Art Histories Series: Tragic Beauty

This presentation contextualizes English gardens and their design features within larger ideas of land ownership at the level of private ownership, the nation, and Empire.  It examines the way the design of 18th and 19th century British landscapes served the needs of early modern industrialists in England and shaped the identity of colonizer in relation to colonized subjects. In this presentation, we will explore examples of private gardens, botanic gardens, colonial gardens, including plantations, in order to explore the critical way plants and gardens were used to dispossess people of land and culture in Europe and abroad. This presentation will be followed by a festive, holiday meal. 

Red Line Service is led by people with a lived experience of being unhoused. Red Line Service wields art world resources to build community, generating the sense of belonging and mutual care essential to securing and retaining housing. We collaborate with artists and cultural institutions to expand access to the art world, avowing that art can break the bonds of ingrained social roles and structures and forge new realities in which all can flourish.

Red Line Service: Art Histories is a series of lectures and conversations presented as part of Art Design Chicago Now, an initiative funded by the Terra Foundation for American Art that amplifies the voices of Chicago's diverse creatives, past and present, and explores the essential role they play in shaping the now.

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A festive, holiday meal will be shared.