About Beacon Street Gallery and Performance Co.

Founded in 1982, Beacon Street's arts programming is integrative and holistic in nature. Exhibition, performance, arts education, folk and ethnic arts, and public art all interconnectas creative forces for artists, audiences, teachers, students, and community members.

Exhibition: Beacon Street is the first alternative art space to continually show both contemporary and folk and ethnic artists.

Our Traditions/Transitions series empowers first voice artists and curators while promoting

their work to larger audiences.  The Cultural Heritage Preservation Program documents cultural chronicles to aid in the survival of traditional art forms, resulting in an extensive digital image library spanning 26 years. Exhibiting artists participate in Master Artist workshops to share their endangered art forms with youth and community members.

Arts Education: Our award winning, culturally based programs pair teaching artists with youth in schools, community centers, and partner organizations. Informed by best practices investigated with the Chicago Teachers' Center, Northeastern Illinois University, and the Lakeview Education and Arts Partnership, Beacon Street develops innovative programs to build students' academic, social-emotional, and creative skills. Students participate in Master Artist workshops and classes, ArtJobs, and the Junior Curator Program, which allow for students to remain connected to Beacon Street into their teens adulthood.  Very importantly, students will continue to connect and explore their cultural heritage by bringing their voice and vision to the larger community.

Performing Arts Directory: Beacon Street offers a free regional Artist Directory with contact information for each listed artist. Through Beacon Street's long history of community preservation and development, we support artists empowering themsevles through employment opportunites.

Mosaic Studio: As part of our ongoing Publi Art programs, artist and former student JoVonna Jackson creates and repairs mosaics in our on site studio at Clarendon Community Center.

Beacon Street Facilities: Our organization operates it's home office and gallery within Clarendon Community Center, located in the Uptown neighborhood on the north side of Chicago. Through our parntership with Clarendon and other resident arts partner Kuumba Lynx, Beacon Street has several multi-purpose spaces dedicated to our arts education, gallery, and performance programs. Over the past 26 years, our organization has operated out of Jane Adams Hull House on Beacon Street, Truman College on Wilson Avenue, our own storefront space at the intersection Broadway and Buena, and The Fine Arts Building on Michigan Avenue.

Committed to building community through diversity, Beacon Street has helped support and nurture the following organizations: Black Ensemble Theatre, Blue Rider Theatre, the Hmong Collective, The Eugene Pine Contemporary Native American Artists' Collective, and Hummingbird Press.

Beacon Street has a rich history of exhibiting and promoting folk and ethnic artists including: Carlos Cortez, members of the Huichol Indian community, O'Kee Chee (Apache), the Hmong Collective, refugees from Armenia, Guatemala, and Africa, members of the American Indian Center of Chicago, The Indigenous Arts Alliance of Chicago, the African American artists of Hummingbird Press and many others. Our organization has documented cultural traditions with the assistance of  folklorist Loretta Brockmeier, folklorist Paul Tyler, and Ethnographer Dr. Dwight Conquergood of Northwestern Unviersity.  Beacon Street's commitment to the excellence of art rooted in rich cultural traditions grows and continues to be a significant force in our local, national, and international communities.