Western Avenue pulsed with color Saturday as sidewalks filled with families, friends and art lovers strolling between more than three dozen pop-up galleries. Murals, music and food trucks kept the Beverly/Morgan Park neighborhood buzzing long before the after party began.
The 12th Annual Beverly Art Walk transformed 40 venues into a community-wide celebration of creativity. Visitors browsed work from more than 100 artists, listened to live performances, joined craft markets, and toured home studios tucked into side streets.
“Beverly is a great setting for this event — it’s artsy and a fun place to visit,” said Sal Campbell, co-founder and lead curator of the Beverly Art Walk. “It started out with just a group of us and I didn’t realize how big it was going to get. It’s been so much fun putting it together every year. The community has really embraced it.”
This year’s walk carried extra weight. Organizers highlighted plans to restore the Eugene S. Pike House at 91st Street into a community cultural center. The day kicked off with a rededication at a limestone monument near the historic site, where artists built a temporary installation called “Sanctuary,” complete with whimsical birdhouses and sculptures.
The theme spread into nearby Cosme Park with “Birds, Bees & Butterflies,” where artists used paint and mixed media to draw neighbors into nature. Another crowd favorite, “We the People,” repurposed old yard signs into bold protest art featuring portraits, slogans and painted crowds.
Campbell said her favorite part of the Art Walk is seeing people fill the neighborhood to enjoy the art.
“I love all of the wonderful artists that we bring together. Beverly becomes so incredibly full of life.”
The mood of the day was set early when Saint Xavier University’s jazz band opened the event with a lively performance inside the Beverly Arts Center, and throughout the afternoon, Western Avenue shops and cafes became mini-galleries.
Saint Xavier University art students also had work on display at the Beverly Arts Center, adding to the range of local talent featured in the show. Their Art & Design Department exhibit, It’s About the Process, invited visitors to literally take a painting off the wall and add to it. Across from the collaborative canvases, a photo montage showcased students painting during the university’s Paint Jams.
The Beverly Arts Center also welcomed families with a fiber-and-paint installation that doubled as a hands-on workshop for kids. In its main gallery, fiber artist Kathy Weaver’s “Making a Scene” display created an imaginative world of characters exploring humanity in the age of technology and warfare.
“It’s a very engaging exhibit into an imaginary world,” Campbell said.
At the Vanderpoel Art Museum, Chicago-based visual artist Jennifer Cronin presented a collection of work spanning 20 years. Cronin, who earned dual BFAs in painting and art education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is known for realistic paintings that draw inspiration from overlooked people and places.
Her exhibit ranged from early portraits to new “magical landscapes” that transform everyday corners of the world into scenes filled with mystery and light. Among the highlights was Grace, a 2006 portrait layered with psychological storytelling, and Pieces of It Everywhere, a 2024 painting where an ordinary fence shimmers with neon edges.
“My artwork has always been rooted in noticing what’s around me — from domestic life to the crisis of climate change,” Cronin said. “Lately I’ve been slowing down, walking my neighborhood, and finding beauty and magic in places we usually pass right by.”
Independent galleries kept things lively.
The Garage behind Nicky’s of Beverly showcased eclectic works in every medium. Beverly Phono Mart displayed paintings by owners Chantala and Von Kommanivanh. Coffee shops from Two Mile Coffee Bar to Afro Joe’s opened walls to student artists, jewelers and musicians.
Studio tours drew some of the longest lines.
Neighbors peeked inside painter Ashley January’s new space at 103rd and Walden, while other established names — including Judie Anderson, Dan McCabe, Clifton Henri and Susannah Papish — invited guests into their workshops. Many paired up with guest artists, turning basements and backyards into one-day galleries.
The walk blended art with performance at every turn.
Spoken word filled courtyards. Chicago’s Poet Laureate Avery R. Young led a lively set. Pianos placed along the “Chicago Plays” crawl invited passersby to try a few notes. Quilts, sculpture and experimental installations layered the neighborhood with color and sound.
Campbell said the Art Walk shows how art can strengthen a neighborhood. “The Art Walk brings people to interesting places they may not have visited otherwise,” she said. “Art creates strong and vibrant communities.”
By the time the sun dipped, crowds flowed back toward 105th and Western. There, the Chicago Afrobeat Project — a 14-piece powerhouse mixing African rhythms with Chicago house, rock, hip hop and jazz — took the stage at Nicky’s of Beverly, closing the day with a high-energy after party.
Twelve years in, the Beverly Art Walk has grown into more than a neighborhood event. It has become a day when streets, storefronts and parks fuse into a single gallery, celebrating both the South Side’s history and its creative future.
