US at 250: Dorian Sylvain

Two quilt patterns share the Museum's first-floor lobby. The symbols on one stand for hope and freedom; those on the other stand for the chaos and uncertainty of the nation's prison system. Both draw on quilts made by enslaved people in the 18th and 19th centuries.

We Weave Our Future is Bronzeville artist Dorian Sylvain's answer to the Thirteenth Amendment, which in 1865 ended slavery except as punishment for a crime, a clause the Museum ties to mass incarceration. Students at Art in Motion Creative Arts school co-designed it. It comes with material on the John Howard Association, the Illinois prison watchdog founded in 1901 that still reports on prison conditions. You don't only look: the Museum invites visitors to add to the installation.

It is one installation, not a full gallery, the last of four 2026 lobby works on founding documents, and no critic has reviewed it. Entry is included with museum admission ($24 for adults, free for children 12 and under). It closes January 3, 2027.