Hyde Park Art Center, the renowned non-profit hub for contemporary art located on Chicago’s vibrant South Side, hosts its 2025 Gala "Artists at the Center” activating the entire building on Saturday, November 15, from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., with an afterparty that goes till 11:30 p.m. The lively event honors arts leader Esther Grimm and artist Amanda Williams, and is packed with hands-on art activities, commissioned performances, open studios, art auctions, and DJs from Lumpen Radio. The gala co-chairs are Mirja Spooner Haffner, Founder of The Laksmi Project, andChristy MacLear, President of Good Chaos. The Gala after-party is hosted in partnership with Lumpen Radio, with standalone tickets at $75 available for purchase on the Art Center’s website. Guests may RSVP and make donations at www.hydeparkart.org/gala.
With a “creative cocktail” dress code, the evening will feature a cocktail party running from 5:30-7:00 p.m., followed by a seated dinner with remarks by Art Center leadership and artists. With a reputation as one of the city’s most “hands-on” art parties, the Gala will feature an after-party in collaboration with Lumpen Radio from 8:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. that includes the popular Interactive Artist Interventions, resident artist open studios, performances, DJs, late-night bites, and more.
Interactive Artist Interventions have been a highlight of past Art Center Galas, where guests were engaged in inventive interactions, such as getting inked by a tattoo artist and eating cake off a wall. The 2025 Gala will feature artist interventions by: Rabbit Foot Puppetry, an lgbtqia+ troupe that creates spectacle puppet shows; Cristal Sabbagh and Scott Rubin who will present an interdisciplinary performance of improvised music and drawing; Gabriela Estrada Loochkartt with an eco-feminist performance; Madeleine Aguilar with a musical activation and windchime workshop; and Regin Igloria with a bookbinding workshop. For more information on participating artists, visithydeparkart.org/gala.
The three DJs from Lumpen Radio are: DJ Colocha, who specializes in Cumbia and other Latin genres, drawing inspiration from both her New York upbringing and her Mexican heritage; DJ AfroQbano, an eclectic record collector, music producer, radio host, and founder of Future Rootz Records whose work is deeply rooted in the rhythms and traditions of the African diaspora, infused with the pulse of his Afro-Cuban identity; and DJ Logan Bay, a life long advocate for underground party scenes who has rocked parties across the globe for over 25 years.
Gala tickets are available for $750 with host committee sponsorship levels beginning at $2,500. Guests may RSVP and make donations athydeparkart.org/gala. For more information on sponsorship levels, please contact Samantha Foster at sfoster@hydeparkart.org.
About the honorees
Esther Grimm has a career-long work in the arts that spans philanthropy, museum education, arts education, and executive coaching. From 2002 through 2024, she was the Executive Director/Founder of 3Arts, a social justice-based grant-making and arts service organization that advocates for and supports artists, including women artists, artists of color, and Deaf and disabled artists working in the performing, teaching, and visual arts in the Chicago area and in Southern Illinois. Since 2019, after earning her accreditation from the International Coaching Federation, Grimm has been working as a leadership coach with National Arts Strategies and as an independent life and leadership coach through Now Voyager, supporting arts, nonprofit, and culture leaders and artists at every stage of their careers. In 2020, she was appointed to the Cultural Advisory Council, completed National Arts Strategies’ Leadership Coaching Training Program, and was presented with the Diversity Award on behalf of 3Arts from the College Art Association. In 2017, She received the Kathryn V. Lamkey Spirit of Diversity Award from the Equal Employment Opportunity Committee of Actors’ Equity Association. Esther also received the Wren Award in honor of women in theater from Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, and the Women Who Make a Difference Award from Lakeside Bank.
Amanda Williams is a visual artist who trained as an architect. Her breakthrough series, Color(ed) Theory, was recently named by the New York Times as one of the twenty-five most significant works of postwar architecture in the world. Williams has exhibited widely, including the Museum of Modern Art in NY, the Venice Architecture Biennale, the MCA Chicago, and a public commission at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis. She is co-designer of a forthcoming permanent monument to Shirley Chisholm in Brooklyn NY and part of the Museum Design Team for the Obama Presidential Center. Williams has garnered critical acclaim and been recognized as a USA Ford Fellow, a Joan Mitchell Painting and Sculpture grantee, a 3Arts Next Level awardee, and is the inaugural Artist-In-Residence at Smith College. She is a highly sought-after lecturer, including a mainstage 2018 TedTalk. Williams sits on the boards of the Graham Foundation, The Black Reconstruction Collective, and the Pulitzer Arts Foundation. Her work is in several permanent collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, and the Museum of Modern Art. Her projects have recently been published in ‘Black Futures’ and ‘Radical Architecture of the Future’. Williams lives and works on the south side of Chicago.
About Lumpen Radio
Lumpen Radio, WLPN-LP Chicago 105.5FM, launched in 2016 and broadcasts 24/7. WLPN-LP is operated by a community of curators working to connect audiences with music and ideas. Lumpen’s aim is to spotlight the hidden parts of the city by amplifying its voices and sounds. Lumpen promotes open media, uniting communities and magnifying the hard work of artists, musicians, activists and cultural workers. WLPN is a project of Public Media Institute (PMI). PMI is a non-profit 501(c)3, community-based art and culture organization located in the city of Chicago since 2001. PMI’s mission is to create, incubate and sustain innovative cultural programming through the production of socially engaged projects, festivals, spaces, exhibitions, and media.
About Hyde Park Art Center
Hyde Park Art Center, at 5020 South Cornell Avenue on Chicago’s vibrant South Side, is a hub for contemporary arts in Chicago, serving as a gathering, production, and exhibition space for artists and the broader community to cultivate ideas, impact social change, and connect with new networks. Since its inception in 1939, Hyde Park Art Center has grown from a small collective of artists to establishing a strong legacy of risk-taking and experimentation, emerging as a unique Chicago arts institution with social impact. Today, the Art Center offers a diverse suite of programs for artists and art lovers of all backgrounds, ages, and stages in their careers including: contemporary art exhibitions in six galleries; an open-access community-based school with 2,000 annual enrollments; weekly arts education to 1,000 elementary school students in public schools; weekly and summer teen programs for 100 teen artists; professional-advancement programs for artists; a local and international artist residency; and public programs that connect residents with Chicago art and artists. The Art Center’s Oakman Clinton School + Studio is the nation’s first fully contribute-what-you-can visual art school for all ages. The Art Center functions as an amplifier for creative voices of today and tomorrow, providing the space to cultivate new work and connections. For more information, visitwww.hydeparkart.org.
