Public art project part of West Chicago's Community Block Party

An interactive public art project led by West Chicago resident Anni Holm is planned as part of a Community Block Party set for 4:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 19, at Leman Middle School, 238 E. Hazel St., West Chicago. Holm is an artist and chairman of the city's Cultural Arts Commission.

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.

The collaboration will mean added staff and services at Leman Middle School and the Early Childhood Learning Center, including an additional mental health clinician serving students and families, parent liaisons to connect families to services with WeGo Together for Kids and to support academic learning inside the classroom, and a coordinator to work districtwide.

Everyone in the community is invited to attend the block party and have a hand in the art project that will commemorate the 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 toward 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. For those unable to attend the block party, an additional opportunity for participation in the mural is planned for Saturday, Aug. 23, at Art Share at Gallery 200, 200 Main St., West Chicago.

The finished mural will measure 8 feet high and 20 feet wide and will be installed on the east facade of the city-owned building at 103 W. Washington St., now housing the Fitness Station.

The project resonates with Holm, who has lived in the community for 10 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," she said. "The possibility of love, trust, support, security, stability, togetherness but also independence, freedom and so much more seems within reach."

Holm is donating talent and time to the project, with funding for materials and installation coming from the West Chicago Cultural Arts Commission, United Way of Metropolitan Chicago and the West Chicago City Museum with assistance from the DuPage Children's Museum.

A second art piece titled "In This - Together (II)," which engages the community in tracing and cutting out the shape of their hands in fabric, also is planned in conjunction with the mural. The second piece will be created for permanent installation at Leman Middle School.

For questions, contact Rosemary Mackey at (630) 293-2200, ext. 139, or rmackey@westchicago.org.