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The Exhibition
From July 24th to November 15th, 2026, Edgar Miller Legacy (EML), in partnership with Art on Sedgwick (AoS), is proud to present the Handmade Histories exhibition and learning experience. EML and AoS are proud to celebrate some of the city’s great artists including Edgar Miller, Jean Birkenstein Washington, and William Walker, who all made a name for themselves in Chicago’s Near North Side neighborhood now known as Old Town. These artists are part of a tradition that has fostered community and creativity in a diverse and ever-evolving neighborhood.
The exhibition also explores Old Town’s story as it is told in the very first graphic novel about the life of the twentieth century artist-designer, Edgar Miller, published by EML in 2026. Original works by Hannah Dykstra, the novel’s artist and illustrator, will be on display, as well as works by and inspired by other local Chicago artists, including Jean Birkenstein Washington, William Walker, Larry Zgoda, Bob Horn, Sharon Bladholm, Claudia Cleveland, Larry Kolden, John Bakker, and Edgar Miller himself. Through three distinct rotating showcases, Handmade Histories explores how Old Town became a crossroads of a rapidly changing urban environment defined by its artistic nature, modernist aesthetic, traditional craft, and generational legacy.
In 1927, artist-designer Edgar Miller began transforming the architectural fabric of what would become the Old Town neighborhood by the midcentury. Working with a cohort of talented, like-minded creatives, Miller turned everyday domestic and public spaces into handcrafted masterworks—carving wood, casting plaster, and constructing stained glass windows—to embody the philosophy of Gesamtkunstwerk, or “a total work of art.” Through the 1930s, Miller created living spaces, today known as the Handmade Homes, that cultivated a burgeoning artist colony movement on the city’s Near North Side, which lasted for decades. Now, a century later, the new graphic novel A Total Work of Art: The Story of Edgar Miller brings this vibrant era to life over 160 pages of dazzling illustrations and thought-provoking text. This exhibition bridges the past with the present, charting a hundred years of neighborhood evolution, artistic progress, and the enduring power of the handmade tradition.
Old Town has grown, struggled, evolved, and now thrives thanks to the unifying spirit that artists like Miller, Washington, and Walker helped to engender, and the many other creative people from the last one hundred years who have called the neighborhood home.
Showcase I: Community + Garden | July 24th - August 30th
Showcase II: Art + Activism | September 5th - October 8th
Showcase III: Memory + Legacy | October 15th - November 15th
Publications, original artwork, and Edgar Miller Legacy Shop merchandise will be on sale at the gallery during the exhibition run.
The free exhibition and gallery will be open from 11AM - 5PM from Monday, July 27th through Friday, July 31st, and on the afternoon of Saturday, August 1 from 1PM - 5PM.
After the opening weekend, the exhibition and gallery will be open by appointment only. Please schedule a visitation time for free at the link below for any of available dates and times through the month of August.
Entry times are staggered, and you can visit the exhibition gallery with any group size up to 8 people for as long as you would like! If you wish to visit the gallery outside of available times, please email us at info@edgarmiller.org and we will get back to you about alternative possible times.
Updates about hours for Showcases II and III to come.
Exhibition Opening Event
Thank you for joining us for our exhibition opening night and weekend event!
Visit us again soon for upcoming showcases this fall.
Map of Old Town
In addition to our gallery showcase, the Handmade Histories exhibition will feature a workshop series and regularly scheduled walking tours of Edgar Miller-designed sites in the Old Town neighborhood. These programs will all meet and begin at the exhibition gallery space. Sign up for an upcoming program and learn more about the world of Edgar Miller below!