A Conversation with Visual Artist Nick Cave
An afternoon with acclaimed artist Nick Cave featuring a lecture, music, and hands-on artmaking as part of Miller Family Free Day. Programming invites audiences of all ages to engage with Cave’s expansive artistic practice through his piece on view in Conductions: Black Imaginings II and a live conversation with the artist, moderated by Rukaiyah Adams, Chief Executive Officer of the 1803 Fund, that dives into his work.
Nick Cave
Nick Cave (b. 1959, Fulton, MO; lives and works in Chicago, IL) is an artist, educator, and foremost a messenger, working between the visual and performing arts through a wide range of mediums including sculpture, installation, video, sound and performance. Cave is well known for his Soundsuits, sculptural forms based on the scale of his body, initially created in direct response to the police beating of Rodney King in 1991. Soundsuits camouflage the body, masking and creating a second skin that conceals race, gender, and class, forcing the viewer to look without judgment. They serve as a visual embodiment of social justice that represent both brutality and empowerment. Throughout his practice, Cave has created spaces of memorial through combining found historical objects with contemporary dialogues on gun violence and death, underscoring the anxiety of severe trauma brought on by catastrophic loss. He encourages a profound and compassionate analysis of violence and its effects as the path towards an ultimate metamorphosis.
Cave, who received his MFA at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, is the Stephanie and Bill Sick Professor of Fashion, Body, and Garment at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Over the last decade, he has had numerous solo exhibitions, most notably at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Frist Art Museum, and the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston. Cave is the subject of a forthcoming solo exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which represents the museum’s largest-ever commission by a single artist and opens to the public on February 13, 2026.
Rukaiyah Adams
Since January 2023, Rukaiyah Adams has served as the Chief Executive Officer of the 1803 Fund, an innovative organization dedicated to growing shared prosperity. The 1803 Fund aligns financial and community investments to invest for the people.
Rukaiyah brings a powerful blend of experience to her leadership role: the lived perspective of growing up in subsidized housing, the legal clarity gained from immersing herself in housing and urban development, and the sharp acumen of an investor who understands the transformative power of real assets in building community prosperity.
Ms. Adams leverages her extensive business expertise for the benefit of everyday people. She is a co-founder of both Albina Vision Trust and the 1803 Fund, visionary organizations committed to building common wealth. Her dedication extends to public service, including her role as a Commissioner of the Port of Portland, serving on the Investment Committee of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and holding the position of current board chair for Oregon Public Broadcasting. She also serves on the board of directors of Albina Vision Trust.
Ms. Adams holds a Bachelor of Arts with academic distinction from Carleton College, a Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School where she was on the Law and Policy Review and Co-President of the Law Student Association, and a Master of Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.