Cottage Constructions at the Smart
On Saturday, January 11, SWF Human-in-Residence, Tanya Scruggs Ford, led Family Day: Cottage Constructions at the Smart Museum of Art. Children and their families gathered in the threshold of the Smart to create their own worker cottage house and dream about the future of their communities. The concept built upon SWF’s participation in the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial and continued the conversation about the Chicago Worker Cottages. Read on to learn more about Family Day: Cottage Constructions.
Sweet Water and Chicago Worker Cottages:
From September 19 to January 5, 2020, SWF was featured at the Chicago Cultural Center during the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial. The installation, Re-Root + Redux, was inspired by the framing and construction method of Chicago’s worker cottages -- once the dominant housing typology and the first standardized affordable housing in the city. The worker cottage structure was transformed into a gallery space with an installation reflecting the past, present, and future of the South Side. The mixed media installation examined the evolution and devolution of land use, architectural structures, and housing from the Reconstruction Era to the Great Migration and urban renewal through the present day. Re-Root + Redux offered a critical investigation into the practice of historical preservation within the context of neighborhood development in distressed communities on Chicago's Southside. 500,000+ people from across the globe visited the Cultural Center during the biennial.
Cottage Constructions at Family Day:
SWF’s installation at the Biennial inspired Tanya Scruggs Ford to share the history of the worker cottage with children and their families during a Family Day at the Smart. Tanya created a short story about the history of worker cottages in Chicago and in which parts of the cities they can still be found today. After reading the story, children had an opportunity to engage in a number of activities. Some children colored and constructed their own paper worker cottage. Others used building blocks to build their dream neighborhoods. Together, the children also created a life size worker cottage out of cardboard boxes. The Smart museum threshold was activated by imagination and dreams.
Sweet Water Foundation would like to thank Tanya Scruggs Ford for bringing the history of worker cottages to life for children and to the Smart Museum of Art for creating a space for children and families from across Chicago to create and dream collectively.
