If Oprah Winfrey, Sandra Cisneros, and Gwendolyn Brooks were all the same party at the exact same time, the room would explode from the sheer amount of power.
Maybe this is why Kerry James Marshall is taking it outside.
The world-renowned artist will honor these women and 17 more with an enormous mural at the Chicago Cultural Center, marking his largest artwork yet. The 132-foot by 100-foot project will begin today, September 21, and will continue throughout October to coincide with the month-long Public Art Festival, during Chicago’s Year of Public Art. It will be installed on the building’s Garland Court facade, between Washington and Randolph Streets.
Marshall explains that he wanted to open up the narrow space. “My idea was to make a Forest Rushmore acknowledging the contribution of 20 women who’ve worked to shape the cultural landscape of the city, past and present,” he says.
“While deciding to paint women was the artist’s idea, I have to give my mother some credit,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel laughed during a phone interview. “My goal for the Year of Public Art was to bring the most prominent artist in the world to Chicago and give the city a gift for generations to come, with the Cultural Center serving as its campus.”
The 20 women represented in Kerry James Marshall’s mural are a who’s who of Chicago’s arts and culture community:
Suzanne Ghez, Director and Chief Curator for nearly 40 years, The Renaissance Society
Barbara Gaines, Founder and Artistic Director, Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Jacqueline Russell, Founder and Artistic Director, Chicago Children’s Theatre
Ruth Page, Dancer, Choreographer and Founder, Ruth Page Center for the Arts
Lois Weisberg, Longest-serving Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs
Maggie Daley, Longest-serving First Lady of the City of Chicago
Jackie Taylor, Founder and CEO, Black Ensemble Theater
Monica Haslip, Founder and Executive Director, Little Black Pearl
Abena Joan Brown, Founder, eta Creative Arts Foundation
Margaret Burroughs, Founder, DuSable Museum of African American History
Harriet Monroe, Founder, Poetry Magazine
Cheryl Lynn Bruce, Co-founder, Goodman Theatre / Dearborn Homes Youth Drama Workshop
Sandra Delgado, Founding Ensemble Member, Collaboraction
Jane Saks, Founding Director of the Ellen Stone Belic Institute and Project&
Barbara Jones-Hogu, Founding Member, AfriCobra
Gwendolyn Brooks, Literary Icon
Sandra Cisneros, Literary Icon
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Achy Obejas, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Oprah Winfrey, Cultural Icon
Joan Gray, Dancer and Longtime President of Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago
Twitter: @roaringgilmore
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