What was once an empty lot at the southwest corner of Douglas Boulevard and Central Park Avenue has been reinvented as a space reminiscent of a real-world “Sesame Street.” With an emphasis on education and activities for children and adults alike, Lawndale’s , at 3601 W. Douglas Blvd.
in the Love Blooms Here Plaza, is a community-led museum housed in a shipping container. It has been featuring art and narratives by and for West Side residents since 2019 under the guidance of co-founders Chelsea Ridley and Jonathan Kelley. At the Pop-Up Spot, whirligigs stand proud next to a sensory sand table for tikes.
Pavers make the area accessible among the landscaping that surrounds the 20-foot shipping container. And past and present exhibits look at physical and emotional safety, Earth’s healing foliage, and ancestral histories of Black and brown women. Let’s not forget the colorful mosaics that rest next to a pergola built by Boy Scouts or the grill that sits at the ready for public gatherings.
On a rainy day in early June, pages of “I Love My Hair” were displayed on wooden stakes in the soil adjacent to the shipping container for youths to read as they walked by. Inside the container, kids can pick up a book to enjoy on the beanbag or take it home to read. The Pop-Up Spot is the brainchild of Ridley and Kelley, who wanted to take museum curation out of the institutional landscape and bring it to the everyday person.
“We work under the model of museums as soup kitchens.
