LaSalle Bank last week announced a new yearlong program that will commission Gallery 37 students to design art for LaSalle’s “Mural Building,” the warehouse aside the Kennedy Expressway, between Armitage and North avenues, formerly leased by Bigsby & Kruthers. The first and current mural features ten portraits selected from Gallery 37’s extensive collection of paintings. For each of the remaining three quarters of the year, a different theme will serve as the inspiration for the artwork created for the mural.
Using the outdoor art showcase brings a non-traditional audience to Gallery 37, the audience of highway travelers.
An estimated 193,000 people see the “canvas” each day, which means that one week provides more viewers than the entire attendance at the Van Gogh and Gauguin exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago. The young apprentice artists not only create the images and composition for the city’s most visible billboard, they learn how to transform a small canvas into a three-story mural.
“Nothing is more important than helping youth reach their full potential,” said Norman Bobins, president and CEO of LaSalle Bank. “We are thrilled to now collaborate with Gallery 37—an organization that uses art to give direction to the lives of Chicago youth.”
Gallery 37 is celebrating its eleventh year of operation, during which it has trained more than 20,000 youth, ages 10-21, in apprenticeships with professional artists. Youths earn a stipend to create literary, culinary or performance art, while learning vital job skills such as time management, creative reasoning and teamwork.
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