Explore the dynamic intersection of public art, memory, and justice on a trolley tour of the imagined Washington Park Public Art Corridor, a new effort to expand the neighborhood’s commemorative landscape.
Hop aboard the trolley at the Arts Block (337 E. Garfield Blvd.), with a first stop at Amanda Williams’ Other Washingtons at 51st and S. King Drive. Asking "who is your favorite Washington?," this new work reconsiders the power of names, the complexity of legacy, and the people and stories we choose to memorialize. The piece will launch fully in 2026 as part of the Chicago Monuments Project.
From there, we’ll travel through Washington Park, stopping at key sites where artists, activists, and architects will share the stories behind their works in progress. The tour continues to the future site of Breath, Form & Freedom, created by Chicago Torture Justice Memorials Foundation, a historic and nationally unprecedented monument honoring survivors of police torture in Chicago and their long fight for reparations. A winding path under the roofline will include a timeline telling the history of police torture and the decades of organizing Chicagoans engaged in to fight back, as well as lush pollinator gardens for meditation and healing.
The tour concludes at Arts + Public Life’s Arts Lawn for a preview of Yvette Mayorga’s highly anticipated City Lovers in Paradise, conceived as a striking ensemble of three visually dynamic metal sculptures, each standing over six feet tall. Embodying Mayorga’s signature use of ornamentation, the work reimagines her family’s narrative of labor and care as a tribute to shared history and connection. The inaugural work in the series, Queen of the City, will be installed in summer 2026.
Throughout the evening, join us on the Arts Lawn for:
• printmaking with multi-disciplinary artist William Estrada,
• architectural story-gathering: record a memory about a beloved Chicago site or place-based love story, in connection with Mayorga's piece, and
• support Breath, Form & Freedom by purchasing CTJMF swag.
We’ll conclude the evening on the Arts Lawn with drinks, dessert, and an artist conversation with Candice Washington (Other Washingtons), John Gay and Survivors (Breath, Form & Freedom), and Yvette Mayorga (City Lovers in Paradise) moderated by Sheridan Tucker Anderson.
Presented by Arts + Public Life and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture at the University of Chicago, in collaboration with the Chicago Torture Justice Memorials Foundation, in conjunction with Chicago Exhibition Weekend 2025 and Chicago Architecture Biennial.
