Since reopening our doors on Walton Street in March, we at the Newberry have been gradually resuming in-person activities while continuing to hold much of our programming online.
With safety protocols and precautions in place, the library’s reading rooms, exhibition galleries, and Rosenberg Bookshop are open to the public. We’ll continue to “mask up,” observe social distancing standards, and engage in enhanced cleaning procedures throughout the building.
As summer approaches, we look forward to opening an exhibition featuring work by Jeffrey Gibson, launching a suite of virtual adult education seminars, and putting a new spin on the Newberry Book Fair.
- The Newberry Book Fair will look a little different this summer. We're planning "Book Fair Express," which will allow you to shop online for boxes of books in your favorite categories. Online ordering opens Monday, July 19, and you can pick up your order curbside at the Newberry during our traditional Book Fair weekend: Friday, July 30, or Saturday, July 31, between 10 am and 2 pm.
- Opening May 28, the exhibition Sweet Bitter Love: An Initiative of Toward Common Cause presents artist Jeffrey Gibson’s reflections on representations of Indigenous people in cultural institutions. New work by Gibson, a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, will engage with a series of nineteenth-century portraits from the Newberry collection. Conscious of how art and pop culture have helped create and reinforce pernicious myths about Indigenous people, Gibson deconstructs these narratives while attesting to Native resilience.
- The Newberry is proud to be one of the sites of Toward Common Cause: Art, Social Change, and the MacArthur Fellows Program at 40, organized by the Smart Museum of Art in collaboration with exhibition, programmatic, and research partners across Chicago.
- ¡Viva la Libertad! remains on view through July 24. Featuring maps, manuscripts, and rare books from the Newberry collection, the exhibition returns to the Age of Revolutions 200 years ago, when new countries emerged from colonial rule across the Americas—from Mexico to Chile.
- The summer term of our Adult Education Seminars continues online, with classes on the early history of policing in Chicago, mourning rituals in medieval Europe, costume design in the Netflix series Bridgerton, and more. Registration opens May 19; some classes start as soon as June 15. View the schedule of seminars.
- An annual summer tradition in Washington Square Park in the “before times,” Bughouse Square will be held online this year as a virtual program exploring the history of the park and its connection to free speech. Details to come.
Learn more about planning your visit and engaging with our staff and collections virtually.