AUSTIN — Three communities of color will be the first involved in a renewed citywide art project highlighting important people, events and locations in the city’s neighborhoods.
Two city agencies are working to expand a historical markers program that began in the 1990s as a way to highlight notable Chicagoans. The program will bring historical markers citywide, but Austin, Humboldt Park and Roseland will be the first neighborhoods to receive them, said Lydia Ross, the Department of Cultural Affair and Special Event’s director of public art.
The project — which began seeking scholars, artists and other collaborators in August — will be an engaging way to learn about city history, Ross said. The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events is teaming with the Department of Planning and Development on the project.
“We can use this program to tell a lot of different stories about Chicago and bring people, culture and history to life that is hidden in plain sight,” she said.
The historical markers program was inspired by the Chicago Tribute Markers of Distinction project from the mid-90s, Ross said.
The Chicago Tribute Markers program installed plaques honoring Chicagoans like Nat “King Cole, Marshall Field, Carl Sandburg and Jane Addams, among about 80 others, according to its website.
In the 30 years since their installation, the practice of historic markings have changed “with regard to subject matter, content and the medium used to create such tributes,” the city’s request for proposals for the new project reads. The renewed historical markers project comes amid a larger effort to re-evaluate Chicago’s monuments and historical artifacts.
There will be community meetings later this year to determine what the markers will be and where they will be located in each neighborhood, along with design competitions to determine who gets to create the markers, according to Ross.
Austin’s Front Porch Art Center founder Keli Stewart said she is partnering with the cultural affairs office and Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th) to create 30 markers throughout the neighborhood to honor its most famous residents and landmarks.
Austin was one of the three pilot neighborhoods chosen for the program because Stewart originally approached city leaders to start a project in the Austin neighborhood last year, Ross said.
Stewart, a lifelong resident of Austin, approached the city to celebrate the West Side’s history and African American heritage in the wake of gentrification and population loss.
“As the neighborhood demographics change, it’s important to preserve the history and legacy of Austin, because our stories are often overlooked,” she said.
People and places Stewart said Austin could honor include: former U.S. Rep. Cardiss Collins, civil rights activist John H. Crawford, gospel musician Rev. Milton Brunson, and the iconic Pink House, which is undergoing a renovation.
“History goes so much deeper than a plaque on a building, and I think this is a great time to tell people who are honored in public,” she said.
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