Olivia Gude is a Professor in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago and was awarded the National Art Education Association’s 2009 Lowenfeld Award for significant contributions to the field of art education. Professor Gude is the Founding Director of the Spiral Workshop, a curriculum research project that provides art classes for urban teens.

In her lecture, Gude, an artist whose work emerges out of the Chicago street mural tradition, considers making murals and mosaics as a form of relational aesthetics, engaging intergenerational groups in dynamic investigations that lead to fresh insights regarding self and community.