This time, two men with a bucket of red paint left a calling card down the leg of the Marilyn Monroe statue in Pioneer Court. more ›

If, on Monday night, you were to gaze up at the final building in the Cabrini-Green project left to be demolished, and saw hundreds of winking lights, you'd be well within your rights to ask the disembodied Yahoo Answers in your head: "Hey, what are all these winking lights doing in the last Cabrini-Green building left to be demolished?" more ›

Pilsen is gaining traction in Chicago as an arty neighborhood, with popular events like the 2nd Fridays Gallery Night (next one is April 9!). But the neighborhood itself is practically an outdoor museum, concrete and brick walls splashed with paint everywhere you look - and some places you might not think to look. With Spring upon us, we thought we'd make some suggestions on how to spend an afternoon in this colorful neighborhood. (And don't forget to bring your camera and add your photos to the Chicagoist Flickr Pool). more ›

Today we wanted to show you some of our favorite viaduct murals in the city, the ones that run along the 53rd Street underpass in Hyde Park, only to find that they've been mostly covered up. But it’s not all bad news, because the Chicago Public Art Group (CPAG) has installed temporary murals in front of the old ones along the 53rd Street Metra viaduct in Hyde Park. These temporary panels feature large format digital prints by Chicago artists Terry Evans and John Himmelfarb (a total of four artists are represented under the 53rd and 55th Street underpasses). more ›

The first blossoms of Spring mean we’ve reached the time of the year when it’s too warm to spend a free afternoon indoors and too chilly to head for the beach. But it’s perfect weather to explore some of Chicago’s outdoor public art. Over the next few weeks, we’ll take you to street murals from Hyde Park to Pilsen to Edgewater, as well as indoors (the bad weather’s not over yet, folks) to introduce you to art around town. This week, we headed down to Hyde Park, where the Metra viaduct walls provide ample canvas for murals of every persuasion—mirrored mosaics, social critiques from the 1970s, and newly installed temporary art exhibits beneath the tracks. more ›

In Chicago, murals can sometimes convey a culture or a neighborhood's feel better than the businesses and residents. Stretching across the north and south walls of the Foster Street underpass at Lake Shore Drive is a new addition to one of the city's most recognized artistic traditions: a mural entitled "Indian Land Dancing," more ›

Mark your calendars, public art fans: Improv Everywhere is taking its spectacle-making show on the road. The annual "mp3 experiment," in which participants all download the same mp3 and convene to follow its dance-y, peaceful instructions, is coming to town. The Chicago leg of the tour is October 5, place and time TBD. Fun! more ›

It’s coming, folks. The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial in 2009. You won’t be able to eat your Wheaties in the morning without reading something about Lincoln, so don’t say we didn’t warn you. more ›

Chicago Calling, a collaborative festival linking Chicago-based artists with international friends and counterparts, continues tonight and Saturday, the exclamation point to Chicago Artists Month 2007. The festival as exchange program is perfect for an age where Skype, Google Talk, and unlimited wireless plans have dissolving the distance between us and our European, African, and Asian friends. If you’re commuting through the Thompson Center tonight, stop by the front plaza to hear Jennifer Karmin’s “Beast Poem,”... more ›

Before we teleported up into the great nightclub in outer space, Chicagoist took a few hours to walk around Grant Park this weekend and have a friendly chit-chat with some of the many fine folks who came to Lolla this weekend. Some of them came from nearby - North Side, South Side and the suburbs. Others came from farther away, places like New Jersey. Still others came to visit us from other countries, like Ireland.... more ›

Just days before he faces Naisy Dolar at the ballot box in Chicago's 50th Ward, Bernie Stone is facing a different kind of challenge in his ward: public art, and the tension it can create in the community. Muhammed Ali, a British Muslim artist who is touring the US in conjunction with the Arts Council England for his “Arts and Islam” tour, came to Chicago this past weekend. For the Chicago portion of the tour,... more ›

One of our fellow employees, a lifelong Chicagoan, brought a book to work one day. Unaware that taking in external knowledge was allowed at our office, we took a gander. It was a pictorial book about the Cows on Parade exhibits from 1999, before we ourselves became a permanent fixture in the city. While we thought the cows themselves kind of cheesy (no pun intended), we enjoyed the idea of public art on such a... more ›

Whether or not the folks down at Homeland Security are looking for a fight, it looks like they just got one. Pretty much all of the officials in Chicago allowed their panties to bunch up something awful when they read the report, which counted the city as one of the least prepared for disaster. more ›

Okay, this weekend is pretty full so we are just going to jump right into it. As always, feel free to add more events in the comments section. more ›

Maybe you've maxed out your credit cards donating to hurricane victims. Maybe you've been concerned about all those other charities being ignored in the deluge of relief. Or maybe you just haven't gotten off your ass and need to alleviate all that guilt. Whatever your motivations, we've found plenty of ways for you to do good while being entertained, cultured, or even freaked out. more ›

Millennium Park fans have a new reason to cheer and, um, take pictures this morning: The Tribune is reporting a $5 million gift to the park from Boeing, which will be used to fund construction of the aptly named "Boeing Galleries." Construction has actually already begun on the project, essentially a duo of 80-foot-wide granite-paved promenades that will be used to exhibit public art in the vein of last year's popular Boeing-sponsored "Family Album" exhibit.... more ›