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Support Hyperallergic’s independent arts journalism for as little as $8 per month. Become a Member CHICAGO — Who is art really for? That’s the unspoken question at the heart of two inspiring exhibitions, each focused on the radical social and political possibilities of progressive art education in Chicago. As art continues its ascent as a luxury item and investment property, as annual tuition at private art colleges reaches the $50,000 mark, as museum admission tops 30 bucks for an adult ticket, it might seem like art is only for a rich and privileged elite.
That’s dead wrong. Art is for everyone, and the best way for it to get there is through the kind of pedagogical experiments that have taken place since 1889 in Chicago. That was the year that Jane Addams, Ellen Gates Starr, and Mary Keyser moved into a stately residence on the Near West Side to open a settlement house.
At the time, Chicago was the fastest growing city in the world and this neighborhood was home to thousands of recently arrived immigrants from Europe. Crowded tenements, long hours laboring in factories, and civic neglect were the norm. Hull-House aimed to change this.
To that end the settlement eventually expanded to encompass 13 buildings, including a kinder.
