Founded in 1940 by a group of artists devoted to capturing images of black life in flux during the Great Migration, Chicago’s historic South Side Community Art Center became a designated Chicago Landmark in 1994 and was given National Treasure status by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2017. As the only Works Progress Administration (WPA) Art Center still operating in its original building, for nearly 80 years the South Side Community Art Center has been a sanctuary for emerging African American artists, many of whom have gone on to become icons. Change the Canvas, Change the World: A Landscape of Cultural Discovery, sponsored by the Terra Foundation for American Art, explores the work and careers of artists who made the center and the South Side their creative home, including Gwendolyn Brooks, Margaret Burroughs, Langston Hughes, Gordon Parks, Katherine Dunham, Elizabeth Catlett, Archibald Motley, and other contributors to the center’s legacy.
Change the Canvas, Change the World: A Landscape of Cultural Discovery
South Side Community Art Center
3831 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago
Through March 2
