Crafting Community Workshop Series: Found Poem Manifestos
Wednesday, April 29, 2026
5:30pm-7:00pm
Dittmar Gallery
More information coming soon!
Dittmar Gallery Programs & Events
Each academic year, Dittmar features a number of engaging programs and events inspired by current and upcoming exhibitions in the gallery. Learn more below about upcoming opportunities.
Reclamation: Graphics Scores with Cosmia Opera Collective
Friday, May 1, 2026
1:00pm-2:00pm
Dittmar Gallery
Dittmar Memorial Gallery and Bienen School of Music’s Cosmia Opera Collective are thrilled to present Reclamation/Graphic Scores. This lunchtime concert features Northwestern students across disciplines as singers and instrumentalists bringing new scores to life inspired by artwork in Dittmar Memorial Gallery’s Community Art Show, I was here. Please join us for these world premieres: see the music, hear the artwork.
Layers of Labor: A Reflection & Collage Workshop
Wednesday, February 18, 2026
4:30 - 6:00pm
Dittmar Gallery & Block Museum of Art
How can we trace and honor unseen labor by individuals and communities that impacts materials in our everyday lives? We’ll consider this question as we spend time with Jonathan Michael Castillo’s Immigrant Owned photographs, currently on view in the Block Living Room.
All are welcome to join this one time event as part of Dittmar Gallery’s Crafting Community Workshop series, in collaboration with the Block Museum. We’ll begin by close-looking at Castillo’s pieces, considering the overlooked work and stories of immigrant-owned businesses, followed by making three-dimensional collage pieces that explore the layers of labor and stories that objects in our lives carry. Through viewing the artwork and a collage activity, we will reflect on Castillo’s portrayal of the entanglement of humans, materials, and work.
This event will begin at 4:30pm at the Block Museum, followed by art-making in Dittmar Gallery.
Abstracting the Self: A Drawing & Collage Workshop
Monday, February 9, 2026
7:00 - 8:30pm
Dittmar Gallery
The world defines us in many ways. But we also get to choose how we define ourselves, including which elements of our identity, our passions, and our values we prioritize as the most important parts of ourselves.
Join Dittmar Gallery’s upcoming artmaking event where we’ll investigate all the things that shape who we are and how we collage them into our own sense of who we are. Through abstraction, collaging, and self-reflection, participants will learn how to reinterpret their own features and combine them with the unique things that have influenced their life to create out-the-box self-portraits. Kare’ Williams, the Chicagoland creative behind Dittmar’s current exhibition, Dancing In The Rain, will lead a workshop that defies realism, and share the people, moments, and stories behind his pieces.
Materials note: Participants should bring a physical copy of an image that represents them or something they care about but is not them or their face (For example: a picture of a meaningful object or location). Regardless of the subject of the image, the photo should reflect each participant’s unique set of values and experiences. Reach out to dittmargallery@u.northwestern.edu with any questions or printing concerns.
Repeat/Reimagine: A Drawing with Wire Workshop
Wednesday, January 28, 2026
3:00 - 4:30pm
Dittmar Gallery & Block Museum of Art
In partnership with Block Living Room & works on display by Bruce Conner
What can the artistic process of repeating and iterating shapes teach us about being a human being, trying things over and over in different ways as we make our way through the world? We’ll consider this question as we spend time with Bruce Conner’s abstract lithographs, #123, #117, #120, #126, #122, currently on view in the Block Living Room.
All are welcome to join this one time event as part of Dittmar Gallery’s Crafting Community Workshop series, in collaboration with the Block Museum. We’ll begin by close-looking at Conner’s pieces, considering his use of iteration through lithographs and his body of work, followed by making our own wire art pieces that explore concepts of repetition and reiteration. While viewing the artwork, we will reflect on the stories and legacies created through trying over and over again. Then, participants will think about this question through a hands-on exploration of drawing with wire.
Inherited Impressions: An Artmaking Workshop
Thursday, December 4, 2025
6:00 - 8:00pm
Dittmar Gallery & Block Museum of Art
In partnership with Block Living Room & works on display by Dyani White Hawk.
All are welcome to join this one night event as part of Dittmar Gallery’s Crafting Community Workshop series, in collaboration with the Block Museum. We’ll spend the evening reflecting on White Hawk’s works “They Gifted (Day)” and “They Gifted (Night),” carving stamps, and creating new connections. While viewing the artworks, we will ask: how has your community shaped who you are? Participants will think about this question through abstraction techniques and handmaking a piece designed to be passed on.
Every Photo Tells a Story: A Collaging & Storytelling Workshop
Thursday, October 23, 2025
6:00 - 7:30pm
Dittmar Gallery
About the Workshop
We walk around snapping pictures of the world on our phones all the time. But how often do we really take the time to reflect on and share the stories behind the photos we take? All are welcome to join us in Dittmar Gallery for a one night workshop where we’ll share photographs, craft collage projects, swap stories, and create new connections. This program accompanies the current Dittmar Gallery exhibition STREET which features film photography from the early 1980s by artist Ann Kogen. Participants will hear from the artist about the stories behind the artworks in STREET and will exchange stories of their own, not to mention they’ll have a collage project to take home.
Materials note: Participants should bring a physical copy of “a photo with a story” to collage with. It can be a family photo, a snapshot of a pet, a view of a natural vista, or something else all together. Regardless of the subject, the photograph should have a story behind it that is waiting to be shared with others… Reach out to dittmargallery@u.northwestern.edu with any questions or printing concerns
About the Crafting Community Workshop Series
Dittmar Memorial Gallery’s Crafting Community Workshop Series is an invitation to gather and make art to foster well being. Led by local artists and cultural workers, each hands-on workshop connects to the current exhibition in Dittmar Gallery and prompts intentional conversation on the mediums and themes of the artwork on display. Crafting Community encourages process over product and connection over perfection. Free and open to all. All supplies included.
About the Artist
Ann Kogen is a photographer and a therapist. Using various photographic approaches, she has explored a whole range of ideas from black and white documentary photography to hand colored photography to abstract imagery. She believes that photography can be a vehicle for seeing the world in a new way, giving new perspective to what we might take for granted.
Jingle Cone Making Workshop
A hands-on workshop lead by artist Chelsea Bighorn
Thursday, January 16
6:00 - 8:00pm
Dittmar Memorial Gallery
CLICK HERE TO RSVP TO THIS EVENT
Come join us in learning how to make mini jingle cones with artist Chelsea Bighorn. In this workshop we will be learning a brief history of the jingle cone dress dance and then make small pieces inspired by the artists own jingle cone project. We will be rolling our mini cones and then using jump rings to attach them to each other similar to how you would make chainmail. Each participant will then be able to take home a small piece of jingle cone chainmail.
All materials will be provided. This event is free for all. RSVP required. All materials provided and all levels are welcome. Image courtesy of the artist
Co-Sponsorship generously provided by:
About the Artist
Chelsea Bighorn was born and raised in Tempe, Arizona, and is Lakota, Dakota and Shoshone -Paiute. Bighorns work is the result of her combining traditional Native American design with elements from her Irish American heritage. Using this process, she tells her personal history through her art.
Bighorn has shown her work at the Museum of Contemporary Native Art, SITE Santa Fe, Catharine Clark Gallery in San Fransico, and The Center for Native Futures in Chicago, IL. She graduated from The Institute of American Indian Arts in 2021 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Arts. Bighorn received her Master of Fine Arts in Fiber and Material Studies from School of The Art Institute of Chicago in 2024. She currently resides in Chicago, IL where she is an artist in residence with Chicago Artist Coalition.
Drop-In Mindfulness Meditation
Friday, November 22, 2024
3:30pm
Dittmar Gallery
Join us for Mindfulness Meditation at Dittmar Gallery in Norris. Mindful Movement will begin at 3:30pm and Drop-In Meditation will begin at 4:00pm.
Generously supported by HPaw.
More About HPaW
The mission of HPaW is to create and support a health-promoting campus through advocacy, intentional collaboration, collective impact, and programs and services. To learn more about HPaW, please visit their webpage.
Learn more about Mindfulness practices at Northwestern on Northwestern's Mindfulness page.
Storytelling Through Weaving
A weaving workshop with artist Bryana Bibbs
Tuesday, November 12, 6:00 - 8:00pm
Dittmar Memorial Gallery
CLICK HERE TO RSVP TO THIS EVENT
Learn with artist Bryana Bibbs and explore the art of weaving. Weavers will use cardboard looms to weave and explore materiality by using objects they have brought or found and how they are significant to us. In addition to weaving with found materials, weavers will learn how to weave on a frame loom basic using woven structures such as plain weave and slit tapestry weave. Weavers are encouraged to bring materials from home (twigs, rocks, flowers, old clothes, etc.), additional materials will be provided. This event is free for all. RSVP required. All materials provided and all levels are welcome. Photo courtesy of the artist.
About the Artist
Bryana Bibbs is a Chicago-based artist who works at the intersection of textiles, painting, and community-based practices. Bibbs earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in Fiber and Material Studies at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the founder of The We Were Never Alone Project - a weaving workshop for victims and survivors of domestic violence, serves on the Surface Design Association’s Education Committee, and was named one of Newcity’s Breakout Artists of 2024. Photo credit: Tanal Simmons
Quilt Poems
An artist-led workshop with Daliah Silver
Monday, November 18, 6:00 - 8:00pm
Dittmar Memorial Gallery
CLICK HERE TO RSVP TO THIS EVENT
Quilts tell a story, through the fabric design, material, giver and recipient, and any words the maker chooses to add to their quilt. Workshop participants will learn to stitch their favorite poem, quote, or passage onto fabric, practice different embroidery stitches, and design a quilt block. This event is free for all. RSVP required. All materials provided and all levels are welcome.
About the Artist
Daliah Silver is a multi-medium textile artist. She has been knitting and hand sewing since childhood, taught by many generations of Persian and English family members. She borrowed a friend’s sewing machine at the start of the pandemic, and began sewing her own clothes, using the scraps to build quilts for friends and family. Her latest work explores how quiet activism and memory intersects with fabric, creating positive affirmation and protest banners in the styles of the suffragette movement. Due to the acknowledged excessive overuse of fabric waste, Daliah intentionally uses second hand or recycled materials in her quilts and banners. More recently, she has been exploring the world of natural dyes, and how text in quilts can add multiple dimensions to the work.
Accumulation as Metaphor
An artist-led workshop with Katie Vota
Wednesday, November 20, 6:00 - 8:00pm
Dittmar Memorial Gallery
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO RSVP TO THIS EVENT
Artist Richard Serra famously said, "Drawing is a verb." In this workshop, participants will reference Serra’s work Verb List, in which he compiled a series of "actions to relate to oneself, material, place, and process," to create a sculpture. Based on modalities of reuse, participants will collect and transform a quantity of an object into art, using provided fasteners and a verb of their choosing.
This workshop will guide participants to think about common objects in new ways, sparking creativity and fresh perspectives in their approach to art. Participants are encouraged to think outside the box in their material choices by asking:
“Where do I see material excess in my daily life?”
“How can objects considered to be ‘trash’ have second lives outside their intended use?”
“How do I use my networks and community to accumulate enough of something that it transcends our immediate understanding of the object?”
This event is free for all. RSVP required. All materials provided and all levels are welcome.
About the Artist
Katie Vota seeks to (re)evaluate our relationships to materiality, community, and environment through the medium of tapestry re-imagined in the digital age. Via collecting cast-offs and scavenging colors from nature, she transforms materials to create wholes from smaller parts, finding softness in many forms, textures, colors and patterns based in cloth.
Her current work utilizes pattern-based tapestry as a drawing medium to map the multitude of connections surrounding water as a shifting, living entity. The woven wave forms and seascapes are both real and imagined—the beating of the loom akin to the ebb/flow of the tides. In drafting weaving patterns, she creates her own waves and ripples, and this deep focus on pattern is akin to larger observations of the sun sparking off the water, or the moon reflecting its face. She juxtaposes the beautiful idealization of these images with the living reality of our polluted water systems.