City of Chicago to Receive $6.8 Million from Mellon Foundation to Fund Creation of New Chicago Monuments
Monuments and memorials have become a focal point for conversation, protest, and activism in the city of Chicago.
In response, the city has created a committee to review the city’s collection of monuments and recommend solutions.
The Time Is Now
About the Chicago Monuments Project
The Chicago Monuments Project intends to grapple with the often unacknowledged – or forgotten – history associated with the City’s various municipal art collections and provides a vehicle to address the hard truths of Chicago’s racial history, confront the ways in which that history has and has not been memorialized, and develop a framework for marking public space that elevates new ways to memorialize Chicago’s history more equitably and accurately.
The project has four main objectives, including:
Cataloging monuments and public art on City or Park District property;
Appointing an advisory committee to determine which pieces warrant attention or action;
Making recommendations for new monuments or public art that could be commissioned; and
Creating a platform for the public to engage in a civic dialogue about Chicago’s history.
The Advisory Committee
The Chicago Monuments Project Advisory Committee is a group of community leaders, artists, architects, scholars, curators, and city officials who are dedicating their time, experience, and expertise to lead this effort. This broad coalition will engage with a wide range of communities and world views to ask questions and bring the perspectives required to do this work on behalf of all Chicago’s people.
Process
Steps For Reviewing Chicago’s Public Monuments
Engaging Chicago’s diverse communities in a conversation about public monuments ensures an improved outcome for all people.
The committee releases a list of monuments for public discussion.
The committee asks for public feedback on the list of monuments via the website and a series of public programs.
The committee invites proposals for new work and monuments to be developed.
The committee reviews public input.
The committee publishes their recommendations on the existing monuments and new work to be developed