MCA: Prime Time | City in a Garden
It’s time to celebrate with Queen! at the MCA. Smartbar’s legendary LGBTQ+ party—now more than a decade old—takes over the museum for a special evening of DJs, drag queens, dancing, and more in support of the exhibition City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism in Chicago. Get ready to work your body and your mind as you experience premier Chicago music and art.
Kicking off the night at 7 pm is Brendan Fernandes’s The Rite (2019). In this durational performance, dancers Laura Baumeister and Katlin Bourgeois activate Fernandes’s artwork, featured in City in a Garden, while improvising within the parameters of Fernandes’s choreography.
In addition, Gerber/Hart—whose extraordinary collection of LGBTQ+ holdings is one of the largest in the world—showcases ephemera from historical LGBTQ+ Chicago, bringing queer-themed board games like Gay Monopoly, and is readying other surprises for the night. Also joining the evening is LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project, who is creating conversations across the past, present, and future of queer Chicago.
Check out all of the exhibitions on view, commemorate the evening with a picture from the photo booth, enjoy a drink from the bar, and even get something bedazzled!
Prime Time is an after-hours series that taps into the creative pulse of Chicago with an eclectic mix of live music, performance art, film screenings, and interactive programs that transform the museum in spectacular ways. The series is an electrifying social experience created with artists and key cultural groups in the city.
