The Art Institute of Chicago’s Project Windows program for 2026 has been announced! Each year, the AIC invites neighborhood businesses to participate in the annual window contest that brings customers from across the city to their businesses while also promoting the AIC’s summer exhibition.
This year’s summer exhibition is Willem de Kooning Drawing. De Kooning immigrated to the United States at 22 to pursue a dream of becoming an illustrator, and he ultimately became a key figure of a movement that would be known as “Abstract Expressionism” or the “New York School” with such contemporaries as Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Barnett Newman, and Mark Rothko. With ambiguity a feature of his work, de Kooning blurred the boundaries of representation and abstraction, and was often innovating with unconventional methods to create his paintings and drawings.
“Willem de Kooning Drawing features more than 200 artworks from public and private collections around the world. The exhibition presents iconic works like the Art Institute’s Excavation and the Museum of Modern Art’s Woman I (1950–52), as well as significant and lesser-known drawings, paintings, sculptures, and prints, many of which have rarely—if ever—been seen by the public.”
Once a business signs up for Project Windows, they will eligible to apply for one of thirty reimbursable $500 stipends.
Important Contest Dates
April 14 | Deadline to sign up
June 14 | Project Windows displays on view
June 14-August 18 | Public voting
June 14-September 20 | Willem de Kooning Drawing Exhibition at AIC
August 27 | Awards Party