Created by Hyde Park Art Center, Not Just Another Pretty Face allows the Art Center to play matchmaker for artists and potential art buyers, facilitating a fun, accessible commissioning process that builds lasting relationships between artists and patrons, creates a new base of support for artists, and invests in the vitality of Chicago’s cultural community. 2016-17 marks the sixth installment of this dynamic program.
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. Not Just Another Pretty Face has been replicated in five cities.