A Floating Museum Will Set Sail On The Chicago River This Summer

By Stephen Gossett in Arts & Entertainment on May 10, 2017 5:10PM

Floating Museum

When the city lifted the lid on this summer's edition of the annual Night Out in the Parks programming late last week, there were plenty of familiar faces: Theater on the Lake, Midnight Circus in the Parks and—of course—our perennial favorite, the outsize roster of Movies in the Park.

But there was also one intriguing newcomer to the field: the Chicago River Float—a "floating museum art barge" that will make stops along the Chicago River and bring with it a spate of screenings, exhibitions and interactive art projects.

it turns out the project is a handiwork of Floating Museum, a trio of place-making artists that pursue activist-based design through temporary "flexible sites," with a focus on bringing art to Chicago's under-served areas.

One of the three principals, Faheem Majeed, told Time Out Chicago that the Chicago River float was put together in collaboration with the DuSable Museum and will incorporate elements from the city's black history. The group pursued a similar project with the museum earlier this year.

Past works by the the Propeller Fund-winning trio include a "floating shotgun shack," inspired by Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and a performative storming of the beaches at Gary, Indiana, as part of a lesson about undocumented peoples in Chicago, according to a WTTW profile from 2014.

Stops along the river will include the Resource Center (222 E. 135th Pl.), Eleanor Park (2828 S. Eleanor St.), the Chicago Riverwalk and Navy Pier. The project kicks off on Aug. 7 with more details to come. In the meantime, you can catch a glimpse of some of Floating Museum's site-specific work (non-water-bound edition) from last year in Calumet Park.

Floating Museum