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National Public Housing Museum exterior; photo courtesy National Public Housing Museum
By CGN Staff via PR
The National Public Housing Museum has opened in Chicago, and it's been 18 years in the making. The new cultural space marks the culmination of a journey to complete an expansive adaptive reuse project of the last remaining building of the Jane Addams Homes in Chicago's Little Italy neighborhood at 919 S. Ada Street. Founded by public housing residents, the Museum is a place to experience stories of hope and personal achievement amid struggle, resistance, and resilience. The Museum aims to preserve an important building as well as the many experiences and stories that happened within its walls – and the walls of other public housing structures. It also seeks to cultivate stories that are yet to come, both for individuals who may have spent time in public housing as well as those whose lives have been quite removed from public housing.
“This museum was built by hundreds of dedicated people who have made it a reality,” said Sunny Fischer, Co-Founder and Board Chair for the National Public Housing Museum. “They shared their stories, and they patiently provided their labor and love and support over the last 18
years. As a Site of Conscience, we join museums around the world committed to telling complicated and difficult stories, preserving history, and imagining a more just future.”
“Growing up in public housing, I saw the strength, pride, and resilience of our communities, which are too often erased,” said Francine Washington, Chairperson of the Central Advisory Committee for the Chicago Housing Authority and board member of the National Public Housing
Museum. “This Museum is personal. It’s the first in the country to tell our stories–not just the bricks and buildings but the people who made public housing, home. We’ve always had a voice. Now we have a place that listens.”
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Inside the Historic Apartments; photo credit Percy Ollie Jr. of Ollie Photography, Inc.
“The National Public Housing Museum is dedicated to the belief that housing is a human right,” said Executive Director Dr. Lisa Yun Lee. “The dazzling stories, precious keepsakes, compelling cultural production of public housing, and activism of public housing residents have much to teach us. And because housing insecurity and injustice is such a critical issue facing so many people across our nation, the National Public Housing Museum will be an important civic anchor that brings people together to imagine innovative solutions and envision a more
equitable future.”
In a recent interview with NPR's Alison Cuddy, Lee shared \"We believe that in order to preserve history, you have to make it relevant to the most critical social justice issues of today and that there is no way that we can actually address any of the social issues that we want to unless we go back in time and ask, what have we not yet learned from history?\"
The museum celebrated its opening with a weekend-long celebration, including meet-and-greets with artists, hands-on art-making sessions, and even a dance party emceed by DJ Spinderella.
Highlights of Museum exhibitions include:
Restored Apartments
Three historic apartments from different generations of public housing residents that engage and teach visitors about the cultural, social, and economic history of housing.
Everyday Objects
Artifacts, objects and stories from public housing across the country that encourage empathy and connection. By foregrounding storytelling, the National Public Housing Museum encourages innovative and creative public policy that responds to people’s lived experiences.
Art and Exhibition Spaces
Enthralling art that expands people’s imaginations and their horizons of learning. Highlights include a public art commission by internationally renowned artists Amanda Williams and Olalekan Jeyifous and the Alphawood Foundation Sculpture Garden with restored WPA-era
Animal Court sculptures by Edgar Miller.
Oral History Archive and Oral History Collective
The Museum is home to the nation’s largest archive of the stories of public housing residents. These stories are featured in podcasts, exhibits, research, and scholarship. The new building includes the Dr. Timuel Black Recording Studio.
Empowerment Hub
Good Chaos Empowerment Hub
The National Public Housing Museum has a space dedicated to programs that address the racial wealth gap, build solidarity economies and cooperatives, and create a cultural workforce that contributes to diversifying the museum profession.
Corner Store Co-op
Alvin H. Baum Family Foundation Museum Store
In place of traditional museum retail, the National Public Housing Museum’s official shop is co-owned and operated by public housing residents.
Demand the Impossible
Doris Conant Advocacy Space
Here, visitors participate in discussions of social justice issues to encourage action and meaningful civic dialogue. The Museum enables people to understand principles of urban planning and systemic racism to find new ways of addressing segregation. Through the Doris Conant Advocacy Space, visitors learn to challenge perceptions of what public housing was in order to re-imagine the future of housing for all.
The REC Room
An interactive exhibit curated by DJ Spinderella that showcases the music that has emerged from public housing projects, encompassing a range of popular sounds that have expanded our idea of American culture and American identity.
The National Public Housing Museum is now open at 919 S. Ada Street in Chicago. General admission is free and open to all. Historic Apartment Tours can only be experienced through a
guided tour led by a Museum educator, with a limited number of tickets available each day ($25 adults, $15 seniors, students, and children; free for Members). The Museum is open Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 10 a.m.- 5 p.m., with extended hours on Thursdays until 8 p.m.
More information about the museum's hours and programs may be found at www.nphm.org
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By CGN STAFF
Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center will reopen its Skokie location on November 11, 2026, following a renovation that expands visitor spaces, updates its core Holocaust exhibition and adds a new reflection gallery. The reopening is timed to coincide with Veterans Day. Active military personnel, veterans and their families will receive free admission that day.
The project includes a redesigned Lillian & Larry Goodman Auditorium and Gallery, an enlarged lobby in the Shapiro Family Foundation Welcome Center, and a refreshed Resilience Hall with an expanded stage for presentations and public programs.
Updates to the Zev & Shifra Karkomi Holocaust Exhibition include additional material on the roots of antisemitism, the story of Chicago resident Leo Edelman, and the experiences of other groups targeted by the Nazis. A new reflection gallery, accessible from the exhibition, offers visitors a quiet space during and after their visit.
“Every visitor’s experience now begins differently and runs deeper,” said Kelley Szany, the Museum’s senior vice president of education and exhibitions. “The new welcome center sets the tone from the moment people arrive, the enhanced core Holocaust exhibition brings the history and the voices of survivors into sharper focus, and our new auditorium gives us a place to gather, listen, and talk about what it means for our communities today.”
Existing attractions, including the virtual reality theater, the interactive Survivor Stories Experience holographic theater, the Take A Stand Center and the Voices of Genocide Exhibition, will remain part of the Museum’s offerings.
Following the reopening, Blacklist: The Hollywood Red Scare will open November 15 in the special exhibition gallery. Created by and on loan from Jewish Museum Milwaukee, the exhibition examines the intersections of politics, antisemitism, freedom of speech and national security during the Red Scare of the 1940s and 1950s. It will remain on view through March 2027.
The Museum’s satellite location in Chicago’s River North neighborhood, Experience360, will remain open through December 31, 2026. The downtown space opened during the Skokie renovation to provide continued access to the Museum’s immersive exhibitions.
For information and ticket reservations, visit ilholocaustmuseum.org.
Image: Museum exterior. Photo by David Seide/Definedspace.com
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By GINNY VAN ALYEA
SOFA Chicago, the longtime fair devoted to sculpture, objects, functional art and collectible design, will return to the city October 28–31, 2027, as part of Chicago Art Fair at THE MART, which opened its inaugural edition last night.
Founded in Chicago in 1994, SOFA became a popular fixture on the city’s fall arts calendar. For much of its history, collectors and visitors gathered at Navy Pier to discover works in glass, ceramics, wood, metal and fiber, alongside sculpture and design. Its focus on materials and craftsmanship gave the fair a distinct identity and cultivated a devoted audience.
The announcement comes as the inaugural Chicago Art Fair gets underway at THE MART. The new fair opened with a preview on October 7 and continues through October 10, presenting modern and contemporary art. Tim von Gal, CEO and producer of SOFA Chicago and CEO of Intersect Art and Design, was in Chicago this week for the occasion.
Organizers describe the 2027 collaboration as two distinct but complementary presentations under one roof, with SOFA’s focus on three-dimensional art and design alongside Chicago Art Fair’s broader offerings.
“Chicago has always been an extraordinary home for SOFA and a city with a deep appreciation for art, craft, architecture and design,” said von Gal in the announcement. “Joining the Chicago Art Fair at THE MART gives us the opportunity to build upon that legacy while creating an exciting new experience for collectors and exhibitors alike.”
Eric Smith, owner of Chicago Art Fair and CEO of Redwood Art Group, said the addition would broaden the fair’s scope while preserving SOFA’s identity.
“SOFA has a remarkable legacy and a distinct identity, and its return adds an important new dimension to the fair while reinforcing Chicago’s position as a destination for collectors, galleries and art lovers from around the world,” Smith said.
For those who remember SOFA as an annual opportunity to encounter ambitious work in craft and design, the return will be welcome news. The participating galleries and programming, still to be announced, will provide a fuller picture of how that legacy will take shape in its new setting.
SOFA Chicago is produced by Intersect Art and Design, which also organizes annual art and design fairs in Aspen and Palm Springs.
Additional details about exhibitors, partnerships and tickets are expected in the coming months.
Visit chicagoartfair.com for updates.
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The artist Richard Hunt
By CGN Staff
Pigment International has dedicated Black Fine Art Month 2026 to Chicago sculptor Richard Hunt (1935–2023), recognizing his contributions to American art and his lifelong connection to the city.
As part of the month’s programming, the organization will host Pigmented: Chicago to the World — A Black Fine Art Convening on October 23 at the University of Chicago’s Logan Center for the Arts. Partners include the Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation, Adler University, CAI Designs, Chicago Public Art Group, Chicago Sculpture Exhibit and Diasporal Rhythms.
Born and raised on Chicago’s South Side, Hunt developed an internationally recognized practice while continuing to live and work in his hometown. His welded metal sculptures brought together abstract forms, references to the natural world and an enduring interest in freedom and social justice.
Hunt identified attending Emmett Till’s funeral in 1955 as a turning point in his artistic life. Till had lived just two blocks from Hunt’s home. Decades later, Hunt’s public commissions would honor figures including Martin Luther King Jr., Mary McLeod Bethune, Jesse Owens and Ida B. Wells, while also addressing the Middle Passage and the Great Migration.
In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson appointed Hunt to the National Council on the Arts, where he became its first African American member. In 1971, at age 35, he became the first African American sculptor to receive a retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. His career encompassed more than 150 solo exhibitions and more than 160 public art installations.
![](\"https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1791479104/lltcodkx39gd8sbhtus1.png\")
Richard Hunt with artist Chris Devins, who recently completed a mural honoring the sculptor in Hyde Park. Photo courtesy of Chris Devins.
Recent projects in Chicago offer new ways to encounter Hunt’s work and history. This fall, the Logan Center opened the Hunt, a café honoring the artist. Created and designed by Little Black Pearl founder and executive director Monica Haslip, the space incorporates two Hunt sculptures, African art, archival materials and photographs by Sandro Miller.
In Hyde Park, artist Chris Devins and historian Michelle Duster have brought a mural of Hunt to 1515–19 E. 54th Street. The portrait is based on photographs Devins took in Hunt’s studio before the sculptor’s death.
“Richard Hunt was a giant in the arts world and people need to see what he looked like and be inspired by his legacy,” Devins said.
Pigment International’s dedication also reflects its own relationship with Hunt. The organization featured him in its magazine in 2020, and he welcomed its Black Fine Art Month programming into his studio in October 2021.
#
Two events take place this month:
Pigment International at SPECTRUM Chicago Art Fair
October 7–10, 2026.
Chicago Merchandise Mart, seventh floor, booth #3091.
Wednesday, October 7, 5–8 pm, with a champagne toast in the booth and an artist meet-and-greet.
Thursday, October 8, 6-8pm with Diasporal Rhythms
Featured artists: Jesse Howard, Howard Simmons, Edo, Candace Hunter, Sura DuPart and Max Sansing.
Additional events are taking place during the fair
Chicago to the World: A Black Fine Art Month Convening
Presented by Pigment International as part of Black Fine Art Month, which the organization has dedicated this year to Richard Hunt.
Friday, October 23, 2026, 11:30 am–5 pm.
Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th Street, Chicago.
Details at pigmentintl.com