Unfinished Revolutions: Living Stories of American Rights Exhibit Opening

• Event Date: Wednesday, April 1, 2026
• Time: 5:00 pm–8:00 pm (CDT)
• Location: Hundley Central Core Gallery, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL

• Special Event
• Exhibit-Related tag

Celebrate the opening of Spurlock's newest exhibit, Unfinished Revolutions: Living Stories of American Rights

Stop by anytime between 5:00 pm and 8:00 pm to explore the exhibit, enjoy light refreshments, and listen to protest music performed by Paul Kotheimer.

You can also become part of the exhibit with our zine making craft! Express yourself artistically in response to the themes and the pieces will be pulled together into a zine that will be placed on display within the exhibit.

About the Exhibit

Unfinished Revolutions: Living Stories of American Rights explores the bold promises of liberty, equality, and justice the United States was founded on. But the path toward fulfilling those ideals has been anything but straightforward. Our exhibit theme of unfinished revolutions explores the ongoing struggle to define and expand the meaning of freedom in America. From the Revolutionary era to today, individuals and communities have challenged injustice and demanded change—through protest and litigation, war and grassroots organizing, formal politics and everyday resistance.

This exhibit is multivocal. The objects vary, and the people interpreting and reflecting on them are diverse in view, experience, expertise, and background. These ideas will weave through the text created by many different contributors, interpreting objects from Spurlock’s collections and across campus.

About Paul Kotheimer

For well over 30 years now, songwriter Paul Kotheimer has been blending music and activism in Urbana, Illinois. His catalog of original songs is decades deep, recorded almost entirely at home in his living room studio. He's "locally world famous" as a solo acoustic performer and lyricist par excellence, with an ear for vintage stylings, whip-smart storytelling, and an eclectic mix of genres drawn from every page of the American songbook. Onstage, PK delivers, with lung power gained over years of busking on street corners and belting it out in bars and coffee houses. He's also a longtime student of the American tradition of folk song for political action—Labor, social justice, and anti-war songs are all tools in his kit, and he advocates for musical performance as a powerful community bonding force.

About the zine making project

If you’ve ever watched the summer Olympics, you’ve likely noticed the popularity of the track and field relay races. Relays involve teams of four runners; each charged with sprinting with the baton and successfully passing it to the next runner. While teammates hold the same responsibility and collective goal, the how and why of their individual roles may differ.

What if we used the metaphor of a relay team for Unfinished Revolutions? Instead of sprinting to the finish line for a track and field relay race, imagine you’re contributing to an unfinished revolution for liberty, equality, and justice.

Who are you passing the baton to?

What are you fighting for?

How does it impact the success of the race?

The Spurlock Museum invites you to contribute to the Unfinished Revolutions exhibit by creatively responding to these prompts. You’ll create a page to be included in a special exhibit zine. (Zines, short for magazines, are small, handmade booklets often designed to share special interests or personal stories.) Your page, created on canvas, will be put on view as part of the exhibit zine. 

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to have your voice included in Unfinished Revolutions. 

Image Credits

• Suffragette sash. The People's Collection, US History and Culture. 2017.06.0256.
• Votes for Women figurine. 1910. The People's Collection, US History and Culture. 2017.06.0246.
• Print: Gender Scrambling 781: Gaga, Salander, WW, Storm, and Roosevelt. Courtesy of the artist Linda Stein.
• Khanga textile. Tanzania, 2008. Lynn and Michael Noel Collection.
• Print: Corona Environment 1112, 4/85. Courtesy of the artist Linda Stein.
• Hull House Songs: Suffrage Song, Chicago, 1915. Courtesy of the Music and Performing Arts Library, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
• Illinois Congressional district map. 1991. Courtesy of the Map Library, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
• The Gerry-Mander. 1812. Courtesy of the Map Library, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
• Pitcher depicting George Washington. Early 19th c. The People's Collection, US History and Culture,
• Magazine illustration: Votes for Women. 1915. The People's Collection, US History and Culture.
• Chicago Whip masthead (detail). Chicago, 1919. Courtesy of the History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
• AIDS memorial quilt panel. Courtesy of the Greater Community AIDS Project of East Central Illinois.