Julius Caesar (JC) is an independent artist collective in Chicago's East Garfield neighborhood. Supporting Chicago’s contemporary art scene outside the commercial gallery ecosystem, JC began as a Sunday afternoon showcase of SAIC students, graduates and teachers. Dana Degiulio, Diego Leclery, Colby Shaft, Hans Peter Sundquist, and Molly Zuckerman-Hartung founded the artist-run experimental space in 2008 with only a few rules in mind: all shows would be democratically voted on, but each director had one month for unilateral programming; the space would be free of commercial objectives; directors would pay dues to fund operations. Exhibitions remain democratically selected, although leadership has rotated over the years. The current directors are Josh Dihle, Tony Lewis, Roland Miller, and Kate Sierzputowski. 

 
JC is open to the general public through free, monthly exhibitions. Programming features emerging and under-represented Chicago artists along side national and international programming. Since 2014, exhibitions have featured artists from Chicago, Berlin, Portugal, Malta, Romania, Toronto, Paris, New York, Israel, London, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Boston, Michigan, Tampa, and Milwaukee. Exhibitions have been featured in The New York Times, The Art Newspaper, ArtForum, Contemporary Art Daily, Hyperallergic, Frieze, Chicago Tribune, ArtSlant, New City, and Bad At Sports among others.