We are thrilled to announce that Amanda Williams and Olalekan Jeyifous will be creating the public art welcoming entrance of the Museum’s future home at the last remaining building of the Jane Addams Homes at 1322 West Taylor Street. Many thanks to the selection committee, chaired by Deanna Haggag, with Sunny Fischer, Brad White, Peter Landon, Dedrea Gray, Lisa Yun Lee, and Robert Smith, for their work. We look forward to working with Williams and Jeyifous and contributing to an amazing new public art work for the Near-West Side of Chicago!
Their artwork is intended to make a visual statement and help share the Museum’s mission, vision, and values of housing as a human right. If you are interested in supporting the design and installation of this permanent art piece, please contact our Director of Development, Sue Enright, at senright@nphm.org.
In addition to this exciting news, Williams and Jeyifous have also been announced as the designers of the recently commissioned Shirley Chisholm monument in Brooklyn, New York. Chisholm was a trailblazer; she was the first black woman to serve in Congress, representing a district that encompassed Bedford-Stuyvesant, the neighborhood where she grew up. Four years later, she ran for president, becoming the first black woman to seek the nomination from either party.
We are so excited to be working with such talented and forward-thinking artists and wish them the best moving forward with the Chisholm monument and beyond!