New Humboldt Park program lets art do the talking about controversial issues

Jorge Felix understands the battle over gentrification better than most.

As a Puerto Rican resident of Humboldt Park, Felix says he's concerned the neighborhood's character will change and lower-income homeowners will be pushed out. But as the program director at the Institute of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture, Felix says he welcomes new artists to the area.

Felix said many people are thinking about gentrification, but they don't discuss it because it is too contentious. Felix said he tried to put together a panel of artists to talk about gentrification, but found few find willing participants.

"A lot of people are afraid to deal with these issues and talk openly about them," Felix said.

So Felix came up with his own solution for tackling the controversial subject: Pair the newer artists with established community artists, have them work in community schools and let the art projects do the talking.

That's the basis behind IPRAC's newest venture, which kicked off on Oct. 21 and will continue through the spring. The Building Community through the Arts (BCA) project in Humboldt Park will, according to Felix, "engage and address the issue of gentrification in the area.

"All these new artists are moving in and we understand that arts are a big force for gentrification," Felix said. "And we have been trying to educate the outsiders, the artists who are moving in, and get them involved with the issues in the community. So this project was perfect."

The BCA undertaking, which received a $30,000 grant from the Local Initiatives Support Commission of Chicago, is also backed by Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education.

Felix said that project details are still being worked out, but eight artists have already been selected for placement in pairs in four area schools. The goal is to have each pair of artists create a community project for Humboldt Park through soliciting students' ideas and concerns about the neighborhood.

The artists have also already attended one of three planned workshops. That workshop, which took place Saturday, featured representatives from CAPE talking to the artists about integrating their own work with community issues.

Future sessions will center on strategies and approaches for developing the artwork in tandem with students, according to Scott Sikkema, program director at CAPE. The artists will then guide the students through the actual artistic process starting in January.

Ultimately, Sikkema says he hopes more discussion of community issues will emerge from the project.

"There's a tendency to think that a community issue is straightforward," Sikkema said. "But there's the question of, "How do you explore it with students?" It's one thing to say, "Oh we're going to talk about gentrification," then do a documentary video. That's been done and that's OK, but there might be other ways to explore it, to have the dialogue, to make the art."

Felix said CAPE's assistance with the logistics has left him able to focus his side of the project on building both communal and individual relationships among Humboldt Park's diverse cross-section of artists.

"We identified new and established community artists, and engaged them in a discussion on the needs of local artists," Felix said. "Actually, it was amazing, because those two groups found they have the same needs, issues and fears. And we found out that it was in the best interest of the new artists moving into the community to engage the issues of the community."

Hector Arce is one of the artists chosen for the BCA program. Arce, 24, moved to Humboldt Park from Puerto Rico about two years ago. He said he's not sure if he's considered a newer or more established artist, but said he can still help link his fellow artists with the area's concerns.

"Right now have I friends coming here from Puerto Rico who are artists, so I'm kind of like a bridge, connecting people to the community," Arce said.

Arce said his objective is to become ingrained in Humboldt Park through his work in the school.

"I hope to get the experience of communicating with the community," he said. "I want to put more roots down here, so if I leave Chicago, I can have a place to come back to."

For his part, Felix said his goal is to have the newer artists not only work with the students to create quality community-centered artwork " art he hopes to show during the El Barrio Art Fest at IPRAC next summer " but also become integrated and see themselves as full community members, not simply gentrifiers.

"If they want to stick around and find affordable housing in the community, they need to be engaged," Felix said. "Because if just they come in and gentrify, they're going to be kicked out eventually, like the rest of the locals."