Public Art

Uptown United facilitates public art projects that enliven our streetscape and highlight our unique, inclusive community.

Public Art Grant Program

The Uptown SSA funds a Public Art Grant Program to capture and convey Uptown’s unique identity and sense of place. To be considered, there are several goals that applications should strive for:

Nurture a pleasant and safe environment for residents, visitors, patrons, and businesses.
Celebrate Uptown’s rich history and architectural heritage.
Foster a visually attractive urban environment to showcase local establishments.
Display the cultural, economic, and historical diversity of Uptown.

Download the Public Art Grant Application

Clifton Avenue Street Art Gallery

The Clifton Avenue Street Art Gallery in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood is an outdoor art gallery just steps from the CTA Wilson Station. Partially funded by the Uptown Special Service Area and developed by Uptown United in 2019, the Gallery is a partnership with community members and with artists from all over the globe. It’s a unique street art destination, currently showcasing 100+ murals by 100+ artists – and growing!

Graceland Walls Gallery

The Graceland Walls Gallery is a stunning collection of art. Over 60 artists have painted 4x4 panels live during Uptown Art Week over the past few years. The panels are installed on the east facing wall of Graceland Cemetery (outside the cemetery under the L tracks).

Yard Walls Project

As part of Uptown Art Week 2022 and 2023, the Yard Walls Project paired thirteen women artists with thirteen women business owners in Uptown. Each artist painted a unique mural inspired by the business owner that they were paired with.

Isabella Scott +
Shopping Girl XOXO

About Isabella Scott

Isabella Scott is an illustrator and fine artist from Winnebago, Illinois. She currently lives in Chicago. She has created a wide range of art in a variety of mediums from ballpoint pen to photography. She loves creating a world where she combines fact and fantasy. She has dedicated her career to creating diverse and inclusive work that celebrates the uniqueness of everyone and the world around her. isabellascott.net | @theartbyizzie

About Shopping Girl XOXO

Lora LaPratt, of Shopping Girl XOXO, is a personal stylist for clients nation-wide. She prides her business on really getting to know her clients on a personal level and helping to bring out each individual’s style based on their interests, body shape, coloring, and overall way of life. She also loves to work with local designers and boutiques to keep her clients looking unique and individual rather than matching everyone else walking down Michigan Avenue. She is a lover of the color purple, a complete bohemian at heart, believes comfort and happiness are the best outfit makers, and can’t get enough of a great high rise jean and oversized blazer combo on herself. Yet, she loves to transport into her clients styles and help them to look and most importantly feel amazing in whatever style they are drawn to. shoppinggirlxoxo.com | @shoppinggirlxoxo

Alyssa Low +
Fat Cat Bar

About Alyssa Low

Alyssa Low is a 2011 graduate of Judson University, and is currently a Product Designer at Eight Bit Studios in downtown Chicago. She was also named the AIGA Emerging Designer Award recipient in 2016. Outside of work, Alyssa is an active thought leader in the design community. Aside from being a part of Judson’s Art + Design mentor program, you can find her speaking at Stevenson High School (class of ’07), and She Says Chicago – an award-winning organization running free mentorship and events for women in creative and marketing businesses. Alyssa is also a portfolio reviewer for AIGA and previously part of Thirst’s Moving Design Sustainable Living initiative. alyssalow.com | @alyssalowww

About Fat Cat Bar

Fat Cat Chicago has been an Uptown staple since 2007; a neighborhood gathering place serving Chef inspired American fare six nights a week. Weekend brunch includes a Bloody Mary voted best in Chicago in 2014. Fat Cat has a constantly rotating craft beer selection with a focus on American craft brewers as well as extensive craft cocktail to choose from. Conveniently located around the corner from Riviera Theater, The Aragon Ballroom, and Lawrence red line stop; entertainment options include a pool table, shuffle board, and giant jenga in their “Uptown” Room. fatcatbar.com | @fatcatchicago

Mary Fedorowski +
Wagnolia Veterinary Clinic

About Mary Fedorowski

Mary Fedorowski is the founder of Overbite Studio where her work examines how light and color fundamentally bring shapes to life. Her style is rooted in minimalism with a focus on the beauty of modern landscapes. Using crisp lines, an engaging palette, and playing with space and movement, each work is a calm and vibrant respite from maximal distractions of modern life. Whether by shadow or greenery, her art suggests that life does exist right beyond the wall. maryfedorowski.com | @overbitestudio

About Wagnolia

Wagnolia Veterinary Clinic is a progressive, state-ofthe-art veterinary clinic offering integrative medicine to patients in the Uptown neighborhood and all across Chicago. Dr. Joshi and her fellow Wagnolians value the human-animal bond, a concept centered on our physical, emotional, and psychological connection with our pets. Wagnolia Veterinary Clinic is the product of sincere dedication, a constant commitment to learning and maintaining progressive medical techniques and treatments, and a group of individuals whose number one priority is to make your pet’s visit as comfortable and stress-free as possible. wagnoliavet.com | @wagnoliavet

Shannon Kay +
Uptown Lounge

About Shannon Kay

Shannon Kay is an American Visual Artist born in Kansas City. Growing up in a large family of creators, she developed a passion for irregular use of color, surface, and materials. Early and persistent exposure to diverse creative minds has brought Shannon to view the world as a gallery and those within as evolving bodies of work. Shannon’s approach to painting is reflective of her in depth studies in graphic design and a penchant for vast and exploratory color palettes. itsshanlandia.com | @shanlandia

About Uptown Lounge

Uptown Lounge has been the north side’s finest and friendliest late night hangout for more than 17 years. Karaoke, live music, and special events keep you going until the late hours of the night. Come as you are, and everyone is welcome to pile in for a good time. Explore their selection of more than 100 craft beers and relax in a booth or belly up to the bar with the coolest staff in the city. uptownlounge.net | #uptownloungechicago

Britni Mara +
Yoga Body Elements Studio

About Britni Mara

Britni Mara, is a visual artist living and working in Chicago, IL. She graduated in 2013 from Bradley University with a BFA in Studio Art and completed postgraduate work at the Siena Art Institute in Siena, Italy in 2014. For Britni, manufacturing work that embodies meaning is the purpose of creating. The artist has created several different bodies of artwork in the last decade. Each body of work explores a different medium that translates her societal observations. This fosters curiosity and exploration of new creative methods without straying away from her innate practice of abstraction. Britni’s work is never narrowed in as it has always been rather expansive and explorative. She believes a curious mind is the key to creativity. britnimara.com | @mara.onthemove

About Yoga Body Elements

Born in Iowa, Cindy Huston has accredited 20+ years of teaching and choreography experience to ages 3 years to adult. She primarily teaches Bhakti Vinyasa and YACEPRestorative Yoga. She also has experience teaching yoga to children. Her yoga classes are focused on balancing the physical and energetic body while embodying bhakti “heart center”. Cindy thrives to creatively continue exploring the body potential to naturally heal and it’s infinite possibilities to express through all traditional and non-traditional forms of movement. yogabodyelements.com | @yogabodyelementschicago

Andy Bellamo +
Big Chicks

About Andy Bellamo

Andy Bellomo’s artistic expression is deeply rooted in exploring, observing, listening, and learning. As a selftaught artist, Andy began her creative interest as a young teen studying the color, light, shapes, and lines of traditional stained glass in churches. After feeling a great disconnect between the spaces in these churches and her ever-evolving experience within the LGBTQ community, she moved away from studying stained glass and instead merged its use of line, pattern, and design into her own practice, using what inspired her to propel her forward into a long-lasting art career. She developed her own unique style, creating movement and rhythm through line, and evolved her artwork into a fresh flow that now extends beyond the medium of glasswork into abstract pieces and large-scale murals. andybellomo.com | @andybmix

About Big Chicks

Big Chicks is owned by Michelle Fire. The name of the bar was inspired by an experience Fire had on a trip to India, where she was referred to as “Big Chick,” by men in Bandra. Prior to Fire purchasing the bar in 1986, it had been a veteran’s bar and when Fire took over, she inherited the clients, their dogs, and the original bartenders. Over time, the bar has become an “informal gay community center.” The bar also is known for its art, and in 2016, was inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame. bigchicks.com | @bigchicks_theuptownbar

Molly Zakrajsek +
Klein’s Bakery & Cafe

About Molly Zakrajsek

Public Artist, Molly Z. combines elaborate line work, vibrant colors and intricate patterns to create energetic, multi-layered compositions. Using biomorphic forms and shapes reminiscent of nature, Molly Z. selects imagery that speaks of growth, transformation, and vitality in life. She often incorporates systems of patterning in her work as a contemporary visual and social metaphor to celebrate both diversity and collective unity. Her colorful agglomerations are a visual echo of the complexity and optimism in the human experience. For Molly, it is a joy to use her artistic abilities to create permanent works of art and positive, memorable experiences for others. mollyz.net | @mollyz.art

About Klein’s Bakery & Cafe

Jessica and her sister Dayana Klein opened their Uptown bakery in spring 2017. Though they lack formal pastry training, the women learned to bake at the elbow of their grandmother, who owned a cake shop. Both came to Chicago from Caracas. Klein’s menu does include a number of concessions to American preferences, however it’s the thoroughly Venezuelan baked goods that are the star of the show at Klein’s. Along with the golfeado, top sellers include the cachito, a croissant-shaped bread roll stuffed with ham. kleinsbakerycafe.com | @kleinbakery

Alejandra Rivero +
Tiztal Cafe

About Alejandra Rivero

A Los Angeles native artist, Alejandra moved to Chicago for the incredible art scene and the rich history behind it. In her initial years in Chicago, Alejandra dedicated her time achieving her undergrad degree in Graphic Design from the School of the Arts Institute of Chicago. She is currently working on her Master’s degree in Fine Arts in the same school. Alejandra’s art encompasses as a multi-disciplinary artist. Her body of work consists of mixed media paintings, installations, and murals. Throughout her paintings, the spirit of her work is abstract, surrealist, and figurative. She allows her work to have a freedom of perspective which can result in many interpretations. When she is not painting, she enjoys spending time with her Frenchy dog Lolette in her Uptown neighborhood and always family time with her little sister. alejandrarivero.com | @art_jandra

About Tiztal Cafe

Tiztal Cafe opened in May of 2008 at 4631 N. Clark Avenue, in Uptown Chicago. The cafe originated from a juice bar in what was called the “Mega Mall” in Logan Square. The fusion of this popular spot has made Tiztal Café the go-to-spot for Chicagoans for breakfast and lunch. They’ve had the pleasure and privilege of serving customers from Indiana, Wisconsin, and many that come from out-of-town to visit loved ones. Tiztal Cafe is a family owned and operated restaurant; and that is why they treat everyone like part of the family. tiztalcafe.com | @tiztalcafe4631

Suzanne Stewart +
First Sip Café

About Suzanne Stewart

Chicago, Illinois based artist Suzanne Stewart is a creative who loves to paint, teach, and collaborate on art projects. Botanicals and abstract paintings are the focus of her latest collections. She also has worked on numerous large collaborative installations and art series in the Uptown Neighborhood. Suzanne has always had a passion for creating, color, and being resourceful with the materials at hand. These passions were first shared to her by her artistically talented mother and grandmother. Currently, Suzanne is teaching art at Pilgrim Lutheran School, and working to create new pieces and connections. suzannestewartart.com | @suzannestewartart

About First Sip Café

Sisters Gigi and Erin Hoang are the two behind First Sip Café, the Argyle Street coffee shop that has quickly been embraced by locals needing a place to work, study, or meet. More than a coffee shop, First Sip aims to be a community space to hang out and fuel your creativity. Erin says that while her mom always dreamed of running a business, she grew up not wanting to work at a restaurant. She didn’t imagine she’d ever be an entrepreneur, let alone with her own business just a block away from her parents’ long-running Café Hoang– the popular Vietnamese eatery. firstsip.cafe | @firstsipcafe

Interactive Public Art Map

CLICK HERE for an interactive map to explore works of public art around Uptown.