Cow

This large-scale mural on the Chicago Cultural Center building is the culmination the city’s Year of Public Art. Made by internationally renowned Artist Kerry James Marshall, the 132 x 100-foot mural—the largest artwork he has ever designed or created—honors 20 women who have shaped the city’s vibrant arts and cultural landscape. In explaining his choice of women, Kerry James Marshall said, “In the history of monuments you have very few that represent women, but in the history of Chicago you have very many women that played key roles in establishing culture here. . . . My idea was to make a Forest Rushmore acknowledging the contribution of 20 women who’ve worked to shape the cultural landscape of the city, past and present.” The mural, executed by Artist Jeff Zimmerman, consists of trees as totems decorated by the women’s faces on the bottom. Up above are the park-like treetops, birds, a yellow-and-blue sun, and a ribbon that floats throughout the mural. The cross-cultural, multi-generational list of women include (left to right) actress and cofounder of Dearborn Homes Youth Drama Workshop Cheryl Lynn Bruce; founder of Chicago Children’s Theatre Jacqueline Russell; former Chicago First lady and founder of After School Matters Maggie Daley; founder of the DuSable Museum of African American History Margaret Burroughs; founder of Little Black Pearl Monica Haslip; television host and producer Oprah Winfrey; poet Gwendolyn Brooks; former Chicago cultural affairs commissioner Lois Weisberg; actress/writer, and cofounder of Collaboraction theater, Sandra Delgado; journalist and writer Achy Obejas; founder of eta Creative Arts Foundation Abena Joan Brown; Poetry magazine founder Harriet Monroe; founder of Black Ensemble Theater Jackie Taylor; founder and Artistic director of Chicago Shakespeare Theater Barbara Gaines; former director of the Renaissance Society Suzanne Ghez; dancer and president of Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago Joan Gray; dancer, choreographer, and founder of Ruth Page Center for the Arts Ruth Page; writer Sandra Ciseneros; Artist and cofounder of the AfricCobra collective Barbara Jones-Hogu; Janes Saks, founder of Project & and the Ellen stone Belic Institute for the study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media. The mural is funded by Murals of Acceptance, whose goal is to bring art to all people in a free public setting.

Where to find it

78 E Washington St. Location data: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Get directions