The Chicago Archives + Artist Project facilitates engagement with archives by commissioning artists to interpret collections in order to reveal Chicago's lesser-known histories to a wider audience. Featuring workshops, performances, film screenings, and a pop-up DIY archiving station, the multi-day Chicago Archives + Artists Festival also celebrates archives and special collections that document marginalized voices. For the Art Design Chicago iteration of the project, three contemporary Chicago artists create original artworks in response to an archival collection with strong ties to Chicago's artistic legacy. The works debut at the festival in July at the Read/Write Library in Humboldt Park.

This project is an ongoing initiative of Sixty Inches From Center, an arts publication and archiving initiative supporting non-mainstream artists.