‘It’s so Instagrammable’: Umbrella display returns to downtown Elmhurst
If you’re in downtown Elmhurst, caught in a downpour, dash over to Schiller Court to keep raindrops from falling on your head.
More than 300 umbrellas, all in cheerful colors, gently sway above the alleyway near York Theatre. The umbrellas popped open Saturday and not because of April showers.
The rain gear is really public art. Elmhurst became only the sixth city in the United States to launch an “Umbrella Sky” display last spring. The Elmhurst City Centre organization worked again with Elmhurst’s Public Arts Commission to bring back the social media-friendly art installation.
“It’s so Instagrammable that I think people just want to come there and take pictures and share them on social media,” said Christy Sopko, the coordinating director of Elmhurst City Centre.
Indeed, brides, kids in First Communion outfits and teens in prom attire showed up to Schiller Court to pose for photos under the tightly packed rows of umbrellas.
“We had people coming in from Wisconsin and Ohio and Indiana,” Sopko said. “And it was just because there's so few of the Umbrella Sky installations in the United States that people were just clamoring to see them.”
The Umbrella Sky Project, created by a creative agency called Impactplan, began in Águeda, Portugal, back in 2012. Since then, the viral umbrellas have been unfurled above the streets of France, Japan, Spain and Norway.
“It's kind of a surprise and delight thing,” Sopko said. “You just don't expect to look up and see kind of that canopy of color, and when you see it, it is beautiful. It's beautiful in the clouds. It's even more striking in the sunshine.”
In Elmhurst, an Umbrella Sky Opening Day Party will be held at the corner of York and Schiller streets at the City Centre Fountain Plaza from 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, April 27.
“We're going to close the street and have a live band and sell some beer and wine from a tent and … invite the community to come and help us kick off the umbrella event,” Sopko said.
The umbrellas are in shades of greens and blues and silvers — an “under the sea” look, she said. Another round of umbrellas, in a new color palette, will replace the first set in early July and remain in place through the Rock the Block Party in mid-September.
It’s not the only photogenic display downtown. In “Color Rain,” a sea of ribbons adorns a structure at 110 S. Cottage Hill Ave., near Elmhurst’s Art Museum, public library and Wilder Park. “Color Rain” also will switch colors in mid-July, and the new ribbons will be in place through September.
In the third exhibit, named “Layers,” waves of fabric hang overhead at the North York Stage at 254 N. York. Like the other installations, a second display will be installed in mid-July and stay in place through September. The North York Stage is home to the Wednesday Nights Live Music Series held every Wednesday evening from June to early August.
Make sure you bring your phone charged, Sopko said. “Because you'll want to take some pictures.”