Watch: A River Runs Through It: ICI’s Mississippi River Project

As part of Chicago Exhibition Week (CXW), Gertie and ICI hosted a pair of panel discussions that build on Chicago's role as a connecting point for innovative culture, ideas, and people throughout the Midwest and beyond. These four Chicago-based curators who are involved in ICI's ongoing research initiative known as the Mississippi River Project—Brandon Alvendia, Risa Puleo, Denny Mwaura, and Pia Singh—each engage with the region in their own way through a connective lens of its river and watershed, rather than its borders and individual states.

About the Mississippi River Basin Project

Launched in 2021, the Mississippi River Project uses the Mississippi River—including its immense basin, delta and outflow, and the Gulf of Mexico—as a system through which to generate new approaches to U.S. history, civic life, and art communities. The project’s programs, exhibition-making, fellowships, and collective curatorial research platforms align along a common goal: to convene curators, artists, and art spaces in order to collectively re-imagine the United States’s identity. It aims to transcend rigid political, social, and economic definitions of the U.S. through a focus on the river, the lands it connects, the histories it weaves together, and the cultural flows it has enabled. 

Credits
"A River Runs Through It" and ICI's Mississippi River Project are made possible by the leadership support of the Hearthland Foundation and Ruth Arts, with additional support provided by the ICI Board of Trustees.

About Chicago Exhibition Week
The fourth annual Chicago Exhibition Week featured over 50 participating galleries and creative spaces across the city from September 14–20, 2026, spotlighting Chicago’s vibrant cultural landscape and artistic spirit for locals and visitors alike. Learn more and see all the offerings at chicagoexhibitionweek.com.