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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260404T103000
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DTSTAMP:20260305T161214Z
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UID:72784-1775298600-1775309400@imss.org
SUMMARY:Kintsugi Workshop: Repair and Reconnect
DESCRIPTION:Discover the art and philosophy of Kintsugi — the Japanese practice of repairing broken pottery with gold — in this all-level\, hands-on work\n\n\nKintsugi Workshop: Repair and Reconnect with Mami Takahashi\nApril 4\, 2026\n10:30am – 1:30pm\n \n“Kintsugi teaches us that scars are part of the story — not something to hide\, but something to honor. As we repair\, we reflect. As we mend\, we transform.” \nIn this 3-hour session\, students will learn and apply the modern Kintsugi method using food-safe adhesive\, epoxy putty\, and golden finish. The technique is safe for beginners and designed to make the centuries-old practice accessible in a single-day format. Rather than erasing damage\, Kintsugi highlights each crack as part of an object’s unique story — inviting us to reflect on beauty\, imperfection\, and transformation. \nFor beginner students\, a broken porcelain or ceramic plate will be provided\, allowing them to experience the full repair process from start to finish.For returning students\, or those with previous experience\, you’re welcome to bring your own broken ceramic objects (must be clean) or choose from more complex forms provided by the instructor. \nThis workshop offers a supportive\, meditative space for reflection and creativity. All materials are provided\, and finger covers are available to use\, though handling epoxy can sometimes leave a light residue for a day or two. \n \n \n“Kintsugi is based on the philosophy that breakage and repair are something to celebrate – embracing flaws and imperfections creates a stronger and more beautiful piece of art. Using this as a metaphor for healing ourselves teaches us an important lesson: Sometimes in the process of repairing what feels broken\, we become more unique\, beautiful\, and resilient. Kintsugi can be a way to reframe personal challenges. Reminding us that we’re not victims of our circumstances. Showing us that we can come out on the other side stronger.” — Here is a quote about Kintsugi from Linda Muller\, a certified life coach. \n \n\n\n\nAbout Mami Takahashi: \nMami Takahashi is a Japanese multidisciplinary artist and a scholar working in multiple cities including Chicago and Tokyo. She earned her MFA in Contemporary Studio Practice from Portland State University in 2013 and a BFA in Japanese Painting from Joshibi University of Art and Design in Japan. \nWith ongoing artistic research\, practice\, and teaching\, Takahashi explores different approaches to actualize Japanese aesthetics to enhance cultural perspectives in many U.S. communities. Takahashi also aims to connect Japan and communities in Chicago by teaching traditional and modern art-making techniques.
URL:https://imss.org/program/kintsugi-workshop-repair-and-reconnect-6/
LOCATION:International Museum of Surgical Science\, 1524 North Lake Shore Drive\, Chicago\, IL\, 60610\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260408T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260408T210000
DTSTAMP:20260305T161217Z
CREATED:20260305T161217Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260305T161217Z
UID:72785-1775674800-1775682000@imss.org
SUMMARY:Spiral Body: Body Deploys
DESCRIPTION:Body Deploys is a live sound performance by Spiral Body that explores proximity\, language\, and the unstable movement of voice through space.\n\n\nBody Deploys\nApril 8\, 2026\n7:00-9:00pm\nDoors at 6:30pm \nTickets: \nFree with RSVP \n\n\nBody Deploys is a live sound performance by Spiral Body that explores proximity\, language\, and the unstable movement of voice through space. Combining live poetry\, multiple cassette tape players\, field and sourced recordings\, and sculptural sound objects\, the work unfolds as a shifting field of listening. \nPoems written\, recited\, and recorded by Mami Takahashi circulate through several cassette players simultaneously\, creating overlapping layers of voice that drift\, echo\, and misalign. The performers move between visibility and partial concealment\, activating sound as both atmosphere and structure. Rather than presenting narrative testimony\, the performance deploys fragments — spoken phrases\, repetition\, breath — as compositional material. \nIn Body Deploys\, the body is not fixed at center stage. It disperses\, reappears\, and relocates within sound. Listening becomes spatial\, contingent on where one stands and how one attends. \n\n\n\nThis project is partially supported by a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events. \n\n\n\nThe International Museum of Surgical Science acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. \n\n\n\nMami Takahashi is a multidisciplinary artist from Tokyo who is currently a resident of Chicago. Using poetry\, performance\, visual art formats\, and urban intervention\, her practice explores the complexities of being an immigrant woman living in the US. Previous exhibitions and performances have taken place at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art; San Francisco Art Institute; The International Museum of Surgical Science; The International Museum of Art; Southern Alberta Art Gallery\, Canada; Gwangju Folk Art Museum\, Korea; Instituto Municipal del Arte la Cultura\, Mexico and Toriizaka Art Gallery\, Tokyo\, among other venues. She holds an MFA from Portland State University and a BFA from the Joshibi University of Art in Japan. Takahashi is a recipient of the Ford Family Award for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art residency. \n\n\n\nAdrian McBride is a musician and sound artist currently based in Portland\, Oregon USA. McBride received BFA in Integrated Arts and Creative Writing from Bard College\, and has been performed in the U.S and internationally\, including at the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis\, Missouri\, U.S.A; Portland Institute for Contemporary Art\, Portland Oregon\, U.S.A.; Monkey Town\, Brooklyn NY\, U.S.A; Flux Factory: Queens NY\, U.S.A; Gallery gelegenheiten and Zvi HECKER\, Berlin\, Germany; Jardins Synthétiques Festival\, Toulouse\, France.
URL:https://imss.org/program/spiral-body-body-deploys/
LOCATION:International Museum of Surgical Science\, 1524 North Lake Shore Drive\, Chicago\, IL\, 60610\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260410T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260410T200000
DTSTAMP:20260402T182327Z
CREATED:20260402T182327Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260402T182327Z
UID:72879-1775844000-1775851200@imss.org
SUMMARY:Opening Reception - Jennifer Yorke: Employee of the Month
DESCRIPTION:Join us for the exhibition opening reception of “Employee of the Month” by Artist Jennifer Yorke at the IMSS\n\n\nJennifer Yorke: Employee of the Month\nOpening Reception\nApril 10\, 2026\n6:00-8:00pm\nDoors at 5:30pm \nFree and open to the public \n\n\n\nEmployee of the Month\nby Artist Jennifer Yorke \nApril 10 – July 5\, 2026\n \nAbout the Exhibit: \nComplete with commemorative plaques and gold bling\, Employee of the Month is a humorous yet thought-provoking send-up of the “Presidential Walk of Fame.” Greatly impressed by a Hilton Hotel’s “Wall of Fame” honoring employees\, President Trump created a similar wall of portraits and wrote many of the accompanying texts describing himself (twice) and his predecessors. This “Presidential Walk of Fame” was installed in late 2025 in the West Colonnade at the White House. \nEmployee of the Month is a site-specific installation which responds directly to both the physical and intellectual space encompassed by the International Museum of Surgical Science (IMSS)\, and the current political climate. \nOver the course of her year as an artist-in-residence\, Jennifer Yorke heard louder and louder echoes of the texts she researched from the IMSS library in Trump administration statements on health and gender. Yorke captures these echoes in pairings from historical texts in the IMSS collection with excerpts from current government documents. Her primary texts are Dr. Charles Meigs’ 1845 English translation of Dr. Marc Colombat de l’Isère’s influential A Treatise on the Diseases and Special Hygiene of Females; and the corrected version of Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices\, published by the Department of Health and Human Services on November 19\, 2025. Both texts pathologize any deviation from rigidly-defined gender norms; insist on the inherent authority of the doctor over the patient; and question the veracity of patient testimony and lived experience. By placing contemporary texts alongside striking parallels written in the flowery prose of the past\, Yorke reveals both the historical roots and the absurdity of these notions. Yorke will add to the installation as additional resonances between 19th Century medical presumptions and 21st Century policy statements reverberate over the duration of the exhibition. \nYorke’s Employee of the Month is an avatar of MAGA womanhood\, complete with the inflated Mar-a-Lago face of both numerous administration officials and blow-up sex dolls. Named the “Secretary of Truth\,” she is an incarnation of the black-and-white portraits included in “Presidential Walk of Fame\,” most (in)famously an image of an autopen representing President Biden. Through the mouthpiece of her Employee of the Month\, Yorke urges the viewer to consider womanhood\, performative gender\, and constructed personal appearance as deep concepts meriting reflection\, particularly when they evoke paths to power for some\, but calls for the denial of personal identity for others. \nThis project would not be possible without the support of the International Museum of Surgical Science and Director of Operations Michelle Rinard\, for which artist conveys her immense gratitude. \n\n\n\nAbout the Artist:\nJennifer Yorke examines the uneasy relationship between consumption\, identity\, the physical body and the natural world through installations\, collages\, drawings\, prints\, photographs and artist’s books. Her work is held in more than twenty public collections\, including those of the Auckland Gallery of Art; the Art Gallery of New South Wales; the Center for the Book Arts and the in New York City; the Huntsville Museum of Art; the Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum\, and other institutions. Yorke has been a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome\, and been honored with over twenty artist’s residencies. Yorke earned an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago\, which she attended through a Graduate Trustee Fellowship in the Department of Printmedia. She holds a BA cum laude from Carleton College\, where she earned Distinction in her Studio Art major. To date\, Yorke’s work has been the subject of ten solo exhibitions\, and included in over a hundred group exhibitions. She lives with her husband Rob and dog Phoebe in Chicago. \n\n\n\nThis project is partially supported by a CityArts grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. \n\n\n\nThe International Museum of Surgical Science acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
URL:https://imss.org/program/opening-reception-jennifer-yorke-employee-of-the-month/
LOCATION:International Museum of Surgical Science\, 1524 North Lake Shore Drive\, Chicago\, IL\, 60610\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260419T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260419T153000
DTSTAMP:20260418T022328Z
CREATED:20260402T182444Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260418T022328Z
UID:72882-1776607200-1776612600@imss.org
SUMMARY:Artist Talk - Kimberly Viviano: Food for Thought
DESCRIPTION:Join us for a presentation by Kimberly Viviano\, artist of “Food for Thought” at the International Museum of Surgical Science.\n\n\nArtist Talk – Kimberly Viviano: Food for Thought\nApril 19\, 2026\n2:00-3:30pm\nDoors at 1:30pm \nJoin us for an artist talk featuring Kimberly Viviano\, artist of the exhibit “Food for Thought\,” on view through April 25th at the IMSS. Free and open to the public \n\n\n\nKimberly Viviano: Food for Thought\nMarch 13 – April 26\, 2026\n \nDuring her 2025 Artist Residency at the International Museum of Surgical Science\, Chicago-based artist\, design director and educator Kimberly Viviano interrogates how everyday food choices affect our bodies in uncomfortable ways. Drawing on personal experience and research\, her installation investigates the tension between foods labeled “healthy” and how differently individual bodies can respond to them. \nViviano’s solo exhibition takes a concept-driven approach\, spanning 2D and 3D works that challenge viewers to reconsider what they consume—and the hidden consequences baked into everyday convenience. Through bold\, research-driven visual storytelling\, she exposes how overlooked social and environmental conventions overwhelm our bodily systems. Her compelling infographics serve as both revelation and warning\, offering a cautionary tale for individuals prone to kidney stone formation and prompting deeper reflection around eating habits long taken for granted \n \n\n\n\nKimberly Viviano is a cross-disciplinary designer and educator whose work asks viewers to reconsider what they consume and the hidden consequences embedded in everyday convenience. Through research-driven visual storytelling\, Viviano exposes the environmental and social costs we often overlook—revealing systems beneath the surface and inviting deeper reflection around daily habits. \nShe has led numerous environmental wayfinding and public engagement projects\, most notably People Powered\, an initiative that originated in Chicago and went on to serve as a model for cities nationwide. Recognized as a winner of the Metropolis Magazine Next Generation Design Competition\, People Powered evolved into a multi-platform campaign encompassing banners\, billboards\, signage\, train wraps\, and bike-lane and pedestrian-path graphics. The project illuminated society’s reliance on fossil fuels while advocating for sustainable\, human-centered alternatives. People Powered served as a conceptual precursor to Chicago’s Divvy bike program\, helping normalize cycling as a practical\, healthy\, and cost-effective mode of daily transportation while reducing emissions. \nViviano’s creative practice spans graphic design\, artist books\, printmaking\, sculpture\, and installation. Her artist books\, Compromises and Gentrified Board Game\, are held in the permanent collection of the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection at the Flaxman Library. Viviano’s work exhibited internationally in Italy\, China\, and her print Bridge of Sighs is included in Nippon Steel’s permanent collection in Japan. She has several works in Archive’s permanent collection\, and her Parrot print has received recognition from the Scarab Club in Detroit. Recent projects include Eat Ate\, a series of limited-edition stone lithographs\, and Inner Spaces\, a porcelain sculpture series examining the presence of microplastics in waterways\, ecosystems\, and the human body through large scale wall installations. \nViviano holds an MFA in Visual Communication Design from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA in Illustration from Kendall College of Art and Design. She lives and works in Chicago as a designer\, artist and educator of Visual Communication Design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Columbia College Chicago. \nProfessional Bio \nProfessional Work \nLinkedIn Profile  \n \n\n\n\nThis project is partially supported by a CityArts grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. \n\n\n\nThe International Museum of Surgical Science acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
URL:https://imss.org/program/artist-talk-kimberly-viviano-food-for-thought/
LOCATION:International Museum of Surgical Science\, 1524 North Lake Shore Drive\, Chicago\, IL\, 60610\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20260430T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20260430T200000
DTSTAMP:20260418T022331Z
CREATED:20260402T182450Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260418T022331Z
UID:72884-1777572000-1777579200@imss.org
SUMMARY:IMSS Historic Home Tour
DESCRIPTION:✨ History\, architecture\, and curiosity – join us for an evening in the Museum to learn about our historic Chicago home!\n\n\nStep inside the historic Eleanor Countiss House for a rare\, after-hours experience at the International Museum of Surgical Science. Built in 1917\, the Eleanor Countiss House at 1524 N. Lakeshore Drive was once the private residence of its namesake\, who lived in the home until her passing in 1931. Today\, the mansion is home to the Museum\, and these special after-hours tours invite guests to step back in time and explore its richly detailed architecture\, extensive history\, and the layered stories held within its walls. \nExplore elegant architecture\, hear the stories of its original residents\, and view highlights from the Museum’s medical collection. \nA complimentary reception follows the tour and lite fare will be served \nTours last one hour and include four flights of stairs. For accessibility accommodations\, please contact us in advance – see FAQ below for contact information.
URL:https://imss.org/program/imss-historic-home-tour/
LOCATION:International Museum of Surgical Science\, 1524 North Lake Shore Drive\, Chicago\, IL\, 60610\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events
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