Throughout the interior and exterior of the museum, you will encounter public art connected to the stories of public housing.
Commissioned by the NPHM, Marisa Moran Jahn and Rafi Segal, have designed and created a mobile basketball hoop (HOOPcycle) and interactive ground mural (OOPS) which will be located in the NPHM’s parking lot. The project was collaboratively created with the help of public housing residents who interacted with a HOOPcycle prototype at their community center. Blending the linework of a basketball court with other street games, as well as the intuition of participating residents, the project aims to reframe the public understanding of subsidized housing and illuminate the rich history of basketball and recreation in public housing communities.
Major funding was provided by The Joyce Foundation as part of the 2023 Joyce Award, with support from The National Endowment for the Arts, Parsons/The New School Faculty Research Fund and the Chicago Association of REALTORS®.
Williams and Jeyifous created Resilient Hues using paint chips that the museum collected and preserved after the last remaining residents moved out of this building. The installation shouts out the exuberance of public housing residents, many of whom decorated their apartments in vivid colors in defiance of the Chicago Housing Authority, which required residents to keep the light green paint that came standard in all public housing.
Major funding was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art, The Joyce Foundation, and De and Paul Gray.
Experience the enchanting seven-piece sculpture Animal Court by Edgar Miller, which has been lovingly restored and placed in our courtyard. These playful animals were an important social hub at the Jane Addams Homes and continue that legacy today, at the museum.
Lead support for the Animal Court was provided by the Alphawood Foundation and Denis and Martha Pierce, with additional support from the Terra Foundation for American Art and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Art is an invitation—an invitation to see, think and feel in a new way and to be changed by the experience. Invitation Wall is the museum’s 40-foot outdoor public art exhibition space that reflects the museum’s commitment to radical hospitality. All are invited, welcome, and valued. The next mural will be by Andrea Carlson (Ojibwe), and called Still Here: Zhegagoynak.
Major funding is provided by Terra Foundation for American Art and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.
Experience the texture and fabric of public housing throughout time by visiting three recreated historic apartments showcasing different families’ experiences at different moments in public housing history between 1938 and 1975. The intimate individual, family and community stories become the lens to understand large national public housing policies and their impact…
“What is an object that tells a story about your life and experiences in public housing?” History Lessons: Everyday Objects from Public Housing is a national effort to collect objects from public housing residents in diverse communities across the USA, and work with residents in storytelling and writing workshops to write their own labels…
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…
