Hyde Park Art Center is pleased to present the fourth installment of an ongoing successful program intended to encourage a new and diverse public to think of themselves as patrons or leaders of contemporary art. Potential patrons and Chicago artists are brought together through a series of presentations and social events to build a relationship and commission new work that re-contextualizes the age-old trope of portraiture. The exhibition presents these 80-100 completed new works that result from the year-long program.
Created by the Hyde Park Art Center, Not Just Another Pretty Face allows the Art Center to play matchmaker for artists and potential art buyers and creates a new base of support for artists, and invests in the vitality of Chicago’s cultural community.
The program takes place every three years and is meant to involve a broad range of patrons and artists, with commissions ranging from in the hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars. To date, the Art Center has raised over $700,000—half of which goes directly into the hands of artists, with the other half going to support Art Center programs. All of this results in an exhibition of the original works of art, a catalog documenting the process, and a lively event to unveil the finished pieces, which will make their way to the patrons’ homes following the exhibition.
