1 The Beach (Navy Pier) Filled with more than a million recyclable antimicrobial plastic balls, the Navy Pier ballroom looks a lot like a day at the beach—complete with umbrellas, sunbeds, lifeguard chairs and donut-shaped floats. Created by New York-based designers Snarkitecture, the immersive art installation lets you pretend it’s summer in the middle of winter. (Through February 3)
2 Keep Moving: Designing Chicago’s Bicycle Culture (Design Museum of Chicago) Last chance to look into Chicago’s Bicycle Culture. From the city’s contribution to the early popularity of bicycles in America, as the nation’s center for bicycle manufacturing—it produced more than two-thirds of the bikes made in the United States—to its significance to the growing contemporary environmental movement. (Through March 3)
3 Indie Wed (Ravenswood Event Center) An alternative to traditional wedding expos, the longest-running independent wedding show in the United States brings together creative small business owners from across the country—fashion and graphic designers, photographers, musicians, planners—to help you avoid a cookie-cutter wedding. (February 2, 10am–4pm)
4 African American Designers in Chicago: Art, Commerce and the Politics of Race (Chicago Cultural Center) An exploration of Chicago’s art and design legacy through a wide range of media—graphic design, illustration, cartooning, sign painting, product design—showcases how African-American designers and artists remade the image of the black consumer and shaped American advertising and consumer culture. (Through March 3)
5 Pancakes and Booze (Reggies Chicago) Underground pop-up art show and shopping experience features local artists, designers, small business owners and all-around creatives while up-and-coming bands and local DJs perform live and hundreds of freshly baked pancakes are flipped into the night. (February 15-16, 8pm-2am)
Greek-born Vasia Rigou is a seasoned journalist, editor and multimedia content producer largely on the subjects of visual art, culture, architecture and design. She currently serves as an Editor at Newcity, Chicago’s leading culture publication, as Writer and Copy Editor at the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) HQ, and regularly contributes to international architecture and design magazines OnOffice and ICON. She has experience creating content for brands and building conference speeches and influential TEDx talks. Simply put: she’s fascinated by finding out the great stories behind the people, places and objects that surround us, and by sharing those stories with the world. When she’s not writing about art or looking at art—wine in hand—she makes lists for pretty much everything, drinks immense amounts of coffee and takes cross-country road trips every chance she gets.
