When We Paint Our Masterpiece: The Art of the Grateful Dead Community

This newest exhibit featuring unique materials from the Grateful Dead Archive explores how the members of the band and the global Dead Head community took inspiration from one another in creating an image-rich, worldwide art practice that, like the band’s music, scrambled perceived standards and norms.
The creative works presented in When We Paint Our Masterpiece reveal a world full of variety when it comes to design practices, international traditions, visual icons, and art forms. There has been space for all of these patterns and visions in the community of fans and fellow artists that blossomed around the band, and that community of creators continues to thrive today. This exhibit explores the mutual appreciation among fans as well as between fans and the band.
On view through 2020.
This free exhibit is open to the public during McHenry Library hours.
(artwork by Miki Saito)