Hyde Park Art Center is proud to present Front & Center, the second annual exhibition of work from participants in our flagship artist professional development initiative, The Center Program. The Center Program offers a group of artists the unique opportunity to develop a new body of work, receive feedback from professionals in the field, and work towards an exhibition to be held in our main gallery. Over the course of six months, a supportive peer network, guest artists, gallerists, critics, and professionals push Center Program artists to answer tough questions, evolve their art, and ultimately produce a strong, new body of work to show.

Accompanying the reception of Front & Center will be the reception of Articulating the Edge, an exhibition featuring new drawings, photography, prints, and collages by teens participating in the Hyde Park Art Center’s in-house arts mentorship program, ArtShop. The program gives youth access to free training in the visual arts, assisting them in building their portfolios by providing open access to all the resources in the Art Center’s studios. Over the course of the program, teens work on individual art projects, receiving guidance, critique, and feedback from an artist mentor to produce an exhibition-ready body of work. Articulating the Edge will include work by budding artists from Kenwood Academy, King College Prep, Mount Carmel High School, Options Lab Charter School, and University of Chicago Laboratory School.