Chicago History Museum: Designing for Change: Chicago Protest Art of the 1960s–70s

Exhibit runs through November 2, 2025

Chicago activists in the 1960s and ’70s used design to create powerful slogans, symbols, and imagery to amplify their visions for social change. In Designing for Change: Chicago Protest Art of the 1960s–70s, see more than 100 posters, fliers, signs, buttons, newspapers, magazines, and books from the era, expressing often radical ideas about race, war, gender equality, and sexuality that challenged mainstream culture of the time.

As racism, war, gender inequality, and LGBTQIA+ discrimination remain enduring issues shaped by today’s complex world, also see works from a new generation of artivists upholding the city’s rich legacy of protest art to fight for social change.