cohorts form households.
 June 6 - July 6 | Next
Chicago Cohort III

Each cohort brings together 4 to 15 people over a 7-week period to discuss, design, and build dining tables for their homes, and share what happens around them. Together, cohort tables reestablish the household as a civic unit — a place where connection, belonging, and public life take shape.

Time Commitment

Cohorts meet 2-3 times a week for 7 weeks. In the final week, tables are installed, activated by households, and documented.

Materials + Support

Cohorts are provided with lumber, hardware, guided design and build support, delivery, and documentation.

4-Step Arc

Design

Build

Activate

Testify

Cost

Cohort costs are primarily covered through partnerships, sponsorship, and grants, with a pay-what-you-can option for participating households.

TABLES Project is a civic humanities platform built through households. It works at the scale where human beings actually become who they are.

Week 1

Orientation

Getting to know the folks in the cohort and becoming familiar with basic design principles, woodshop safety, and power tools. 

TABLES Project framework 
Shop safety
Design principles
Woodshop intro
Person using a compass to draw a circle on a piece of wood. From Tables Project Chicago, a civic and cultural platform. 
Week 2

Discussion + Design

Topical discussions that blend into guided tabletop designing and leg choices, unifying form, meaning, and function.

Role of the table
Social design
Design thinking
Foundation/frame/legs
Tabletop design 
Week 3

Guided Build

Scaled models of table designs produced with guided wood shop instruction, leading to the production of full-scale table parts.

Woodshop practice
Scaled model
Design adjustment
Cut list
Two people are working together to operate a woodworking router on a piece of wood, with one person holding the router and the other holding a guide. They are shaping or carving the wood on a workbench. From Tables Project Chicago 
Week 4

Guided Build II

Assembly of a full-scale table that is prepared for finishing and sealing.

Full scale assembly
Sanding
Sealing
Quality check
Document
A small round wooden table outside a brick building with a partially open door, a red house number sign '910' on the wall, and a metal awning above the entrance. From Tables Project Chicago, a civic and cultural platform. 
Week 5-6

Installation & Activation

The table is assembled by the household it was designed for. The household is documented activating their table, and the images enter the TABLES archive as civic testimony. 

Scheduled delivery
Activation
Photo & video
Archive
Closing

Outcomes

Table: Hand-made instrument of household civic life

Activation: Use of the table in the home (meals, conversations, celebration, formation, reconciliation)

Testimony: Documentary evidence of activation in photo and video, the fabric of the TABLES Project

Circulation: Movement of household testimony through the city by wheatpaste, exhibition, archive, and publication

Start The Conversation

  • Click “JOIN A COHORT” if interested in building a table, or the “SUPPORT” link if interested as a cohort host, sponsor, or donor.

  • We’ll get in touch with you shortly after receiving your information.

  • Whether participating in a cohort or supporting one, we assign a current or forthcoming cohort to build with.

  • cohorts > tables > activations > testimonies

JOIN A COHORT
JOIN A COHORT
SUPPORT
SUPPORT

  • "Being able to make my own table showed me we need to make more time having deep conversations with family."

    Linda Kimbrough, Chicago Cohort I

  • "With my table I'll be able to use it for personal use and with my family."

    Chris Willis, Chicago Cohort I

  • "It builds stronger connections. Sometimes you learn new things you didn't know, like one of your family members going through things you didn't know about because you don't talk."

    Demaurus Stevens, Chicago Cohort I