After months of planning and weeks of painting, sponsors, artists, and business owners have started hamming it up: They’ve installed 16 fiberglass swine in the Avenue business district, with plans to unveil one more. The pigs’ arrival signals the start of a campaign to liven up summer shopping around Lake Street and Oak Park Avenue, according to event chair and co-owner of Cucina Paradiso Nick Gambino.
“I just think pigs make people smile,” Gambino said, explaining the porkers’ purpose. “Who doesn’t like a good pig?”
The pig-planning began in January, when Gambino suggested the idea at a meeting of the Avenue Business Association. Members of the Oak Park Public Arts Advisory Council, the Oak Park Art League, the Oak Park Area Arts Council, the Avenue Business Association and Pig Parade sponsors quickly decided on 18 local artists, who then had three weeks to paint the fiberglass forms according to self-selected themes like “HAMlet,” “Swine Lake,” and “Pigasso.”
The hogs will remain on the Avenue until fall, when they will be sold at an Oct. 8 auction at Cheney Mansion. The funds raised from this auction will benefit Hephzibah Children’s Association, the Oak Park Area Arts Council, the Avenue Business Assocation and artist stipends.
“Elena Levenson
Â