Chicago Dream House is a unique blend of art and social engagement in Albany Park a diverse community scarred by housing and apartment building foreclosure. Most of us think of single-family home foreclosure as the main story in the housing crisis, but multi-unit foreclosure and the effects on tenants is the other half of the issue. Fifty percent of the housing stock in Chicago is rental units. CDH interprets a community’s pain at the 2007-08 economic crisis and investigates the isolation imposed on a neighborhood’s residents as family upon family have been displaced. Can we, as a community, place faith in one another rather than systems that no longer serve us? The project partnered with Albany Park Neighborhood Council, an organization committed to housing and youth issues. In a single day, members of the community came together to build a symbolic "dream house" while programming from diverse neighborhood-based initiatives surrounded the installation.
MAY 2014 - Public Site, Team of Artists: Lindsay Hopkins, Karen Yates, Molly Mullen and Mike Mroch
This project was partially supported by a grant from the Propeller Fund, the City of Chicago Dept of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and a campaign with 3arts Projects.