The other day I stopped by the Chicago Cultural Center and saw some beautiful art without even entering the building! This art was not an exhibit inside the Cultural Center, but rather it was on the outside painted on the side of the building itself. The mural entitled, “Mount Rushmore” is 132 x 100 feet and features the images of 20 women that have had (and continue to have) a profound positive impact on the City of Chicago. It was painted by Chicago artist, Kerry James Marshall, and is a part of Chicago’s Year of Public Art. Mr. Marshall said he wanted to “honor women who have been important to cultural life in so many situations.” He also said, “the piece echoes the message of a 50 year old mural on the South Side entitled the Wall of Respect.” *That mural no longer exists. It was torn down after a building fire in 1971. While that mural honored important men, this one honors important women. The artist and honorees hope the mural communicates to young women the message that they can do whatever they choose to do if they set their minds to it……..they can even climb Mount Rushmore with the right drive, plan and tools!
The honorees featured on the mural are: Gwendolyn Brooks – Illinois poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner; Albena Joan Brown – founder of eta Creative Arts Foundation; Cheryl Lynn Bruce – actress and co-founder of Goodman Theatre’s Dearborn Homes Youth Drama Workshop; Margaret Burroughs – founder of Dusable Museum of African American History; Sandra Cisneros – author; Maggie Daley – former Chicago First Lady; Sandra Delgado – founding member of Collaboration Theatre; Barbara Gaines – founder and Artistic Director of Chicago Shakespeare Theater; Suzanne Ghez – director and chief curator of the Renaissance Societ; Joan Gray – dancer and president of Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago; Monica Haslip – founder and executive director of Little Black Pearl; Barbara Jones-Hogu – founding member of AfriCobra artists collective; Harriet Monroe – founder of Poetry Magazine; Achy Obejas – Pulitzer Prize winning journalist; Ruth Page – dancer/coreographer and founder of the Ruth Page Center for the Arts; Jacqueline Russell – founder and artistic director of Chicago Childrens Theatre; Jane Saks – founding director of the Ellen Stone Belic Institute and Project&; Jackie Taylor – founder/CEO of Black Ensemble Theater; Lois Weisberg – longest serving commissioner of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs; Oprah Winfrey – cultural icon, media mogul/Academy Award winner.
