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Our mission is to preserve, promote, and propel the right of all people to a place where they can live and prosper—a place to call home.

    What's Inside

    A person tends a flower garden in front of a brick high-rise apartment building, an image from the exhibit Living in the Shade

    Living in the Shade

    Explore the role of open space—large lawns and tenant gardens, paved paths and play spaces, shady seating areas and public art—in creating more livable, healthy, and thriving communities.

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    A map with a red line and silhouetted figures are projected on a wall

    Historic Apartments

    Three recreated apartments at the heart of the National Public Housing Museum showcase the stories of diverse families who lived in the Jane Addams Homes.

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    View from above, a white, purple, orange, and blue geometric mural turns a parking lot into a play space

    OOPS & HOOPcycle

    Conceptualized by artist Marisa Morán Jahn and architect Rafi Segal, the mobile art installation HOOPcycle offers a reimagined sports experience that challenges norms and unites communities through play.

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    Museum visitors look at a midcentury high school letterman sweater

    History Lessons

    History Lessons offers intimate glimpses of life in public housing through everyday objects and personal memories.

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    On a sideways piece of lined notebook paper with old fashioned handwritten text, a pencil drawing of three indigenous women wrapped in blankets look directly at the viewer. At the top of the page is a sliver of a Chicago street map.

    Still Here

    Still Here uses art, archives, and public dialogue to explore and connect histories of displacement on the land where the National Public Housing Museum is located. As an institution that addresses displacement of public housing residents, we also want to understand the forcible removal of Indigenous peoples that came before and grapple with how those experiences are interwoven…

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    Workers on a lift hang a large mural on the facade of a brick building

    Invitation Wall

    Invitation Wall is the museum’s 40-foot outdoor public art exhibition space that reflects the museum’s commitment to radical hospitality.

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    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. These exhibits are accessible from the outside of the museum.

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    A Black person sits on a couch and holds a baby on her lap

    Feeling At Home

    Beyond the uniform exteriors of public housing buildings, there are apartment units with unique, enthralling, and carefully curated interiors.

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    A screen-printed poster shows a black blob with squiggly lines that depict a virus or bacteria and a sun shining on towards it on a light-blue background. The text reads, “PLANNED HOUSING FIGHTS DISEASE.”

    Art for All, Posters for the People

    No government program has left a more visible legacy on the American landscape than the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration. Along with the construction of hundreds of federally funded buildings, including the Jane Addams Homes, the program employed thousands of artists.

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    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…

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    A museum display case with paint chips and a fragment of a wall

    Care to Look

    All objects have stories to tell. Explore artifacts preserved from the Jane Addams Homes and consider what they have to say about the style, culture, and history of public housing.

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    Landscape view centered on a high rise building, Millers River Apartments, undergoing renovation, with scaffolding surrounding it. [Cambridge Housing Authority]

    Case Studies for Truly Public Housing: Millers River

    What does it take to create and maintain truly public housing? Each year, we invite guest curators  to examine a single case study that we believe demonstrates a creative commitment to public housing to learn from housing projects across the country…

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    Archival photos of Black gymnasts standing and tumbling are collaged onto a field of blue and a layer of repeating leaf-like daubs of gold, red, purple, and green paint.

    ReCreation

    ReCreation is a monumental floor to ceiling mural by Marisa Morán Jahn that celebrates energetic, ground-up civic initiatives.

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    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

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    A person looks at an album cover while standing in front of shelves full of vinyl records

    REC Room

    Curated by DJ Spinderella, the REC Room celebrates the music that has emerged from public housing. Browse our collection of records, spin your favorites, and learn more about music history.

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    Title card for the TV show "Good Times" with a cityscape background featuring buildings and parked cars.

    Good Times

    When American sitcom Good Times came out in 1974, it was the first time public housing residents saw themselves on mainstream television. Watch clips selected by current and former Cabrini- Green residents.

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