Lake Park Crescent

To help cultivate and mobilize social assets at Lake Park Crescent (LPC), arts programs are designed based on residents’ interests and their involvement in planning the programs. In this way, residents share their range of expertise and talents which include involving the people they know, handling logistical matters, and demonstrating their creativity. Programs have included painting, cooking, writing, and yoga classes.

Painting

Residents of LPC indicated a strong interest in painting in a 2005 programming survey. CCUC responded to this desire by offering a series of ten-week painting sessions that were open to all residents. Guided by instructors from the Chicago Park District and North Kenwood-Oakland arts organization Little Black Pearl, residents learned the basics of working with acrylic paint, charcoal, pencil, pastels and ceramic tile glaze. Sessions were offered weekly, beginning in April 2006, and gave residents the opportunity to connect with their neighbors through the shared experience of creating art. A ceramic quilt, composed of tiles residents painted to reflect their vision of the community, hangs in the lobby of Lake Park Crescent’s mid-rise building.
Cooking

Cooking and eating together can be a profoundly social experience, enjoyed by a wide variety of people, and LPC is no exception. Residents at LPC are interested in learning new cooking techniques, swapping recipes, and best of all partaking in meals together. Offering cooking sessions at LPC has been challenging, due to the lack of common kitchen facilities. CCUC staff have worked with residents to come up with creative solutions to this problem. Cooking sessions around the themes of summer salads, cake decorating and grilling, that do not rely on traditional preparation methods, have successfully been held in the LPC Community Room. In June 2006, CCUC offered residents a professional culinary training experience in conjunction with the Washburn Culinary Institute at the South Shore Cultural Center. Cooking has continued in the form of community-wide meals that a group of residents have organized on their own.
Creative Writing

Writing has a unique history at Lake Park Crescent. A resident proposed an informal spoken word poetry group in Spring 2006, which blossomed into some of CCUC’s most innovative programs. After starting as a Saturday morning performance space, writing offerings expanded to include a workshop led by the Neighborhood Writing Alliance and LPC’s first “Art Social.” The four-week NWA workshop allowed residents to hone their writing skills by drafting pieces during class and getting immediate feedback from the group. Four of the residents had their poems published in the NWA’s Journal of Ordinary Thought, an event celebrated by readings at a social event in the Community Room.
Yoga and Residents’ Walking Group

Throughout the Spring of 2007, Lake Park Crescent residents had the opportunity to spend time enjoying the health and relaxation benefits of yoga. Proposed by a resident and taught by North Kenwood yoga instructor and massage therapist Pat Walton, the ten-week class combined breathing, meditation and movement. Participants ranged widely in age and income-level, but universally agreed that it was the “one hour a week I have for myself” and reported that they applied the lessons to their every day lives. Interested residents have continued to take yoga by going to Pat Walton’s yoga studio. In addition, a few residents had formed on their own a Walking Group that meets on Saturdays to do an early morning walk around the track at nearby Mandrake Park.

To learn more about upcoming special events and outings, please contact Clinton Nichols by email, or phone: 312.665.7487.

Continue to Special Events >>