5 Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago

By Anna Searle Jones

This year, the Renaissance Society celebrates its 100th anniversary. Begun in 1915 by a group of UChicago academics, the Renaissance Society has grown into an important voice in the international contemporary art world. This Centennial anniversary presents a critical opportunity to imagine the Ren’s possible futures, but it is also a time for a fond look back at some key contributions, notable achievements, and remarkable facts from its past 100 years.

1. In its 100-year history, the Renaissance Society has presented 511 exhibitions and hundreds of lectures, discussions, and presentations from renowned artists and scholars. In its early years the Ren hosted such important figures as Laredo Taft, Oriental Institute founder James Henry Breasted, Gertrude Stein, and Zora Neale Hurston, while more recent program contributors have included poet and performer LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs and musician C. Spencer Yeh. Exhibitions presented over the years have ranged from exhibits of avant garde works in the 1930s to student and member shows during the 1950s to internationally-significant shows since the 1980s, though there has always been a focus on art as a crucial way to understand and interpret the present.

2. The Ren hasn’t always been located in Cobb Hall. Other UChicago sites have served as home to the Renaissance Society, including Wieboldt Hall (1930–1938) and Goodspeed Hall (1938–1978). The Ren also collaborates with institutions nationally and internationally to co-commission and tour exhibitions (for instance, Pierre Huyghe’s 2000 film The Third Memory was produced in partnership with Centre Pompidou, Paris). Jordan Stein, Curator of Special Projects at the Renaissance Society and curator of Let Us Celebrate While Youth Lingers and Ideas Flow: Archives 1915–2015, noted that “in our former Goodspeed Hall gallery, for example, hundreds of incredible artworks were shown in what is currently a series of piano practice rooms. Although the physical layout of the space has changed, just being there holds a significant charge. Let Us Celebrate embodies the Ren’s past not just by displaying neat, old stuff, but by encouraging visitors to walk through the different buildings that have housed the institution over the years.”

3. While maintaining close ties to the University of Chicago, the Ren is formally independent of the University. Though founded by UChicago faculty members in 1915 to “stimulate love of the beautiful, and to enrich the life of the community through the cultivation of the arts” (according

to the invitation to the society’s first meeting in 1915), the Ren became financially and legally independent in the 1970s. According to Solveig Øvstebø, Executive Director and Chief Curator, “being at the University is absolutely at the core of who we are and what we do. We frequently draw on the amazing people and resources here, and we in turn aim to contribute to the academic and creative community around us. At the same time, our independence gives us the freedom to be bold and uncompromising in the way we can support artists.”

4. The Ren has only had women directors. Female figures in the arts and the academy have been central to the Renaissance Society’s success since its founding. Eva Watson Schütze, artist and director from 1929 until her death in 1935, was responsible for establishing the Renaissance Society’s mission as a “laboratory” for art and ideas. Susanne Ghez (1974–2013) expanded the institution’s scope with landmark Conceptual Art exhibitions. Director Øvstebø, who took over in 2013, is focused on developing the museum’s commissioning and publishing activity.

5. The Renaissance Society helped establish Doc Films, a staple of UChicago campus culture. The Ren presented a series of films in partnership with International House throughout the early 1930s, which, as stated on an invitation to a film series that took place over the summer of 1934, included “foreign talking films, travel pictures, and science motion demonstrations.” The student film society formalized in 1940 as the International House Documentary Film Group, later shortened to Doc Films, and continued to collaborate with the Ren into the 1980s.

In celebration of its Centennial, the Renaissance Society presents a special program of exhibitions, events, and collaborations across campus and beyond this fall. Find details on Centennial happenings here in the 2015 Fall UChicago Arts Guide or online at renaissancesociety.org.