Museum of Public Housing Opens in Chicago

A new museum opening this weekend in Chicago highlights the impact of public housing on American cities. According to a reporting by Francia Garcia Hernandez in Block Club Chicago, “The National Museum of Public Housing is the first cultural institution in the country dedicated to telling the stories of public housing residents through everyday objects, oral histories, art and media.”

The museum also houses art installations, a large oral history collection, a co-op shop and a recording studio named after Timuel Black Jr., known as the godfather of Chicago oral history. It will also provide informal education, workforce development and cooperative entrepreneurship programs for public housing residents.

The museum is located inside the last remaining building of the Jane Addams Homes public housing project and recreates housing units using everyday items unique to specific families. According to Lisa Yun Lee, the museum’s executive director, “Museum founders designed the museum to be a site of conscience where visitors can challenge and provoke preconceived ideas about public housing and its failures.”