Artist's glass works give polish to struggling community

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By The Associated Press | Friday, June 07, 2002 | (No comments posted.)

CHICAGO -- Glass has long been an indicator of life in East Garfield Park, a neighborhood pockmarked by broken bottles and boarded-up windows on the city's West Side.

Now, a wildly popular art glass exhibit is reflecting changes just starting to take hold in the neighborhood, a mostly black, low-income area with struggling schools and high rates of crime and unemployment.

"Chihuly in the Park: A Garden of Glass," featuring the works of artist Dale Chihuly, has made the Garfield Park Conservatory, a massive indoor garden house, one of the hottest attractions in town since opening in November.

The exhibit features 30 of Chihuly's colorful blown-glass sculptures deftly interspersed throughout the two-acre expanse of palms, perennials and other tropical plants.

Originally scheduled to end in May, the exhibit has been extended to Sept. 8.

Julia Sherman, who lives in a more upscale part of Chicago, took her mother to see the exhibit.

"She is someone who would never venture that way," Sherman said. "Now she's bringing her friends from the north suburbs and from out of town."

Lester Rosenberg, who lives in the affluent northern Chicago suburb of Wilmette, recently spent the morning at the conservatory's "Persian Pool," watching the sun glint off artworks that resemble yellow water lilies

Rosenberg said he grew up in the city's northwest suburbs and was unfamiliar with East Garfield Park before checking out the Chihuly exhibit.

"This area of the city is really beautiful," he said. "Everyone should come out and see it."

Chihuly's glass and word of mouth from people like Sherman and Rosenberg helped the conservatory draw more than 325,000 people in the past six months, compared with 160,000 in 2001, said Lisa Roberts, director of the 94-year-old facility.

"This is huge for us," Roberts said. "We were a ghost town four years ago."

No more. City planners have spruced up Garfield Park and its surroundings since then, pumping about $8 million into renovating the conservatory and another $7.1 million into a new elevated train station that opened a block away last June.

The effort is aimed at stimulating economic activity in East Garfield Park and reversing a lengthy period of decline that began in the '60s, when a string of riots worsened a housing shortage that was further hampered by a scarcity of mortgage loans.

"By the '80s, the area was a black hole that people didn't want to be around," said Drew Becher, chief of staff for the Chicago Park District. "Now it is an anchor for economic development."

East Garfield Park resident Christopher Reed is happy to see the area is improving. But change is slow and far from complete, he said.

"There's no doubt that the conservatory is revitalizing the area," said Reed, a history professor at Roosevelt University. "But this area is still blighted. Walk the streets and look at the porches that aren't fixed and the dilapidated properties and you can see."

Even so, Reed has seen the value of his home rise from $74,000 in 1995 to an estimated $200,000 now.

But rising property taxes have pushed some of Reed's neighbors to sell their homes, he said. And he said the people moving into the community still must be willing to tolerate a considerable amount of violent crime.

"It's a good time to buy a condo," he said. "Just don't go out at night."

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