Chicago Park District Cultural Centers: Creative Hubs of the Community
The Chicago Park District has fifteen Cultural Centers geographically distributed throughout the city that serve as creative hubs for their communities.
Each Cultural Center provides a wide range of offerings for patrons of all ages, including arts partnerships, after school arts programming, art camps, visual art exhibitions, and more. When you enter a Cultural Center, you can see, feel, and hear the art happening - whether it's an exhibit of woodshop art at the South Shore Cultural Center, a play rehearsal at Berger, or an art class at Hamilton.
Hilde Debruyne - Wings of Change, Hamilton Park
Mark Warwick - People and Places, Humboldt Park
Eric Stephenson - Emergence #11, South Shore Cultural Center
As a visual signifier of the art happening within and around these buildings, each Cultural Center is home to a work of public sculpture. Since 2013, the Park District public art program has partnered with Chicago Sculpture International to rotate a new piece of public art to each of the fifteen Cultural Centers every year. The curation and placement of these sculptures are specific to each Cultural Center.
Artist Margot McMahon, whose sculpture Hawk and Dove sits on the lawn in front of the Lincoln Park Cultural Center, says of the initiative:
Margot McMahon - Hawk and Dove, Lincoln Park
"Sharing sculpture at Lincoln Park's Cultural Center offers an identity to the community and the opportunity for families, visitors, and friends to engage in visual dialogue that may inspire making art.
Hawk and Dove, in cast marble, are resting dichotomous birds, the vertical warrior hawk and the horizontal dove of peace. This contemporary totem reflects the community along Chicago's flyway, whose experience of urban nature is heightened by the presence of sculpted birds... Public sculpture builds community by reflecting a neighborhood's sensibility that is then strengthened by a shared symbol."
Cultural Centers encourage all Chicagoans to explore and embrace the visual and performing arts and their power to embrace individual quality of life, neighborhood development, and community dialogue.
Visit a Cultural Center in a park near you today to see what great things they have to offer!
Berger Park
Tess Little, Imagine Peace
Indian Boundary Park
Janet Austin, Mr. Big Beetle Finds His Way
Melanie Cooper Pennington - Witness Your Self, Calumet Park
Lincoln Park
Margot McMahon, Hawk and Dove
Austin Town Hall Park
Austin Collins, Black Wedding Cake
Douglas Park
Paul Russell, Ancient Protocol (on temporary loan through July 8th, 2017)
Humboldt Park
Mark Warwick, People and Places
Piotrowski Park
Austin Collins, White Wedding Cake
Calumet Park
Melanie Cooper Pennington, Witness Your Self
Hamilton Park
Hilde Debruyne, Wings of Change
Marquette Park
Ted Sitting Crow Garner, Bumble
Palmer Park
Kai Schulte, Facing Forward
Ridge Park
Nicole Beck, Asteray
South Shore Cultural Center
Eric Stephenson, Emergence #11
Tuley Park
Andrew Arvanetes, Tin Man, Too
West Pullman Park
Bobby Joe Scribner, Moonshine