Create With Us

Artist Bernard Williams talks about his paintings and sculptures currently on view and then leads the group through an art-making workshop to create cardboard sculptures of their own. Williams’s large scale sculptures and paintings are featured in the Museum’s summer exhibitions: CROSSINGS installed in Wilder Park and across the Museum’s galleries and McCormick House and Legacies: Selected works from the Elmhurst Art Museum Permanent Collection.

All ages welcome. Activity is included with museum admission. Members are free.

ABOUT BERNARD WILLIAMS

Williams is a Chicago native celebrated for his public murals, sculptures, and paintings that highlight little-known or forgotten narratives in American history. He has been awarded an Illinois Arts Council Grant and the Artadia Award. His work has been featured at the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson (MS), The African-American Museum in Dallas (TX), Chicago Cultural Center, Kohler Art Center, and The Eiteljorg Museum of Native American and Western Art (IN), among other institutions.

Public sculptures and murals by Williams are spread throughout the Chicagoland area, including a permanent sculpture for the Chicago Transit Authority, the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park, University Park, IL, Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis, and several works for the Chicago Park District, one notable installation located at 31st Street beach in Bronzeville. Williams holds a BFA Degree from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and an MFA from Northwestern University. He also studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (ME). Williams taught art at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1991-2003 and has been an active member of the Chicago Public Art Group for nearly thirty years.

Image Credit: Bernard Williams, Cardboard study for Cowboy Dream, 2024.