Public Art Project Planned for Community Block Party
West Chicago, Illinois: July 31, 2014 - An interactive public art project led by artist, Cultural Arts Commission Chair and West Chicago resident Anni Holm, is being planned as part of a Community Block Party scheduled for Tuesday, August 19, 2014 from 4:30 - 7:00 p.m. at Leman Middle School, 238 East Hazel Street.
The Block Party celebrates an enhanced collaboration between WeGo Together for Kids, Metropolitan Family Services and United Way of Metropolitan Chicago, which is bringing the Live United Neighborhood Network model of resources in education, income and health to West Chicago. Everyone in the community is invited to attend and "have a hand" in the meaningful art project which will commemorate this partnership.
The art piece, titled In this - together, will feature the digital images of community members' hands arranged in the shape of two larger hands reaching out towards each other, and is symbolic of the formation of relationships, new networks and the possibility of what comes next.
A photo booth will be set up at the Community Block Party and Holm hopes to engage all who attend. An additional opportunity for participation in the mural for those not able to attend the Block Party is planned for August 23, 2014 at Art Share Saturday, at Gallery 200, 200 Main Street.
The finished mural will measure 8' (h) 20' (w) and will be installed on the east façade of the City-owned building at 103 W. Washington Street, currently the Fitness Station.
The project resonates with Holm, who has lived in the community for ten years. "I see both the launch of the Live United Neighborhood Network, as well as the Cultural Arts Commission's new initiative for a Public Art Program, as an exciting journey from which we will learn and grow together as a community. The possibility of love, trust, support, security, stability, togetherness but also independence, freedom and so much more seems within reach," she explained.
Holm is donating both talent and time to the project with funding for materials and installation for In this - together coming from the West Chicago Cultural Arts Commission, United Way of Metropolitan Chicago, the West Chicago City Museum, and with assistance from the DuPage Children's Museum. A second art piece titled In this - together (II) facilitated by Holm, which engages the community in tracing and cutting out the shape of their hands in fabric, is also planned in conjunction with In this - together and will be created for permanent installation at Leman Middle School, the site of the Community Block Party.
For any questions related to either public art project, please contact Rosemary Mackey, staff liaison for the West Chicago Cultural Arts Commission, at (630) 293-2200 x139 or rmackey@westchicago.org.