Navy Pier has commissioned architect and MacArthur Fellow, Jeanne Gang, and contemporary artist, Nick Cave, for a site-specific project that incorporates art, design, and performance. The collaboration is featured at Navy Pier as part of the free public programming for the Chicago Architecture Biennial and EXPO Chicago. The locally-based duo are presenting a series of live productions in which Cave's performers intersect and respond to a field of dynamic, custom-fabricated objects designed by Gang and her practice, Studio Gang. The series includes Cave's works, Up Right and HEARD. Both feature Cave's Soundsuits, accompanied by Chicago musicians, including jazz artist, Kahil El Zabar, Chicago Children's Choir, and others. These and other performances by local artists are defined by Gang-designed elements. The work is an extension of Navy Pier's ongoing commitment to offer guests free arts and cultural programming, designed to inspire, educate, and connect communities across the city and globe.

Nick Cave is a Chicago-based artist and educator. Since the 1980s, Cave's installations and collections have been exhibited internationally, and he's been the recipient of numerous arts awards and fellowships. Cave gained prominence through utilizing sculpture, installation, video, sound, and performance art. His work is represented by the Jack Shainman Gallery in New York, and he currently serves as professor and chair of the Fashion Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Cave is best known for his Soundsuits exhibitions, which employ sculptural forms based on the scale of Cave's body. The goal of Soundsuits is to mask human existential traits, thereby forcing audience members to experience the art free from prejudice. Cave exhibited Soundsuits at the Chicago Cultural Center in 2006.

Jeanne Gang is a Chicago-based architect and founding principal of the firm Studio Gang. Gang's design themes merge relationships between individuals, communities, and environments. Her signature work includes Chicago's Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo and Aqua Tower. Gang's current projects include an expansion of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, Campus Residential Commons at the University of Chicago, and the new US Embassy in Brasilia, Brazil. Her past awards include the Architect of the Year Award from Architectural Review (2016), the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum's National Design Award (2013), and a fellowship from the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (2011).

Navy Pier is the People's Pier, Chicago's lakefront treasure, welcoming all and offering dynamic and eclectic experiences through partnerships and programs that inspire discovery and wonder.