roller Printmaking
Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Brooks Stevens Gallery: 273 E Erie St., Milwaukee, WI
Free
June 8-August 1, 2026
Don’t Call Me Junior!
Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Frederick Layton Gallery: 273 E Erie St, Milwaukee, WI
Free
June 11-June 13, 2027
Ck Ledesma: If you put your ear to it, you can hear the waves
Site of Future African American Art Museum: 2312 N Martin Luther King Jr Dr, Milwaukee, WI
Free
June 12-December 6, 2026
Sport and Spectator
Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art: 12345 College Blvd, Overland Park, KS
Free
Friday, June 12, 6-9PM
Spudnik Press 19th Birthday Party and Carnival
Spudnik Press: 1821 W Hubbard St, Suite 302, Chicago
$35+
Friday, June 12, 6-11PM
Creature Reverie
Heaven Gallery: 1550 N Milwaukee Ave, Fl 2, Chicago
Free
June 13, 2026
MacNider Arts Festival
Charles H MacNider Art Museum: 303 2nd St SE, Mason City, IA
Free
Saturday, June 13, 4-6PM
Summer 2026 Exhibition Opening Reception
Haggerty Museum of Art: 1234 W Tory Hill St, Milwaukee, WI
Free
Saturday, June 13, 6-9PM
Josué Esaú: The Carocal
boundary: 2334 W 111th Pl, Chicago
Free
Saturday, June 13, 6-9PM
Spectral Psalm activation with Lindsey Dorr-Niro & Marty McConnell
compound yellow: 244 Lake St, Oak Park, IL
Free
June 17-18, 2026
BMRC 20th Anniversary Symposium on Black Chicago
The Regenstein Library, The University of Chicago: 1100 E 57th St, Chicago
Free
June 19-21, 2026
Chillona of the Forest.1+2
Mana Contemporary (west entrance): 2233 S Throop St, Chicago, IL
Free
June 20-August 22, 2026
Jacklyn Brickman: ARRIS | a vestige
The Sculpture Center: 12210 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH
Free
June 20-August 1, 2026
Care: National Juried Exhibition
South Haven Center for the Arts: 600 Phoenix St, South Haven, MI
Free
June 20-August 22, 2026
Noelle Choy: Adventurers
The Sculpture Center: 12210 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH
Free
Saturday, June 20, 10AM-4PM
Art Fest 2026
James Memorial Art Center: 621 1st Avenue W, Williston, ND
Free
Monday, June 22, 11AM-6PM
New Work 2026
SAIC Galleries: 33 E Washington St, Chicago
Free
June 26-August 15, 2026
To Avoid Drowning, Become the Ocean: Sam Hamilton (Sam Tam Ham)
The Luminary: 2701 Cherokee St St. Louis, MO
Free
June 26-August 19, 2026
The Big Idea XIII: De Colores
Latino Arts, Inc: 1028 S 9th St, Milwaukee, WI
Free
Friday, June 26, 6-9PM
A. J. McClenon & Anna Martine Whitehead
Roots & Culture: 1034 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago
Free
Friday, June 26, 6-10PM
Petalo: The Myth of Us
Avondale Collective: 2800 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago
Free
June 27-October 11, 2026
Teen Exhibition: OFF THE WALL!
Hyde Park Art Center: 5020 S Cornell Ave, Chicago
Free
Through June 6, 2026
Rituals for Field Transmissions
Tala: 1644 W Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL 60622
limited space, RSVP required
Through June 6, 2026
Good Trouble: Ben Blount and Catherine Jacobi
Riverside Arts Center: 32 E Quincy St, Riverside, IL
Free
Through June 14, 2026
Ann Toebbe: Cooler by the Lake
Hyde Park Art Center: 5020 S Cornell Ave, Chicago
Free
Through June 21, 2026
Barbara Nessim: My Compass Is the Line
DePaul Art Museum: 935 W Fullerton Ave, Chicago
Free
About the image maker: Kristie Kahns is a photographer, educator, and arts administrator based in Chicago. Through her photographic work, she has become a steadfast collaborator in the arts community, documenting dance, music, and visual artists. As a teaching artist, she has created many darkroom-based photography programs for teens in non-traditional learning environments, prioritizing visual literacy and material experimentation. As a writer and arts worker, her interests include contemporary approaches to historical processes, photography history and interpretation, museum education, and developing artist residencies in public institutions. She received a BA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago and is currently a graduate student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
