City of Chicago Receives Funding from Mellon Foundation for Creation of New Chicago Monuments!
"Transformative Grant to Support Chicago Monuments Project and Citywide Community-Generated Commemorative Initiatives and Installations"...
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"The Chicago Monuments Project intends to grapple with the often unacknowledged – or forgotten – history associated with the City’s various municipal art collections and provides a vehicle to address the hard truths of Chicago’s racial history, confront the ways in which that history has and has not been memorialized, and develop 
a framework for marking public space that elevates new ways to memorialize Chicago’s history."- chicagomonuments.org
Project Overview
The Pilsen Latina Legacies Monuments Project is a visionary project which aims to honor and celebrate the rich tapestry of Latina activism and community organizing in Pilsen, Chicago, a vibrant community deeply embedded in the city's cultural history. The project will create 1 temporary monument, and up to 3 proposals for permanent monuments selected through a community planning process. Pilsen Latina Legacies is one of eight selected projects that is supported and funded by Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) and The Mellon Foundation. Partnerships and additional support include, Pilsen Arts & Community House (PACH), University of Illinois Press, University of Illinois Springfield, and the Pilsen creative community.
PILSEN LATINA LEGACIES TEAM:
Project Manager - Teresa Magaña, Executive Director of PACH
Lead Artist - Diana Solís, Artist, Photographer, Educator, Cultural Worker, & 2023 Latinx Art Fellow
Public Engagement Coordinator - Liliana Macias, Educator, Cultural Worker, & Ph.D. Student in History at UIC
Project Consultant - Hinda Seif, Associate Professor, U. of Illinois at Springfield and faculty board member, U of Illinois Press
Objectives
Community Engagement
Engage the Pilsen community in a collaborative process to select and design 1-2 monuments that honor Latina activism in the area.
Public Awareness
Raise awareness of Latina history and activism and organizing in Chicago, providing a historical anchor for the community, especially youth.
Artistic Collaboration
Collaborate with local artists and the creative community to collectively visualize and design potential temporary to permanent monuments.
Commemoration
Commemorate the 50th anniversary of Mujeres Latinas en Acción and the memory of the 1979 Pilsen street fair (Festival de Mujeres) organized by them.
Inclusivity
Create a public vision of Chicago that is fully inclusive of Latina histories in the city.
Representation
Ensure that the monuments authentically represent the stories and contributions of Chicana activists and organizers in Pilsen.
Community Engagement Framework
Create a public vision of Chicago that is fully inclusive of Latina histories in the city.
Resources & Information! Let's Learn Together!
Feel free to access any of this shared information to learn more about the many Latinas that have shaped Chicago Communities, including Pilsen. Give us your feedback via our Monuments Survey!
Access our public digital library to learn about the many Latinas who have inspired this project!
What would a monument to Latina Histories and Legacies for the Pilsen Neighborhood look like?
Follow us every step of the way!
We are reporting back to our community all our activities and engagements. Check out our blog posts for updates, photos and images of everyone that has the opportunity to be involved.
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