Artists have until Friday, Oct. 23, to submit qualifications for a mural planned for the new Ryan Field’s southeast facade facing Central Street.
The Evanston Arts Council has received about 24 applications from artists around the world since the window opened Sept. 29, as first reported by the Evanston Roundtable. Juelle Daley, the city's arts and cultural engagement specialist, said more applicants from the Chicago area were expected before the deadline.
The mural is one of the public benefits Northwestern University promised as part of the town-gown agreement that accompanied the stadium project. Council members will score submissions and choose three finalists at their Nov. 9 meeting. The Ryan family, the billionaire Northwestern trustees who funded the stadium, will then review the finalists' proposals and pick the winner.
The finished piece will be a vinyl print produced from a digital file, not a painted mural. But Arts Council member Raissa Bailey said that doesn't limit how artists create their work. "If somebody wants to paint it, digitize it and you know, pixelate it and blow it up to whatever it needs to be, we're not saying they can't do that," Bailey said at the council's meeting.
The Daily Northwestern reported the council anticipates the mural will be complete by April 2027.
Separately, city and university officials announced plans for an Evanston Live Arts Festival launching next summer. Criss Henderson, former executive director of Chicago Shakespeare Theater, will serve as the festival's inaugural creative and executive director. Henderson led Chicago Shakespeare for 33 years, growing it from a small operation into a Tony Award-winning regional theater with a $20 million budget, the Chicago Tribune reported in 2022.
A new nonprofit run jointly by Northwestern and city representatives will oversee the festival. Arts Council member John Engman, who will serve as the nonprofit's treasurer, said the separate entity was needed because both the city and the university "are quite bureaucratic, quite involved with other things than a summer arts festival."
Northwestern has committed $250,000 per year to fund the event. The pilot festival will have a boosted budget of $500,000, combining contributions for this year and 2027, with leftover funds rolling into future years. That annual funding is guaranteed through 2040 under the town-gown agreement's 15-year term, the Roundtable reported.
Specific dates for the inaugural festival have not been announced. Henderson's appointment marks one of his first major roles since leaving Chicago Shakespeare.
