The Hyde Park Art Center (HPAC) is a visual arts organization and the oldest alternative exhibition space in the city of Chicago. Since 2006, HPAC has been located just north of Hyde Park Boulevard, at 5020 S.Cornell Avenue, in the Kenwood neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois.

History

The Hyde Park Art Center was originally established in June 1939 as the Fifth Ward Art Center. In 1940, the name was changed to the Hyde Park Art Center. Its founders, who included future Senator Paul Douglas, consisted primarily of artists and volunteers committed to creating a neighborhood space for the visual arts. The Art Center's first home was a defunct saloon next door to then-alderman Douglas’ constituent office at 1466 E. 57th Street. During and after World War II, HPAC was housed in a variety of locations, including a dance studio and an apartment building. It was forced to move often because of rent increases and gentrification, but continued to remain in the Hyde Park neighborhood. In the early 1950s, Don Baum took charge of the Art Center's curatorial and educational departments. He was a gifted teacher and mentor to many artists who took classes with him at the art center. Famously, Baum cultivated the Art Center as an incubator and primary exhibition space for the Chicago Imagists, curating three of their seminal exhibitions, all entitled Hairy Who?, in 1966, 1967, and 1968. In 1962, Ruth Horwich, an avid supporter of Chicago artists, joined the Art Center Board.

2006 to Present

The Hyde Park Art Center moved into its brand new facility on April 22, 2006. A ribbon cutting ceremony for the new space took place that day, attended by Mayor Richard M. Daley, and several local Chicago aldermen, followed by the grand opening gala that evening. The next weekend, the Art Center hosted an official public opening in the form of a 36-hour celebration called "Creative Move." Located just a few blocks away from its former space in the Del Prado Apartments, the new building at 5020 S. Cornell Avenue is a 32000 sqft space that more than tripled the Art Center's capacities, with more exhibition galleries and classroom spaces. The new building includes a 10 ft by 80 ft projection facade on the front of the building, a digital classroom, an Istria cafe, and 4833 rph, a resource space and gathering place for community members and creative individuals. The Hyde Park Art Center celebrated its one-year anniversary in its new space with Creative Move Too, a 24-hour event in the space which once again brought in performers and organizations from around the city of Chicago, including the Jesse White Tumblers, Chicago Djembe Drumming Group, Blue Lotus Tribe Belly Dancers, and the McCormick Storybus. It also featured performances inside the Speaker Project, a performative sound installation by Juan Angel Chavez.

The Many Homes of the Hyde Park Art Center, 1939–Present

1939–1942: 1466 E. 57th Street 1942–1946: 1507 Cable Court 1946–1948: 5645 S. Harper Avenue 1948: 1540 E. 57th Street 1949–1956: 1506 E. 57th Street 1956: 1355 E. 55th Street 1957–1961: 1506 E. Hyde Park Boulevard 1961–1980: 5236 S. Blackstone Avenue 1980–2006: 1701 E. 53rd Street 2006–present: 5020 S. Cornell Avenue

Architecture

The Hyde Park Art Center's current building was designed by internationally recognized Chicago architect Douglas Garofalo of Garofalo Architects. The new building was converted from an old Army warehouse leased indefinitely to HPAC by the University of Chicago for $1 a year. The total budget for the project was $3 million. Garofalo "was selected to design a building that would highlight accessibility between artists and the public, transparency of the process of art making and exhibiting, and encourage experimentation with technology and concepts." Two of the building's most notable architectural features function to both problematize and undermine the institutionalized boundaries, both tangible and intangible, that often exists between art organizations and the public: the first floor of the building includes "five metal garage-style doors that open up to the main gallery from the sidewalk," thus extending the gallery space into the street and allowing the public to enter the Art Center easily and at will; and the second floor features "a 10x80 foot glass facade ... outfitted with a system of high range projectors, computers, scrims and screens used primarily to show large-scale digital artworks," that can be viewed from both inside and outside the Art Center.

Exhibitions

The Hyde Park Art Center primarily exhibits work by emerging or under-recognized contemporary artists living in Chicago. The Art Center does not maintain a permanent collection. The Art Center exhibited Leon Golub, Ed Paschke, Roger Brown, Ruth Duckworth, Juan Angel Chávez, Kerry James Marshall and Dawoud Bey early in their careers.

Programs

Established in 1939, the center's mission has been to stimulate and sustain the vitality of the visual arts in Chicago. To fulfill this mission, the Center cultivates arts mentorships within the community it serves, fostering a collective spirit among artists, teachers and students, children and families, collectors, and the general public. As one of the oldest alternative spaces in the city, HPAC has a long record of exhibiting a wide range of work by emerging artists. Panel discussions, gallery talks, poetry readings, music performances, open house events, and a series of short pieces by guest writers expand upon the approaches and ideas presented in each exhibition and engage a broad audience. In addition, the Art Center utilizes its exhibitions program to engage and teach school groups about contemporary art practices.

Education

The Hyde Park Art Center's educational programs serve both South Side neighborhoods and the Chicago area. Begun in 1940, HPAC's Oakman Clinton School and Studio Program has educated thousands of children and adults in ceramics, sculpture, painting, drawing, photography, stained glass, and other visual art practices in classes taught by professional artists.

Community Outreach

The Hyde Park Art Center continually hosts a variety of events designed to introduce and engage different audiences in both the Art Center's current exhibitions and the larger world of contemporary art. Some of the Art Center's monthly events include:

Creative Move

Since the inauguration of its new building in 2006, the Hyde Park Art Center has hosted Creative Move, an annual 24-hour-long celebration of the visual and performing arts each April. This event, which is free and open to the public, attracts hundreds of people from Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. During Creative Move, the Art Center stays open for the entire night. The event typically begins on a Friday night and ends the following Saturday night.

List of past exhibitions

1997

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

CarianaCarianne Scandal

In 2007, the CarianaCarianne exhibition The Embedded Body, was prematurely closed after visitors to the Art Center repeatedly tampered with multiple megaphone recordings used in the collaborative installation. The Chicago alt-weekly NewCity named the ordeal one of the "Top 5 Chicago Art Scandals" of the year.

2008

David Lozano: Queer Interiors and Phthalo Blue, May 23 – November 18, 2008

2011-2012