Closed Chicago Public School Is Reactivated By Community-Led Art Installations

Anthony Overton Elementary School in Bronzeville was closed in 2013 after 50 years of operation. The iconic south side building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2016 and has become the site of community art projects including the most recent Community Day: Making Space Together event hosted by Chicago Architecture Biennial, Creative Grounds, and Borderless Studios.
Anthony Overton Elementary School in Bronzeville was closed in 2013 after 50 years of operation. The iconic south side building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2016 and has become the site of community art projects including the most recent Community Day: Making Space Together event hosted by Chicago Architecture Biennial, Creative Grounds, and Borderless Studios.

Closed Chicago Public School Is Reactivated By Community-Led Art Installations

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

Anthony Overton Elementary School in Bronzeville was closed in 2013 after 50 years of operation. The iconic south side building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2016 and has become the site of community art projects including the most recent Community Day: Making Space Together event hosted by Chicago Architecture Biennial, Creative Grounds, and Borderless Studios.

The Community Day: Making Space Together event brought together residents and artists to participate in hands-on art activities, enjoy live performances, and observe artists as they carried out various art installations on the grounds and inside of the building.

“This project has been going on for over two years now and I came up with the idea when I learned about the closing of 50 public schools in Chicago. Obviously, the school closings had already taken place once I learned about them but I was doing some design research for a summer program for students and I wanted to create something that was meaningful and mattered to them instead of doing an abstract and imaginary project,” said Paola Aguirre Serrano, founder of Borderless Studios and a leading partner on the art activations that have taken place at the former Anthony Overton Elementary building.

During the Community Day: Making Space Together event, students from Daniel H. Williams Preparatory High School and Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts were invited to join in on the art installations and were able to help on some of the projects that were taking place during the day.

“The students were there with their art teachers and that was really fantastic to have them there and for them to be part of this process,” said Serrano.

Several artists from Chicago along with international artists were present at the events and created public artwork both outside of the school and in the windows for residents to see every day while the building sits vacant.

“I wanted to use this space to demonstrate what can be done between the building closure and its redevelopment. Typically, the building would just be boarded up and not be utilized which causes the structure to start decaying really quickly because there is no one doing any maintenance or running water. We’ve found that most of these closed schools are in pretty good shape to be used as community centers and art spaces,” said Serrano.

The former Overton Elementary building will soon be redeveloped to create a new entrepreneurship center but until then, there will continue to be collaborative public art projects that celebrate the history of the building and keep it active as a community asset, according to Chicago Architecture Biennial.

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