On September 29, 2018, Hans Ulrich Obrist—artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries in London and one of the world's leading art curators and critics, known for his long-form, dynamic interview marathons—led his first U.S. marathon in partnership with Art Design Chicago, the Chicago Humanities Festival, and EXPO CHICAGO. Creative Chicago: An Interview Marathon was a multi-dimensional, multidisciplinary look at creativity in the city, past, present and future. Through a wide-ranging dialogue with artists, authors, architects, and others representing Chicago’s diverse creative community, the marathon examined the forces that have and continue to make Chicago a creative powerhouse.

One year later, Creative Chicago: An Interview Marathon, a publication documenting the event and exploring the work of the marathons’s participants, is unveiled on the /Dialogues stage at EXPO CHICAGO 2019. Published by the Terra Foundation for American Art and distributed by The University of Chicago Press, Creative Chicago features transcribed texts of Obrist’s conversations alongside photographs from the event, including the original stage installation designed by Chicago artist Barbara Kasten. 

Elizabeth Glassman (Terra Foundation for American Art President + CEO), Alison Cuddy (Chicago Humanities Festival Marilynn Thoma Artistic Director), and Barbara Kasten and Edra Soto (artists and marathon participants) offer remarks prior to a book signing.