Groundwaves Generations hosted by MURS
An all-ages afternoon of hip-hop, community building, and collaboration, hosted by rap icon and innovator MURS
Floating Museum: for Mecca
Floating Museum, for Mecca, 2025, polyester blend fabric, dye sublimation, air blowers, hardware, 30’x41’x24’. Photo: Cory Dewald, Courtesy Floating Museum.
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On the field just east of the National Public Housing Museum
- Free
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Groundwaves Generations
Sunday, June 28, 1–4 pm
Bring the whole family out for a free afternoon of live performance, artmaking, and play! Hosted by rap icon and innovator MURS, Groundwaves Generations transforms the typical family museum outing into an intergenerational day party, with family-friendly MCs, beat makers, and creative activities happening at the National Public Housing Museum.
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Join us to explore histories of demolition and displacement through a series of site-specific activations inside and around the inflatable monument for Mecca.
Created by the artist collective Floating Museum, for Mecca is a ghostly, 30-foot tall structure that invokes Chicago’s historic Mecca Flats apartment building and invites reflection on the complex and often painful history of urban renewal.
The work is a drifting homage to the Mecca Flats apartment building. Once a vibrant center of Black life in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, Mecca Flats was demolished in 1952 to accommodate the growing Illinois Institute of Technology. S.R. Crown Hall, the home of IIT’s College of Architecture, now stands in its place.
Over the last week in June, for Mecca will be installed near the National Public Housing Museum on an empty Chicago Housing Authority lot that was formerly the site of the Jane Addams Homes, linking one history of urban renewal with another. In the early 2000s, the Jane Addams Homes was demolished as part of CHA’s Plan for Transformation, resulting in the forced relocation of hundreds of families.
The presentation features an exhibition of historic photographs of the Jane Addams Homes and its residents, sound activations from guest curators, and opportunities for community conversation.
FREE, drop-in hours between 10 am and 7 pm, daily from June 24 to June 28, 2026.
Pair your visit with a tour of the Historic Apartments at the National Public Housing Museum to learn more about the history of the Jane Addams Homes and public housing in Chicago.
About
This event is presented as part of the National Public Housing Museum’s Transformation event series, launched in 2025 to mark the 25th anniversary of the launch of Chicago’s Plan for Transformation, the most ambitious public housing redevelopment initiative in U.S. history.
Floating Museum and for Mecca
Floating Museum is an interdisciplinary collective of artists and educators that seeks to create new models for exploring relationships between art, community, architecture, and public institutions. Through the use of site-responsive art, design, and programming, their projects are deeply rooted within the local histories of Chicago, Illinois.
In summer 2026, for Mecca will travel to additional sites throughout the city, including other Chicago Housing Authority locations. Visit the Floating Museum website or follow @thefloatingmuseum for a complete schedule of locations and dates.
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