This fall the Hyde Park Art Center celebrates its 75th birthday. That’s an advanced age for an arts organization, but HPAC’s administrators and curators hope it’s still in the middle of its life. Its latest exhibit, “The Chicago Effect: Redefining the Middle,” considers the idea of middleness in terms of age, geography—Chicago is, after all, in the middle of the country—and in other, more metaphorical ways. It’s also a tribute to the way the arts are practiced here, particularly at places like HPAC, which is neither the largest and richest art center and gallery in the city nor the smallest and poorest but—you guessed it—in the middle.
The belief that art is a process, an ongoing experiment, goes along with the theme of middleness. “You occupy a space of uncertainty,” Ralapati explains, “in the hope of going to another place.”
8/24 through 11/23 Hyde Park Art Center 5020 S. Cornell 773-324-5520 hydeparkart.org Free
