Conversations; Here and Now
The City of Evanston
Raymond Park Public Art Project
Evanston is a community with a long history that reaches back to its first inhabitants, the Pottawattamie Indians and forward through time with a continual back and forth of new residents, European, African American, and the current influx of immigrants from Latin America and Asia. In order to represent these different voices, Conversations; Here and Now began with a civic dialog held at various sites in Evanston, Illinois. Meetings were designed to facilitate the listening to and telling of stories and sharing of memories thus building an understanding of what is important to each of us so that together we could identify and project our collective hopes for our community, our people.
Conversations; Here and Now presents a central space that’s empty, yet full of possibility and the potential for dialog and understanding. This space created by a circular arrangement of seven chairs intricately carved with words and symbols that are the result of community conversations representative of Evanston’s rich history, its diverse customs and ethnicities, its creative energy and its collective hopes and dreams. Chairs, objects that we are intimately familiar with become vehicles of communication, bridging differences and allowing common goals and concerns to flourish.
Community input was the foundation for the physical and metaphorical aspects of Conversations; Here and Now, contributing to it becoming an Evanston landmark, a meeting place in the heart of downtown Evanston. Poetry, dance and music events happen on a regular basis at the “Chairs” as they are popularly called as well as ad hoc meetings between random folks; homeless people, joggers, walkers and those who gather for a quiet cup of tea.
Raymond Park Public Art Project
Evanston is a community with a long history that reaches back to its first inhabitants, the Pottawattamie Indians and forward through time with a continual back and forth of new residents, European, African American, and the current influx of immigrants from Latin America and Asia. In order to represent these different voices, Conversations; Here and Now began with a civic dialog held at various sites in Evanston, Illinois. Meetings were designed to facilitate the listening to and telling of stories and sharing of memories thus building an understanding of what is important to each of us so that together we could identify and project our collective hopes for our community, our people.
Conversations; Here and Now presents a central space that’s empty, yet full of possibility and the potential for dialog and understanding. This space created by a circular arrangement of seven chairs intricately carved with words and symbols that are the result of community conversations representative of Evanston’s rich history, its diverse customs and ethnicities, its creative energy and its collective hopes and dreams. Chairs, objects that we are intimately familiar with become vehicles of communication, bridging differences and allowing common goals and concerns to flourish.
Community input was the foundation for the physical and metaphorical aspects of Conversations; Here and Now, contributing to it becoming an Evanston landmark, a meeting place in the heart of downtown Evanston. Poetry, dance and music events happen on a regular basis at the “Chairs” as they are popularly called as well as ad hoc meetings between random folks; homeless people, joggers, walkers and those who gather for a quiet cup of tea.
