The Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival
This unexpected result of the housing-market crisis, took place from July 31 to August 2, when Logan Square artists set up canvases and makeshift galleries in the empty storefronts lining Milwaukee Avenue. Over the course of the weekend, shop windows once blackened like gap-tooth smiles were alight with colored canvases and big screen prints for sale. Rock music blared at the Centennial Monument, children held balloon animals, restaurants dished out treats. But by August 3, the economy reclaimed the street. Stores were dark once again, windows barred behind rusted gates; the festival was nothing more than a rosy dream of what might have been.
Best of Chicago 2009
