Community-curated “Pressure Makes Diamonds” exhibit opens August 25
An exhibit at the Lawndale Pop-Up Spot curated by the [Your Exhibit Here] cohort of North Lawndale residents
August 25–September 25, 2023
Love Blooms Here Plaza 💎 3601 W. Douglas Blvd., Chicago
On Friday, August 25, the Lawndale Pop-Up Spot will unveil its new exhibit, Pressure Makes Diamonds, an exploration of diamonds through the lenses of science, history, fashion, and culture – and a celebration of the “diamonds” of North Lawndale. The exhibit is the culmination of a summer-long project called [Your Exhibit Here], in which a dozen North Lawndale residents were hired to create an exhibit from the ground up.
Pressure Makes Diamonds will run through September 25, 2023.
According to Jonathan Kelley, co-founder of the Lawndale Pop-Up Spot, “Pressure Makes Diamonds takes as its big idea the idea that the community of North Lawndale is filled with ‘diamonds’ – sparkling treasures who are forged through pressure-filled circumstances. This exhibit showcases these symbolic diamonds while also exploring the formation, excavation, refining, and marketing of actual physical diamonds. The curation team is inviting North Lawndale residents to make those connections and to see the beauty and worth in themselves and their community.”
[Your Exhibit Here] is the most recent of the Lawndale Pop-Up Spot’s initiatives to provide space and resources for residents to gain skills and experience in exhibition curation, writing, programming, and promotion. Participants visited numerous cultural spaces and met with curators and other museum workers to learn more about their professional practices. They also brought and shared their own skills as artists, researchers, writers, educators to help bring the exhibit to life.
Pressure Makes Diamonds is open Wednesdays from 2:00-8:00, Thursdays and Fridays from 2:00-6:00, and Saturdays from 11:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Group tours are available by appointment. Admission is free to all. In addition to the opening celebration, Pressure Makes Diamonds will feature a diamond-themed movie night on September 13 and a closing celebration during Sundays on the Boulevard on September 24.
Pressure Makes Diamonds is made possible thanks to many partners, including funding from Innovation 80 and the Steans Family Foundation.
The Lawndale Pop-Up Spot is a community museum in a shipping container located at Love Blooms Here Plaza, a community gathering space at 3601 W. Douglas Blvd. in Chicago.
