Making the West Side: Community Conversations on Neighborhood Change

FAIN: LD-234263-16

Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois (Chicago, IL 60612-4305)
Jennifer Scott (Project Director: June 2015 to January 2023)

A day-long public forum, community conversations at partner cultural sites, educational resources, and a website, all focused on the historical development  of Chicago’s West Side.

Making the West Side: Community Conversations on Neighborhood Change is a year-long initiative designed to use the humanities to catalyze needed public discussions about neighborhood history and change on Chicago’s rapidly gentrifying West Side. Jane Addams Hull-House Museum (JAHHM), located at the University of Illinois (UIC) at Chicago, plans to work with humanities scholars and cultural partners to use the legacy of the Hull-House Settlement and recent humanities scholarship as a starting point and grounding for these important conversations. The Museum will convene a day-long public forum, host meetings with scholars and community groups, organize community conversations at partner cultural sites, and develop robust educational resources and a website, all focused on West Side historical development and present-day change.