CULTURAL STEWARDSHIP
Cultural Stewardship is Arts + Public Life’s practice of honoring local histories, supporting networks of memory holders, and amplifying the value of these legacies through the arts in ongoing conversation with South Side generations past, present and future.
As a hub for arts and culture in Washington Park, Arts + Public Life responds to the necessity to recall and uphold the many local people, places and forms of creative expression that ground our communities. In collaboration with partners, we develop care-driven approaches for preservation, meaningful access and creative activation of memories and materials.
Home Movie Day 2023 | photo by Joel Maisonet
On August 10th, 2024 the South Side Home Move Project marched in the 95th annual Bud Billiken Parade!
They streamed rare scenes of the parade between the 1940s and 1960s from its newly digitized Ramon Williams Collection on a mobile screen. The talented students of APL’s Teen Arts Council will march alongside the mobile screen with their hand-made, vibrant banners.
In collaboration with the South Side Home Movie Project (SSHMP), the Teen Arts Council created banners for the 95th Bud Billiken Parade using embroidery, appliqué, and sewing to honor the parade's history and SSHMP’s mission.
In 2019, the South Side Home Movie Project (SSHMP), launched in 2005 by Arts + Public Life Director Jacqueline Stewart, joined the APL team, promoting the preservation and accessibility of community-created historical artifacts through collaborations with artists, educators, students, curators, and South Side residents.
The South Side Home Movie Project (SSHMP) is a five-part initiative to collect, preserve, digitize, exhibit, and research amateur home movies made by residents of Chicago’s South Side neighborhoods. We aim to build an alternative, accessible visual record, filling gaps in existing written and visual histories, and ensuring that the diverse experiences and perspectives of South Siders will be available to larger audiences and to future generations.
The SSHMP film vault currently houses more than 400 film reels (8mm, Super 8, 16mm) from 28 South Side families, and the digital archive has expanded to over 12 terabytes of data.
Community Archives
Cultural preservation is rooted in Arts + Public Life ‘s collaborative work with South Side Black and Brown artists and community organizations. We invite you to explore our archive of past exhibitions and programming.
Activation and Stewardship of Spaces on Historic Garfield Blvd
Arts + Public Life’s work is based on the Arts Block, a creative corridor in the heart of Washington Park extending along East Garfield Boulevard from South Prairie Avenue to South Martin Luther King Drive.
Much of APL’s work is rooted in how arts + culture is reparative, restorative, and transformational work – for the adult and teen artists involved, for visitors who attend programs and exhibitions and for the actual physical block. What we do and the art support must be relevant and resonate to those who traverse these streets, which hold a rich cultural legacy including the Rhumboogie Cafe.
