National Public Housing Museum opening in April
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An exhibit of the TV show "Good Times," which took place in a fictionalized version of Cabrini-Green. Photo: Carrie Shepherd/Axios
After more than a decade of planning, the National Public Housing Museum (NPHM) opens next month.
Why it matters: The NPHM will be the first museum in the country dedicated to telling the stories and sharing the history of public housing in the country.
- A portion of the museum includes affordable housing where residents live today.
Context: The museum is in the last remaining building of the Jane Addams Homes, in Little Italy.
- The Chicago Housing Authority tore down 11 public housing developments across the city, displacing thousands of residents, as part of the 1999 "Plan for Transformation."
Flashback: After CHA dismantled the homes, longtime resident Deverra Beverly launched plans in 2002 for a museum that told the history from residents' point of view.
- "They knew that one of the reasons that it was so easy to dismantle their homes was because there was kind of one narrative, one mainstream narrative, about public housing and its failure," NPHM executive director Lisa Yun Lee says. "And so they wanted to have a place where their voices could be heard and they could challenge the mainstream narrative."
Zoom in: The exhibits include artifacts such as photos, dishes, sewing machines and Sears catalogs in recreations of former residents' apartments.
- Speakers play stories about the families who lived there, as told by descendants of the onetime occupants.
Fun fact: Artist Edgar Miller's large, playful concrete sculptures of animals, known as "Animal Court," are back in the courtyard of the museum after being removed for restoration. They were originally installed in 1938 when the Jane Addams Homes opened, and former residents, like the Rev. Marshall Hatch, share fond memories of them.
- "The biggest one was home base. I've always thought about what it meant to go around through the animal kingdom and then come back and touch home base. It was a metaphor for how that project development felt like: home," a quote from Hatch reads on the wall.
What's next: Opening day is April 4, and the weekend will include discussions about housing policy, interactive art workshops and guided tours of the re-created apartments.
- Plus a welcome happy hour and dance party, music courtesy of DJ Spinderella.