Skip to primary menu Skip to main content Skip to footer content

Our Streets & Our Stories

Vintage photo of seven kids posed with books and notebooks in front of an large animal sculpture

Art After Hours at the National Public Housing Museum

Edgar Miller’s Animal Court at the Jane Addams Homes, date unknown. New Deal Federal Art Project Research Collection, Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archives, The Art Institute of Chicago. Digital File # 200501_260226-003.

  • National Public Housing Museum, 919 S. Ada Street, Chicago, IL 60607

  • Free

Art at the National Public Housing Museum expands horizons and inspires a more just future.

Join us to celebrate the addition of new stories and outdoor interactive audio stations that share neighborhood voices from the museum’s oral history archive. Listen in the Alphawood Sculpture Garden, as several generations of Jane Addams Homes, Robert Brooks Homes, Loomis Courts, and Grace Abbott Homes (ABLA) residents share their memories of Edgar MIller’s Animal Court.

Then, learn about the changing neighborhood while walking down Taylor Street, listening to stories that share personal and community histories of displacement, resistance and renewal.

Plus, enjoy a reception and explore the museum’s public art installations by Amanda Williams and Olalekan Jeyifous, Andrea Carlson, Marisa Morán Jahn, William Estrada, and Dorothy Burge.

FREE. Registration will open on March 10.


Thank you!
Many thanks to the residents, whose stories are included in the installation: Mary Baggett (ABLA), Ida Brantley (ABLA), James Purgatorio (ABLA), JonTia Pegues (ABLA), Byron Dickens (ABLA), Allen Schwartz (Jane Addams Homes), and Janetta Pegues (ABLA).

Support
These installations are made possible by generous support from the Alphawood Foundation Chicago, City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Joyce Foundation, Chicago Association of Realtors, Terra Foundation for American Art, National Endowment for the Arts, Denis and Martha Pierce, and Dedrea and Paul Gray.


Related exhibitions

A black and white image from the 1940s shows a courtyard surrounded by brick buildings. In the courtyard, children in swimsuits play in water spraying out from the concrete and climb on stone animal statues surrounding the fountain.

Animal Court

Experience the enchanting seven-piece sculpture Animal Court by Edgar Miller, which has been lovingly restored and placed in our courtyard. The sculpture garden is free and open to the public during museum hours…

Taylor Street Memories

As you walk down Taylor Street, meet one of our founders, Commissioner Deverra Beverly, and learn about the changing neighborhood through the stories of past residents.

A close up of several paint chips of different colors—red, yellow, blue, orange—stacked on top of each other.

Resilient Hues

This vividly colored installation by Amanda Williams and Olalekan Jeyifous welcomes visitors to the National Public Housing Museum


Upcoming events

A collage of photos of family activities and performances

Groundwaves Generations with MURS

An all-ages afternoon of hip-hop, community building, and collaboration, hosted by rap icon and innovator MURS

Banner for A Place to Call Home gala 2026

A Place to Call Home Gala 2026

The National Public Housing Museum’s biennial A Place to Call Home gala is returning in 2026! Join our engaged community as we honor Matthew Desmond, Jackie Taylor, and Denis Pierce…