Art on the Midway 2016

Over the past ten years the Midway Plaisance at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival (HPJF) has served as a hub for the Festival’s expansive programming that spreads throughout the Hyde Park neighborhood. This year, in a collaboration with the Hyde Park Art Center, the Festival further activates the Midway by commissioning works from local visual artists. You can find these projects grouped together halfway down the Midway.

Floating Museum

Faheem Majeed

Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford

The Floating Museum is a mobile exhibition structure inspired by the founding of the DuSable Museum of African American History that acts as a bridge between institutions and communities.

During the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, Floating Museum will facilitate engagement, exhibitions, and activities while acting as a conduit for a variety of artists. The collaborators are working with DuSable Museum, the Smart Museum, and Hyde Park Jazz Festival organizers to present images and objects from their respective collections. Audience members will help build an ever-changing temporary museum and series of exhibitions throughout the 2-day Festival, taking an active part in curating, programming, and storytelling.

Gramophone

Juan Angel Chavez

"Gramophone" will transform the south entrance of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival Midway by creating a tent like structure using wood and fabric in the shape of a gramophone. This iconic structure reflects the visual nostalgic sentiments associated with jazz with sculptural elements of contemporary art.

Mountain Variation

Sabina Ott

Using large organic sculptural forms carved from polystyrene, Ott will construct a community hub that reacts directly to the vibrant and bustling atmosphere of the Midway. The modular nature of the Mountain’s components, which designed for interaction and can be rearranged in accordance to their context, reflect the improvisation and collaboration that are inherent in jazz.