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Bronzeville's Best, photo by Carmen Reporto, August 8, 1953. 

The Bud Billiken Parade, one of the oldest and largest in Chicago.  Image from Real Chicago by Richard Cahan, Michael Williams, and Neal Samors.

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Dayo Laoye in his studio.

  Artist Perspective

The archivists paid a special visit to Dayo Laoye, Chicago-based artist who was also one founders of the African Festival of the Arts.  The artist opened his studio to us to learn about the arts in the Washington Park Area. 

By focusing on the visual arts side of the African Festival of the Arts, Laoye reports, the awareness of black culture has improved over the last 24 years.  The festival became the host to over 300 booths of black people from all over the world from the Caribbean to different African cultures.

Listen in on this and many other observations by Laoye as he traces the importance and unique nature of the Washington Park area (Washington Park Archive Reference #05.03.19.01).  Visit the archive at the Arts Incubator.

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Postcards from Washington Park circa 1910.

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Washington Park at the University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center

The archivists have taken a special trip to the University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center to take a close up look at a couple of files.  Members of the Hyde Park Historical Society gave us leads to documents that referred to the Washington Park area.  Amongst letters, postcards and reports from the University of Chicago, we found photographs and documents that all point to the vibrancy of the Washington Park area.  In letters and anecdotes many outings to the park are documented. 

We were surprised to find how many postcards reference Washington Park and were even more surprised to find some many things that are no longer in the park, ranging from a Botanical Conservatory to horse races, the park no longer features many of the things which many of the people that we have interviewed remember as integral to their experience in the area

Be sure to tap into the archive and listen to Paula Robinson's, President of the Black Metropolis National Heritage Area Commission, account of Washington Park (Washington Park Archive Reference #12.03.12.01)

"...I think there are still a lot of things in the park that should be brought back.  I hate that when we see places where there's been a statue or fountain but it's not there, I think there needs to be more restoration.  I've been excited about some of the people on the Chicago Parks District Commission taking more interest in preserving it.  I am hopeful, that they will pay attention to the built environment that hasn't been maintained.  Lots of little seating areas that people have just not paid attention to." (11:52)

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Lamont Hamilton is shooting portraits of Washington Park residents this weekend for an exhibit in August.

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"Washington and Jackson Parks as they are today: An essay by Ken Allison" from Olmstead in Chicago, 1972

Friends of the Park

Today, the archivists met with Erma Tranter, president of Friends of the Parks, to discuss the rich history of Washington Park.  Dating back to 1869, the history of Washington Park involves Frederick Law Olmstead, the landscape designer of New York's Central Park, and the development of South Side Chicago.

In our conversation, Ms. Tranter recalled Drexel and Garfield Avenues, as streets that hosted some of Chicago's prime greystone homes.  Unique to Chicago, greystone neighborhoods were developed between 1890 and 1930.  The Bedford limestone, quarried from south central Indiana, made up the façade of the homes which always orient towards the street, taking full advantage of the narrow frontage afforded by Chicago's standard 25' x 125' lots.  Washington Park is home to many greystone homes, still visible today.

The park itself holds over 100 years of history.  Today, it still serves as the ground for organizations such the Washington Park Camera Club, the oldest, predominately African American camera club in the Chicago area, and the Chicago Archery Club, one of oldest archery clubs in the United States, dating back to 1873.

Ms. Tranter generously donated Olmstead in Chicago to add to the Washington Park Community Archive.

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In the Field

The Archivists have hit the ground.  The next step of building the Washington Park Community Archive is to connect with the individuals in this community.  Looking at historic locations, community centers, and places of congregation, the archivists have sought the help of the community understand the question: Who makes up this community?

Using soft geographical boundaries the team is on the way to collecting present-day photographic documentation of buildings, streets, and monuments.  At each stop there is an encounter to talk with the people that make up the vibrant Washington Park.  If you see them snapping a photograph, stop them and tell them a story, they're more than eager to capture your history.

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The Archiving Begins

This week Christina Beatty and Gibran Villalobos have started the archiving process.  They are currently on a mission to gather as much information available from individuals who have lived or are currently living in the Washington Park area.  Ranging from senior living homes, community centers, churches, and public art institutions, the archivists are looking for your stories.  They are setting up appointments and welcoming walk-in participants during open hours.

If you would like to contribute, be sure to join:

Mondays 12-6PM

Wednesdays 12-3PM

Fridays 12-3PM

Through August 9, 2013

Bring your stories, objects, images, newspaper clippings, old posters, family photographs, anything that we can scan and place into the community archive.

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CURATOR BIOS

DARA M. EPISON is the Manager of Cultural and Community Engagement in the Office of Civic Engagement at the University of Chicago. Epison led the renovation effort and developed the program for the Arts Incubator in Washington Park, a project of Arts + Public Life. She previously served as the Program Coordinator for University and Community Arts Collaborations in the Office of the Provost at UChicago. Epison worked to shape the community engagement strategy for the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts and the platform for the Arts + Public Life initiative. Prior to joining UChicago, Dara was a project manager for Theaster Gates’ studio. Epison played an integral part in planning Gates’ 2010 exhibitions at the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art, and his residency with the Bemis Center for Contempo- rary Arts. Epison received her Bachelor of Arts in Art History with a co-major in Caribbean Studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

ALLISON M. GLENN is the Arts + Public Life Program Manager and Exhibitions Curator at the Arts Incubator in Washington Park. Glenn has contributed to various publications, including the Studio Museum in Harlem's Fore exhibition catalog and Art21. org. Exhibition experience includes, Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960-1980, an exhibition at the Hammer Museum that was part of the Pacific Standard Time initiative of the Getty Research Institute; a 2010 Exhibitions Fellowship at Hyde Park Art Center, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's 2012 MFA Exhibition Curatorial Fellowship, and independent exhibitions. She recently completed a Research Fellowship with Dorchester Projects. Glenn received a dual Master’s Degree in Modern Art History, Theory and Criticism & Arts Administration and Policy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Bachelor of Fine Art Photography with a Co-Major in Urban Studies from Wayne State University. 

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Public Dialogue #1 engaged the current interest in reactivating architectural structures and sites, with a specific focus on how artists and arts organizations can act as catalysts for redevelopment of underutilized spaces. The panel includes Edgar Arceneaux, artist, community organizer, and founder and former executive director of the Watts House Project; Brandon Johnson, executive director of the Washington Park Consortium; and Faheem Majeed, artist, educator and former executive director of the Southside Community Art Center.

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About

Statement

Public Dialogue explores the ever-increasing role that artists, creative professionals, cultural organizations, and anchor institutions play in the

growth and fostering of communities. The focus is on the urban landscape, both the built environment and the spaces in between.

The inspiration for the Public Dialogue program is the Arts Incubator in Washington Park. The Arts Incubator, an initiative of Arts + Public Life at the University of Chicago, opened its doors a mere six months ago. As Arts + Public Life expands its programmatic ambition and grapples with the role that space can play within the existing fabric of the Washington Park neighborhood, Public Dialogue will leverage conversations with peers in the field that operate at the intersection of academia, culture, community, and space activation.

Public Dialogue is designed as a response to decades of community planning in Washington Park, driven by expressly local desires to enact change or a broader set of circumstances and priorities that only tangentially touch the neighborhood. The disparity between the aforementioned approaches inevitably leads to a disparity in the way that a community is engaged. How can a bridge between the two strategies be constructed? Where do the models for this new form of engagement currently exist? What role can cultural producers, artists, arts organizations, designers, and architects play in the planning and shaping of communities?

The name Public Dialogue is derives from the ambition to design an environment that literally and metaphorically allows for an exchange of ideas, knowledge, and creativity. Through a few key gestures— designing a resource station for convening and sharing; moving the administrative spaces of the facility from the upper level into the visible ground floor space; and dedicating a space for the consumption of knowledge that is often limited to the confines of the UChicago campus proper—the Arts Incubator’s first floor project space will be transformed into a dialogic space.

We hope you’ll join us in the dialogue. 

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Partnerships

As part of the Public Dialogue program, we have partnered with local organizations and programs that will add to and expand upon the conversation:

Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good 

Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good, an exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center, May 24–September 1, 2013, features 84 urban interventions initiated by architects, designers, planners, artists, and everyday citizens that bring positive change to neighborhoods and cities in addition to a pop-up installation in Millennium Park.

Chicago is the first destination of Spontaneous Interventions, which served as the U.S. presentation at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale (2012). The contents of the exhibition have been updated to include more recent and more local projects.

Among the 84 projects that are presented, more than a dozen are from Chicago, including several that also appeared in Venice.

Spontaneous Interventions, organized by Cathy Lang Ho on behalf of the Institute for Urban Design, is devoted to the growing movement of architects, designers, artists, and everyday citizens acting on their own initiative to bring improvements to the urban realm, creating new opportunities and amenities for the public. The exhibition received over 178,000 visitors in Venice, and earned a Special Mention from the Golden Lion jury, the first time the United States has been honored in the history of the Venice Architecture Biennale.

Spontaneous Interventions has loaned over 70 original texts from its collection to the Public Dialogue Reading Room. In turn, Public Dialogue will host exhibition public programming at the Arts Incubator designed to engage audiences in a cross-city exchange of thoughts and ideas related to the creative investigation and interpretation of the urban landscape. 

Sixty Inches from Center Chicago Arts Archive - Saturday, August 3rd

Sixty Inches From Center is a non-profit organization that documents and engages the visual arts in Chicago. SIFC uses video, audio, photography, editorial essays, and interviews to document artists and arts events that exist outside of the city’s mainstream cultural institutions. By doing so, SIFC is able to capture the innovative work of artists and communities that might otherwise be missed by traditional art historical narratives.

This documentary material is then featured on SIFC’s Chicago Arts Archive project website, ensuring that it is available both as an educational resource and as a platform to support the work of local artists. Through a partnership with the Harold Washington Library’s Chicago Artists Archive, the content collected by SIFC is included in the Archive’s extensive physical catalog of artists files to further the connection with and documentation of 21st century artists.

Through the Collective Project, SIFC seeks to establish programming and partnerships that allow them to use resource sharing as a way to increase access to and engagement with the arts in Chicago.

SIFC joins Public Dialogue to offer Washington Park neighbors the opportunity to share their stories on Saturday, August 3, through the Sixty Inches from Center Archives Washington Park program. More information available in the program description.

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Rebuilding a Boulevard: The Garfield Boulevard Corridor

Installed in the screening room for the duration of the exhibition