Thank you for last week’s story about the new mural on Beyond Hunger’s future North Avenue HQ [Meal by meal & piece by piece, News, Sept. 2].
I’m writing to clarify how this striking mural came to be. It was funded by a grant from Oak Park’s ARPA allocation. The North Avenue District and Oak Park Area Arts Council (OPAAC) were jointly awarded this grant in 2022 for the North Art Bridge project, which aims to revitalize the district and unite both sides of North Avenue — as well as north Oak Park and Chicago’s Galewood neighborhood — through public art.
We’ve added several wonderful murals since receiving the grant, including the meaningful mosaic mural at 6209 W. North Ave. in Oak Park. While this is the first time the North Avenue District was involved in funding an Off the Wall program mural, we already had one such mural on the west wall of Wonder Works Children’s Museum, 6445 W. North Ave. in Oak Park. We’re delighted to have them both!
Judith Alexander
Founder, North Avenue District