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Like much of Chicago, this old town neighborhood is largely segregated, blacks west of Sedgwick Street, whites East. You're trying to bring people from that side of the street to this side of the street? Exactly. So when Charlie Brandon moved here 10 years ago she wanted to find a way to bridge the divide. An art studio came to mind. Tell me why you started art on Sedgwick. It felt like people lived very separate lives who live very close to each other and I thought, well, what if all the empty storefronts that were on Sedgwick Street were welcoming places for people to do art together？
And together they've come. kids after school. Families for community gatherings. All drawn closer by the power of art. Isn't that beautiful? The studio is located at the Marshall Field's Garden Apartments a low-income housing community built in the late 1920s by an heir to the famous department store chain, neighborhood challenged by the usual ills drugs and gun violence. So this safe space serves multiple purposes. The art instruction is professional. That's probably good. What matters most certainly for the kids is it's fun. What do you like about art class? In this class we get to do, like people and like… The thing that gives me hope is that I think that at some level once people realize how awesome it is. They're like, oh yeah. Like this is what I wanted the whole time. A neighbourhoods full spectrum slowly emerging, a group of art in progress.
