The City of Chicago announced a proposal for a new, affordable housing community on the South Side at the site of the historic Hotel Strand in Woodlawn. The Strand Artists Lofts, as they will be called, are designed to invoke the jazz spirit that once thrived in Woodlawn in the 1920s. “There is a growing amount of arts activity in Woodlawn and the South Side and the Strand will be an important connection to it,” says Barbara Koenen, the Director of Chicago Artists Resource in the city’s Cultural Planning Division at Cultural Affairs, which is overseeing the project. The location is just blocks from the University of Chicago’s planned Logan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts. “[It was] a combination of the rare city-owned property that lends itself to artist live/work space, and a developer who is interested in that type of project in that neighborhood,” Koenen says. There will be an information meeting for interested parties at the Grand Ballroom at 6351 South Cottage Grove this Saturday at noon.
Notes from Ukraine: How War Affects Artists When I left Kyiv six months ago to study art journalism in Chicago, it was a blossoming capital of an Eastern European country, with a legendary techno music scene and prominent art community.
Women Artists Are Speaking—and Deserve Artistic Freedom and Safety We should all be grateful to artists who are willing to impact our public landscape and transform our engagement in these spaces, while never really knowing if they and their work will be protected.
