Project Overview

• Artist — Alyce Haliday McQueen

• School — Ravenswood Elementary School

• Neighborhood — Ravenswood

Entering the CPS Lives residency, Alyce Haliday McQueen focuses on aligning her project with the aesthetics of her prior work, emphasizing feminine identity through portraiture and still-life. She plans to create portraits of female-identifying students from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade, challenging the conventional childlike portrayal by removing the expected “cute” factor. Alyce contemplates the intersection of serious expressions in children with concepts of maturity and the potential discomfort for viewers. Additionally, she explores still-life compositions with students’ belongings, aiming to highlight the significance of external possessions in shaping individual identity.

Throughout the residency, Alyce maintains a consistent working practice, drawing on her previous weeks’ exploration of ideas. Her commitment to capturing authentic portrayals while questioning societal norms surrounding children’s images underscores her dedication to unraveling the complexities of feminine identity and personal narratives through both portraiture and still-life.

Project Overview

• Artist — Steven E. Gross

• School — Ravenswood Elementary School

• Neighborhood — Ravenswood

I selected this family as they had two children in the CPS school system attending Ravenswood Elementary. By the time we started one child had switched schools and was now going to Catholic school which didn’t have remote learning.  As I searched for more families to photograph for the project little response was forthcoming as this was near the beginning of the pandemic no one wanted to let a stranger inside their home. There was so little known about the virus and how contagious it really was.

I set out not knowing really what to expect. What I found was a child struggling with remote learning as well as a father who was struggling with his child and how he could keep him engaged in the learning process. I had little to compare too, as this has never happened in my lifetime and my children had already graduated high school and one of them was working remotely for college credit. There is a big difference between a college age learner and an elementary student.

From what I can access was that remote learning is not so easy and no doubt a lot of children lost quite a bit of time in their studies.

We all may be back in school now, many without masks as the people feel the virus is gone and they are done with the mitigation efforts, unfortunately the virus is not done with us. Only time will tell if there has been enough protection through vaccination and infection to keep us from going to remote learning again.

Project Overview

• Artist — Janet Mesic-Mackie

• School — R. Amundsen High School

• Neighborhood — North Lawndale

This project aims to show the personal impact a music curriculum has for students attending Chicago Public Schools. I have paired the photographs with the student’s own words describing what having access to music has meant to them. Access to music and art are often viewed as non essential. Arts programs are often the first programs cut by schools as a cost saving measure. Often these are the programs that can be the most impactful for many students.

Project Overview

• Artist — Jeff Phillips Dorian Sylvain Marzena Abrahamik Lynn Renee Persin Janet Mesic-Mackie Justin Schmitz Doug McGoldrick Scott Fortino Matt Siber Jim Iska Suzette Bross

• School — Phoenix Military Academy Michele Clark Magnet High School Whitney M. Young Magnet High School R. Amundsen High School Stone Elementary Scholastic Academy Harriet E. Sayre Elementary Language Academy Edison Regional Gifted Center George Westinghouse College Prep A.N. Pritzker Elementary School John L. Marsh Elementary School Ashburn Community Elementary School

• Neighborhood — South Loop

“Art can tell stories and change narratives,” says Suzette Bross, Executive Director of CPS Lives. “This mural is an expression of giving back to the community and showing the good in humanity.”

In June 2020, a group of Chicago students transformed the temporary plywood used to cover BMO Harris Bank’s main branch during protests into a work of art that expresses messages of hope and unity, representing the opportunity we all have to create a more inclusive community together.

As protests erupted across Chicago – and the country – and thousands of Chicagoans demonstrated peacefully, CPS Lives and BMO Harris Bank were eager to find ways to support our communities and stand against racial inequality and injustice. BMO – a longstanding supporter of both Chicago’s public schools and the city’s arts community – reached out to CPS Lives and asked if they wanted to create artwork on the plywood around the branch.

“BMO’s values of fairness, equality and inclusion perfectly align with ours,” says Suzette, who founded CPS Lives, a non-profit organization that creates artist residencies in Chicago Public Schools to share honest and positive stories about public schools. Local artists partner with a Chicago Public School during the academic year to collaborate on a project. The art they create gives young people in Chicago a platform to speak about their hopes, dreams, and ideas.

“There are 400,000 students in the CPS system, and many people in the city don’t know anything about them,” says Jeff Phillips, a local artist who works with CPS Lives. “This was an opportunity to give the students their own voice – in a really public way.”

Amplifying voices

Like protest, art can give a louder voice to people who aren’t being heard. The recent protests have given voice to people from all walks of life, joining together to demand change to make society more just and inclusive. Similarly, this group of Chicago Public School students and artists created a powerful public art project to send a message of their own.

“Protest and public art are similar expressions. They’re both a personal statement of values,” says Dorian Sylvain, a Chicago artist and CPS Lives collaborator. “Displaying art in the public spaces goes beyond aesthetics. It creates dialogue – and it’s human nature to want to be heard.”

Suzette reached out to Jeff and Dorian to collaborate, and they quickly got to work on a proposal and a design. Together, they came up with the idea of a mural made up of images and photos from CPS Lives artists and CPS schools, highlighting the proud academic achievements of graduating students – and surrounded by images of life at public schools across the city.

“Highlighting all these beautiful young faces that are usually somewhat anonymous – it not only empowers the kids who see themselves on that mural, but also other people who are like them. That can be very validating,” says Dorian.

Jeff agrees. “We wanted to evoke something positive and emotional, and to do what art is supposed to do – reflect the everyday in a new light.”

A creative collective

Titled “If I Could Show the World,” the mural was named and assembled by students from more than 20 Chicago public schools participating in the CPS Lives program. Hyde Park Art Center donated its space, and more than 75 people came together to create the murals, including students who chose to spend their first day of summer vacation there.

“The experience was festive. We had music playing, it was a beautiful day, the students came in and they brought their friends. We just had a good time,” says Dorian. “The spirit of collective work, and the gratification of producing something together that one person couldn’t have done on their own – it’s so empowering. Sharing, listening, learning from each other – all those principles come out when we work together.”

“It was one of the best experiences of my life,” says Jeff. “To see these kids creating together, and hearing them say things like ‘I feel like an artist’ – it was incredible.”

Inclusion and equality

CPS Lives is the first of several non-profits that will create art for BMO’s main branch windows over the coming months, serving as a visual reminder to continue our progress toward a more inclusive society. The art will be displayed in neighborhoods across Chicago as it rotates out of the bank’s windows.

BMO believes this is not a time to be silent. We will always stand up for a more just society where all people are valued equally. These murals are part of our pledge to speak up for what’s right, and to create space for other voices to be heard.

“Art is such a powerful and direct way to express hope and optimism,” says Jeff. “Public art speaks to the community. The message spreads. If you create something interesting and beautiful, you invite people in to learn more about your world – and that can make all the difference.”

BMO is committed to zero barriers to inclusion, and we strive for that vision by supporting real financial progress for our customers and communities.

Read about BMO’s recent $10 million donation through the United Way of Metro Chicago as part of Chicago’s Invest South/West initiative, our recent donation to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Equal Justice Initiative, the Canadian Anti-Hate Network and Greater Twin Cities United Way, to support social and racial justice, and inclusion.

Learn more about community giving at BMO.

And please, consider donating to CPS Lives as we take on our next endeavors.

Project Overview

• Artist — Sa Schloff

• School — Stephen T. Mather High School

• Neighborhood — West Ridge

• Medium — Photography

• Classroom Education Level — Grades 9-12

I have spent many years photographing inside of schools, both the architecture and the students. In past years I photographed inside of Lane Tech, which is a coveted selective enrollment high school with an impressive, castle-like building and the largest student body in the state of Illinois.

CPS Lives paired me with Mather High School, located on the Northside of Chicago. Mather is a bit of a plain Jane compared to Lane. The building itself was originally a junior high school, built in the 1960s. It is fairly bland and each hallway looks the same. The students, however, are quite vibrant, hailing from many different countries. The school’s motto is ‘Celebrating Diversity’ and more than 75% of students speak a language other than English at home.

My project for CPS Lives is to highlight the diversity of students at Mather High School by making formal portraits of students in Ethnic clubs and other activities like actors in the school play or students who participate in Taekwondo. I am visually contrasting the students in their respective costumes against the institutional architecture of Mather. I have included a few examples in this application.

As part of our contract with CPS Lives, each artist has an exhibit at a public library in the community of the school in which he/she is working. I like the public nature of these community exhibits. I am hoping to use the windows of the recently shuttered Northtown Library as my ‘frames’. I want to create an exhibit that can be viewed by pedestrians and motorists passing by the library.

For my presentation, I want to make extra-large prints so the subjects take on a monumental scale. These kids are from the community surrounding the school and I want them to be seen.

Project Overview

• Artist — Janet Mesic-Mackie

• School — R. Amundsen High School

• Neighborhood — Bowmanville Ravenswood

• Medium — Photography