Discovering Chicago — Seeing Diversity in Arts and Culture

Max Ferrari
1 November 2021


I love it when I hear friends and family mention that they want to visit Chicago, that they want to see the city. I, however, cannot help but wonder what exactly they mean by “seeing Chicago.” While Chicago is in many ways a large monolithic living entity, there is no great way to really “see Chicago.” Chicago looks, feels, tastes, smells, and sounds different to every individual resident living here. The Chicago experience can vary so much from neighborhood to neighborhood, and a lot of the most popular tourist destinations funnel out-of-towners primarily into the central business district in The Loop. Navy Pier, Millennium Park, The Bean, and the Art Institute of Chicago, for example, were among the most popular tourist attractions in Chicago in the year 2019.

The Bean, while a unique and iconic staple of Chicago, reflects far more city lights than it does city culture. One of the most highly-trafficked tourist destinations in Chicago in 2019, the bean seems to be on almost every tourists list.

While I in no way intend to negate or speak ill of these attractions, there is no denying the fact that The Loop is by far and away the most highly trafficked region of the city by tourists. While these attractions are all wonderful, interesting places to visit, there is so much more Chicago to be seen, explored, and understood. I often think of this when I learn how many tourists visit the tops of the Sears and John Hancock buildings. This reminds me about what Michael de Certeau wrote regarding visiting the top of the World Trade Centre in New York City. He wrote, “To be lifted to the summit of the World Trade Centre is to be lifted out of the city’s grasp. One’s body is no longer clasped by the streets that turn and return it according to an anonymous law; nor is it possessed, whether as a player or played, by the rumble of so many differences … When one goes up here, he leaves behind the mass that carries off and mixes up itself any identity of authors or spectators.” (de Certeau).

The Northern view from the John Hancock Center in Chicago. Not quite as tall as the World Trade Center, but still offering an impressive and almost inhuman vista of the city below.

While de Certeau is speaking about Chicago’s neighbor to the East, New York, his words are equally if not more applicable to the Windy City. When tourists visit the tops of these ginormous skyscrapers, they are being removed from the life of the city. They are isolated from the “rumble of so many differences” that lay beneath them, unable to actually experience all the culture, arts, and life happening below. A visitor to the top of one of these buildings is simply an observer, not a participant. When designing my field guide, I wanted to find a way to let tourists feel more like participants. I wanted them to be a cog in the bustling machine that’s creating said “rumble of difference.” To me, seeing Chicago is about actively exploring the variety and diversity that the city has to offer. When designing my field guide, I knew I needed to have an audience in mind. I thought of my friends and family back home, or anyone who wants to see Chicago for the first time. I thought of the ways they could experience more of the arts and culture in the city, exploring more than just The Loop.
Since Chicago is such an unbelievably diverse and heterogeneous place, both in terms of demographics and culture as well as art and design, I wanted to create a guide for a tourist to be able to experience as much culture as possible.

One of the sketches in my pamphlet. Inspired by signage seen in Humboldt Park. This is a main central theme in my field guide — meeting and appreciating neighbors who are different from you.

As authors Patrick Sisson and Alissa Walker wrote in their article entitled 101 Small Ways You Can Improve Your City, “Get to know your neighbors … A neighborhood feels pretty special when we know we’re all looking out for each other.” (Sisson and Walker). I think this is a principle truth to city life, and extends beyond just the people who live next to you. The more you understand, care for, and surround yourself with diverse, different, and interesting people who also call Chicago home, the more Chicago is going to truly feel like home. The more you make an effort to meet your neighbors, the more the city opens up to you. There are important social applications to this idea, as well. As author Leo Hollis wrote, “Reclamation of the city begins with the realisation that ‘that’ place, whatever its problems, is in fact ‘our’ place” (Hollis). We as citizens of the world have a duty to understand and explore areas and people different from ourselves. Once we do, their deficits, hardships, and struggles become our own.

A restaurant lavatory in Humboldt Park. I found the protest stickers to be very powerful.

They are no longer just stories of a far-off land, they are real to us. The power of exploring our diverse neighborhoods knows no bounds. On my map, I made an effort to include several tourist destinations which show the various unique aspects of Chicagoan identity in the interest of getting tourists to dive deep into Chicago neighborhoods. I made a point to include several museums, some of which are more famous or highly-visited than others. All of the museums I selected highlight works of art and culture from specific ethnic groups, many of which have been overlooked for generations. Places like the Mexican-American Art Museum, the Chinese-American Art Museum, and the National Hellenic Museum, for example, all display artifacts of arts and culture from historically marginalized or oppressed ethnic groups. While this fact alone makes these destinations worth seeing, all of these museums are housed in neighborhoods which have been historically homogenous and home primarily to many members of each respective ethnic group.

One of my sketches, and the first page of my guide. The drawing is of a sculptural representation of the Puerto Rican flag, which can be found in Humboldt Park. The introductory message invites the reader to seriously consider and recognize the cultural and artistic differences between neighborhoods and to get lost within them. To explore, wonder, and and find new things.

The Chinese-American Art Museum, for example, is located in Chinatown — a neighborhood home to many people of Asian and Asian-American descent.

I took some videos of my last trip to Chinatown. It was amazing. One quick trip on the Red Line train and immediately you are immersed in new foods, languages, cultures, stores, products, and life. From this video, you can see that we were able to eat authentic Chinese hotpot and shop for Asian-made products that are hard to find elsewhere. Despite being only a few miles away from my home, venturing to Chinatown feels like stepping into an entirely different world with entirely different traditions, art, and culture.

An example of some of the interesting art one might find in a neighborhood like Chinatown. Architecture, design, aesthetics, and art are very prominent visual features of any Chicago neighborhood and provide some insight into the neighborhood’s culture and history.

Being located in very culturally-driven neighborhoods, all of the museums I listed offer authentic dining experiences within walking distance. I made a point to label these neighborhoods on the map, alongside the museums. This way, even if a tourist wanted to skip the Swedish-American museum, they would still know where Andersonville is and that there are Swedish shops and restaurants located there. As I was making the guide, I asked myself what sort of information might be helpful to someone reading it, that way I could fill the innermost pages with something informative or useful to the consumer. I decided that one of the things I would do is go into some more depth into mapping some of the neighborhoods. While these maps are not crazy detailed, they illustrate the layouts of the main commercial drag in each neighborhood and their relationship to any CTA train or bus stations, making it easier for tourists to navigate.

The Cermak-Chinatown L station. This was included on the close-up map of the Chinatown neighborhood both for ease of use and because it boasts a beautiful view of the city’s skyline.

I also tried to include pseudo-advertisements or announcements for real-life community events happening in these neighborhoods, giving my reader some more information on possible activities they could engage in while visiting Chicago. There is no denying that my map is in no way all-encompassing. Countless neighborhoods and institutions were left off mainly in the interest of readability and the assumption that a tourist only has a limited number of time to spend in the city. My map provides enough excursion opportunities to fill up between 3–7 days, what I assumed might be an average length of a tourist visit to Chicago. In the interest of exploring arts and culture, I included venues and events on the map and throughout the field guide. On the map I pointed out the Laugh Factory, Music Box, and Chicago Theatre, all cathedrals to arts, culture, and creativity in their own ways. Each venue hosts a diverse list of both shows and performers, making it a great place to immerse oneself in Chicagoan culture. Additionally, I included information for upcoming events at various places, such as a Day of the Dead parade in Pilsen and a social documentary premiere in Humboldt Park. Including these things gave me an opportunity to encourage my audience to not only explore these neighborhoods, but to get involved. This was the driving force behind me making this field guide — to get people unfamiliar with the city involved with people from all sorts of backgrounds and cultures.

A beautiful mural in Pilsen which illustrates a myth very important to Aztec mythology and understanding. While also being something beautiful to look at while exploring, this mural also acts as a window into the culture and history of Pilsen.

I wanted out-of-towners to be able to experience things maybe outside of their comfort zone or outside of their scope of knowledge. Doing so can open eyes to disparities and inequalities, but also simply educate and inform. In order to really understand Chicago, we need to understand ourselves and our differences. That is exactly what I aim to encourage with my field guide. Even from the very first page I wanted to make it clear to my audience that getting lost, walking, and exploring places and cultures you are unfamiliar with is the ultimate way to truly “see Chicago.” Trying to see every angle, every perspective, and every overlapping story and history paints the most clear image of the imaginable. My plea to the reader is this: if you want to get to know the city, make a difference, and better your own understanding of our world and cultures, go out and see it. It’s right in our backyard.