Since the Chicago Sun-Times launched the weekly “Murals and Mosaics” series in July 2019, we’re published at least one feature story on public art each week.
That’s more than 360 stories, all of them devoted to spotlighting street art in the city and suburbs and the artists behind those works. And we’ve covered more in a weekly newsletter sent to subscribers and in special supplements.
We’ve also been highlighting that coverage with a public exhibition at Navy Pier, near our newsroom, displaying some of the many photographs of Chicago murals we’ve published. Now, we’ve added more images to that free display.
The exhibition opened in 2023. Among the newly added images, it now includes a photo of a two-story mural in Roseland that focuses on Chicago’s “footwork culture.”
Also displayed: a towering mural in the South Loop that shows a girl who’s imagining 10 suffragists, including the journalist-activist Ida B. Wells.
There’s also the mural on the Far Northwest Side that shows native Illinois flowers including black-eyed Susans, reflecting that much of the Chicago area was once prairie. The plants are exaggerated in size, with runners seen jogging past them.
The display now also includes a photo of the murals lining a CTA Green Line L retaining wall in Oak Park, among the images we’ve published that show street art is hardly limited to the city.
And there’s a photo of a West Side mural — one of our favorites — that shows a girl gazing into the distance, surrounded by an explosion of red roses.
“The youth are watching,” the artist explained. “Those children look out the window looking for role models.”