IN FOCUS LECTURE SERIES

In Focus Header


UPCOMING

IN FOCUS LECTURE: “Freedom in Form: Richard Hunt” - Lecture with Ross Stanton Jordan
DATE: Sunday, October 26, 2025, 3-4:30 pm

In-person and Virtual 

Join us for this In Focus Lecture in which Ross Stanton Jordan will explore renowned Chicago artist Richard Hunt’s love of steel and the material’s impact on culture and art history. Jordan is the curator of “Freedom in Form: Richard Hunt” on view at the Loyola University Museum of Art through November 14, presented by Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

Ross Stanton Jordan is a curator interested in the confluence of politics, visual culture, and artistic production. He holds a Studio Arts degree from Connecticut College and dual Master's degrees in Art History and Arts Administration and Policy from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Jordan has made himself a vital presence in Chicago’s art community, curating dozens of independent and organizationally supported exhibitions and public programs. Jordan is the curator at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Chicago’s dynamic monument to democracy. At the museum and independently, he has produced dozens of exhibitions and one hundred public programs that connect the social justice issues of the past to the present-day demands for social equity via collaborations with artists, scholars, and community-based organizations.
Jordan was a 12-month intern in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at MoMA where he contributed to MoMA’s first blog Inside/Out and provided research support for exhibitions, including
Lee Bontecou: All Freedom in Every Sense (2010),
Diego Rivera: Murals for The Museum of Modern Art (2011) and Abstract Expressionist New York (2012). He has held curatorial fellowships at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Independent Curators International, and the American Association of Museums. In 2022, Newcity Magazine named Jordan one of the top 50 Chicago arts administrators working to make a more equitable and sustainable arts world. In 2024, The Chicago Tribune named Jordan, along with his colleagues at Hull-House, Chicagoans of the Year in Museums. 

 


PAST
 

2025

VIRTUAL TALK: Making the Invisible Visual with Annie Grossinger

Pigment Painting - Introduction to Process, Material, History, Pt. II

 

2024

Eden Juron Pearlman: Bringing the WPA Home to Illinois and Evanston

Making a movie that was seen in outer space with filmmaker and Evanston native Sarah Moshman

Duality Is Inherent within a Unified Whole with Julie Rotblatt Amrany

Landscape in Light: The Art Institute's Tiffany Memorial Window with Rachel Sabino

Hollis Clayson, The Dark Side of the Eiffel Tower

The Artistic Practice of Marion Mahony Griffin, Enviromentalist and Architect Featuring Debora Wood

Encouraging Young Artists on to Higher Education: The Latino Art Beat Story
 

2023

Dorothy Marks, How I Wrote a Book

Rebecca Keller What Color is the Sea? What Color is the Sky

In Focus Lecture Series: Film Premiere - At Home in Evanston: Diverse Perspectives of Our City

Sharon Hoogstraten, Dancing for Our Tribe: Potawatomi Tradition in the New Millennium

In Conversation with Shonna Pryor and Matt Morris

Joyce Marter, The Financial Mindset Fix for Artists: How to Change Your Money Story to Welcome Greater Prosperity

Debora Wood, Echoes: Contemporary Trends in Printmaking
 

2022

Cortney Lederer: How Art is Getting Us Through the Pandemic

Nika Levando: Mural Commissions on the South Side of Chicago - Lessons Learned

Ignatius Valentine Aloysius: Digging Deep into Revision

Poems While You Wait: A Panel Discussion on Poetry on Demand

Katrin Schnabl: Portal

LP "Larry" Lundy: Journey Through an Artist's Life

Onyx Montes: Playing with Pay

In Conversation with Connie Noyes and Tricia Van Eck
 

2021

Holly Clayson: Modern Art and Light/s

Rebecca Zorach: Abolition Art

Alpha M. Bruton & Liza Simone: Pop-Up Research Station

Cindi Strauss: Exploring Contemporary Ceramics: Shifting Tastes and New Expressions

Rachel Sabino: The Inner Life of a Bronze Dionysos

Tanner Woodford: Designing a New Museum

Julius L. Jones: City on Fire: Chicago 1871

Donna Gabanski and Joan Winstein: Chicago Architecture Center Docents
 

2020

Richard Townsend: The ABCs of Art Collecting

Angela Tate: That's What A Song Can Do

Dan Hill: The Inside Scoop on How We Experience Art

 


 

In the News...