Expanding Visions

When: Wednesdays, 11:30 am–1:00 pm and 1:30–3:00 pm, Apr. 3–Jun. 5, 2024
All registrants will be assigned a time slot to limit group sizes.
Where: Private collections, artist studios, and exhibition spaces throughout Chicago and the suburbs
Addresses will be provided prior to each session.
Price:$50 per session; $325 for full series of 8 sessions

You MUST be a current member of Art Encounter to register.

We are currently accepting full-series registrants only. To be added to the waitlist for individual sessions, please contact Sarah Packer at sarah@artencounter.org.

Lisa Gaines McDonald, Collector
April 3, 2024

Discover a house adorned with art by artists of African descent. Collector Lisa Gaines McDonald has filled her charming Wilmette home with paintings, prints, sculptures, and ceramics with an emphasis on figurative art. Find out how Lisa’s cousin inspired her to begin her collection and learn more about her involvement with Diasporal Rhythms, an art collector group that focuses on and promotes artists of the African diaspora. We’ll see works by Garrett Anderson Williams, Dale Washington, Mr. Sharpie, Elizabeth Catlett, Eldzier Cortor, and Marva Lee Pitchford-Jolly.

Ellen Wallace, Collector
April 17, 2024

Meet a collector and art consultant with an eye for installing artworks. In every room of her spacious apartment in the Waldorf Astoria residences, Ellen has carefully arranged an eclectic variety of artworks in a wide range of sizes, mediums, subjects, and styles. Among the art, we’ll see abstractions by Marlena Novak, Adam Segal, Jack Bush, and Judy Norris; photo suites by Jed Fielding and Aaron Siskind; representational paintings by Brian Bonebrake; and prints by Matisse, Picasso and Miro; as well as mixed media sculptures, representational work with domestic themes, landscapes, ceramics, and glass.

Center for Native Futures
April 24, 2024

Learn more about contemporary Native art as we speak with gallery directors, artists and married couple Debra Yepa-Pappan (Jemez Pueblo) and Chris Pappan (Kanza/Osage/Lakota). We’ll explore work by several artists exhibiting in this new venue, which opened in September 2023 to promote artists and writers who have been culturally displaced and underrepresented. We’ll view artworks in a variety of materials, including fiber works, prints, oil paintings, and videos that address different issues experienced by Native artists who may be challenging the definitions and assumptions of what constitutes “Native arts.”

Karen Ross, Artist
May 1, 2024

Visit an artist in her beautiful Deerfield home and studio. Karen Ross combines multiple images; some are completely abstract and some are comprised of representational line drawings and loosely painted images, while others contain text. We’ll discuss her layered and incised works, learn about how the artist works with the wax medium of encaustic, and find out how the material contributes to our psychological interpretation of the work. Additionally, Karen will tell us how she balances mothering five children and accomplishing her work. 

Amy Olswang, Collector
May 8, 2024

You won’t want to miss this collection of nationally- and internationally-renowned artists in the Olswang’s 3,000 sq. ft. Water Tower apartment. We’ll see paintings by Chicago Imagist artists Gladys Nilsson and Ed Paschke, New York realist artists Janet Fish and Don Eddy, L. A. painter Lari Pittman, feminist work by Cuban artist Mabel Poblet and Portuguese mixed media artist Joana Vasconcelos, wall sculpture by British artist Tony Craig, ceramics by Viola Frey, glass by Lino Tagliapietra and Dale Chihuly, and works by Louise Nevelson and Louise Bourgeois.

Maggie and Michael Meiners, Artist and Collectors
May 15, 2024

Explore the art collection of a photographer and her husband in their lovely North Shore home. The collectors have filled their walls salon style showing a variety of art including paintings, prints and photographs. Maggie’s work ranges from abstractions to modern takes on Norman Rockwell’s famous paintings. We’ll see and discuss prints by Matisse and Le Corbusier, paintings by Anna Kunz, Michael Thompson, Abelardo Morell, Sebastião Salgado, and Ellen Greene, as well as photographs by Aimée Beaubien, Jane Fulton Alt, Anne Stevens, and Whit Forrester.

John Himmelfarb and Serena Himmelfarb, Artists
May 29, 2024

Get to know two artists, a father and daughter who have large studios in the same building in Chicago’s Little Italy neighborhood. John Himmelfarb's work is in over 50 public collections, including the Smithsonian Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Brooklyn Museum, and the British Museum. He creates paintings, sculptures, and prints ranging in size from intimate to huge, with themes ranging from serious to humorous. His subject matter includes quirky trucks, abstractions, and language-based work. Third generation artist Serena Himmelfarb explores changing landscapes imbued with multiple histories through traditional methods of observation in paintings, drawings, and new approaches such as rubbings, scents, water, and installations.