Hyde Park, University team up for new community arts festival planned for June 1-2 weekend

A new neighborhood festival, the Hyde Park-University of Chicago Arts Fest, will be held on Saturday, June 1 and Sunday, June 2, coinciding with the 57th Street Art Fair, the Hyde Park Community Art Fair and the annual alumni reunion weekend.

During the festival, a free trolley system will link more than 20 participating arts institutions. Several organizations will sponsor special programming; as just one example, Court Theatre and the University of Chicago Presents (the University’s classical music series) will collaborate on a cabaret performance. More special events, including programs for children, will be announced later this month.

“More visitors are in Hyde Park on the first weekend in June than at any other time of the year,” said festival organizer Kyle Gorden, Associate Director for Marketing at Court Theatre. “The Hyde Park-University of Chicago Arts Fest is a way for our neighborhood’s amazing variety of cultural institutions to be showcased to that audience and to Hyde Park natives.”

The festival is a collaborative effort by the 57th Street Art Fair, the Blue Gargoyle, the Chicago Storytelling Guild, Court Theatre, DOC Films, the DuSable Museum of African-American History, the Hyde Park Art Center, the Hyde Park Community Art Fair, the Hyde Park Historical Society, the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club, the Hyde Park School of Ballet, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Neighborhood Writing Alliance, the Oriental Institute Museum, the Renaissance Society, the Robie House, Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, the David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, the University Library, University of Chicago Presents, University Press, University Theater, and WHPK.

The University will sponsor the event with assistance from the Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce and Alderman Leslie Hairston’s 5th Ward Office.