South Side Community Art Center
- Architects
- Gustav Hallburg remod:1940 Hin Bredendieck&Lerner
- Year
- 1892
- Style
- Neoclassical
- City
- Chicago, IL
The South Side Community Art Center opened in 1940 in an 1892 Bronzeville mansion, backed by the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project in Illinois. It became the first Black art museum in the United States not affiliated with a historically Black college, and of the more than 100 community art centers the WPA established nationwide, it is the only one still operating.
the building
Mansion into museum. The center occupies an 1892 mansion originally designed by Gustav Hallburg, remodeled in 1940 by Hin Bredendieck and Lerner to convert the house into gallery and studio space for the new WPA-sponsored center.
the style
The building is Neoclassical in style, the grand residential architecture of an 1892 Michigan Avenue mansion repurposed, rather than built from scratch, as an art center.
More on Neoclassicalsignificance
The center was designated a Chicago Landmark in 1994, named a National Treasure by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2017, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.
nearby
- John W. Griffiths Mansion
- Wabash Avenue YMCA
- Chicago Bee Building
- Martin Roche–John Tait House
- Ida B. Wells-Barnett House
- Daniel Hale Williams House