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archi-treasures’ Front Porch Project
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archi-treasures is an arts-based community development
organization that transforms lives while transforming
community spaces. In collaboration with community
members, archi-treasures develops art and design
projects — murals, mosaics, sculptures, and public art
installations— that strengthen social connections, increase
civic engagement, and generate pride among residents.
Over the past 20 years, archi-treasures has completed more
than 150 projects in 34 city-wide Chicago neighborhoods.
Professional artists and designers from archi-treasures
engage children, teens, adults, and seniors in an art-
making and design process that highlights their voice and
interests, while creating a unique collective art experience
for participants.
In 2016, archi-treasures launched the Front Porch
Project at the Germano Milgate Apartments, a 350-
unit affordable housing complex in South Chicago. An
artistic intervention into the isolated culture of subsidized
housing, the Front Porch Project examines the dichotomy
between the ideal and real front porch that can be found
in disinvested neighborhoods like South Chicago. The
Front Porch Project uses art and design as tools to navigate
public and private space, and support the transformation
of at-risk communities. Through year-long resident
engagement opportunities including facilitated community
conversations, a community-based participatory research
process, and paid internship and volunteer roles, archi-
treasures and artist Chiara Galimberti collaborated with
Germano residents to produce the Front Porch pilot
Beam
It Out/ Bring It In
art series.
The goal of
Beam It Out/ Bring It In
was to connect Germano
residents with one another and the larger community, and
to create a space for self-determination, where project
participants can tell their stories on their own terms. Carried
out over the summer of 2016,
Beam It Out/ Bring It In
organized free portrait drawing classes resulting in over 200
drawings of Germano residents, as well as photo sessions
and audio interviews. The different components of
Beam
It Out/ Bring It In
are featured on a project website, and as
part of large scale neighborhood public art installations
and a gallery exhibition.
Earlier this year, archi-treasures’ Front Porch Project was
nominated for the American for the Arts’ Robert E. Gard
Award, which honors projects that have integrated the arts
into the community in meaningful and measurable ways.
archi-treasures’ Front Porch Project
Beam It Out/ Bring It
In
exhibition is on display at the Loyola Museum of Art
between July 1 and October 21, 2017.
To learn more about archi-treasures and help celebrate the
organization’s 20th anniversary in 2017, please visit
www.archi-treasures.org.
Beam It Out/ Bring It In
Images courtesy of archi-treasures.