Beaubien Woods Gathering Space

With the success of the BWC Gathering Spaces, the Field Museum and Forest Preserves of Cook County (FPCC) saw an opportunity to develop something similar at Beaubien Woods Forest Preserve on Chicago’s far South Side. A community-based curatorial committee selected from proposals developed jointly by artists and a local organization. The committee completed a public input process to determine what residents and organizations wanted in a Gathering Space, conducted an RFP process, and selected a winning design for the future installation. The design of “Prairie Boat” acknowledges the centrality of the Little Calumet River to the long cultural and natural heritage of the area, particularly its crossing by Freedom Seekers escaping enslavement heading to Canada in the two decades preceding the Civil War, and the allies they found in the Chicago region. The installation will be unveiled in spring of 2023.