NATIONAL PUBLIC HOUSING MUSEUM

The National Public Housing Museum will advance our mission as a museum, cultural center, and creative place-making hub, to preserve, promote, and propel housing as a human right. The Museum will work to foster dialogue and create change through the collection of oral histories and objects, innovative programming, exhibitions, preservation, and restoration at one of our nation’s most important historic sites. Located in the last remaining building of the Jane Addams Homes on Chicago’s Near West Side, the 48,000-square-foot space that will be our permanent home is the largest artifact in the Museum’s collection. Within this historic space, compelling firsthand stories of residents will be brought together with thoughtful scholarship of historians and passion-ate efforts of activists to remember, teach, and inspire.

NPHM has spent the last decade organizing with community of stakeholders to secure ownership of the building and a 99 year land lease. When this happened (2018), we assembled a core professional staff and exhibition team, and worked with met with Departments of Planning and Development, Historic Preservation, and Zoning community groups and a national roster of distinguished scholars to complete 50% of the construction documents.

Next steps over 2-3 years include:

-Secure final capital for 15.7 million dollar campaign with steering committee (Summer, 2020).
-Conduct participatory design workshop with artists Amanda Williams and Olalekan Jeyifous for the public art entrance to the Museum.
-Restoration of Edgar Miller Sculptures.
-Finish final documents and submit permits DPD (Fall, 2020).
-Begin construction with contractor (Winter, 2020).
-Hire according to staffing plan: museum administration, curatorial, programming, and education.
-Convene team for Center for the Study of Housing, draft MOU’s with major universities.
-Continue Entrepreneurship Hub and convenings of working group to develop the Museum store.
-Conduct final curatorial design charrettes with community and final scholarly review of exhibits.
-Work with local advocacy groups to choose major policy initiatives to highlight through storytelling program and in exhibit (Fall, 2021).
-Recruit additional oral historians, continue recordings, implement innovative strategies to advance best practices in community archive field.
-Hire and train staff: educators, programming, visitor service, janitorial, landscaping (Summer / Fall 2021).
-Install permanent core exhibitions / rotating exhibit (first with Nathanial Mary Quinn, second with Matthew Desmond’s Evicted) (Fall, 2021).
-Grand Opening (Winter, 2021 / Spring, 2022).

NPHM’s planning included a feasibility study conducted by Economic Research Associates that outlines the overwhelmingly positive economic impact and sustainability of the Museum. Through experienced leadership, community engagement, and organizing, we assumed ownership of our building and the lease for the land in 2018.

The broad range of stakeholders, board and staff has worked hard to establish trust with public officials and secured the support of Mayor Lori Lighfoot, CHA president Eugene Jones, the city’s Housing Commissioners, Alderman Jason Ervin, and State Rep Mattie Hunter, who recently secured a line item in the State budget for NPHM. Deep connections with community stakeholders have built our capacity to address most issues. Our greatest obstacle is that people have been learning of this initiative for many years, and some may doubt that it will ever come to fruition. A successful capital campaign with strategic communications will address this challenge.

The top three organizational goals of the Museum include the capital campaign for the permanent museum site, hiring and growing our diverse staff to realize the Museum’s mission, and to create the necessary legal infrastructures to realize the Museum store that will be a cooperative venture with public housing residents. Alongside the fundraising operation, Museum staff has been working with our architects and designers to finalize architectural documents for the zoning and city approval process before construction can begin. We are proud of the diversity of our Board and staff, and want to continue to nurture and mentor new people as we grow. Working in partnership with John Marshall Law School, we are also working to develop the infrastructure to create a cooperative within our Museum to positively impact the racial income gap.