Title:  ABC Youth Center Sculpture Garden


Site: 3415 W. 13th Place, Chicago


Artists:  Phil Schuster and Marva Jolly


Community Participants:Youths and staff from the ABC Youth Center


Sponsors:  Openlands


Year:  1996


Scale:  Garden with sculptures and planters - 25 x 80 feet


Materials:  Concrete sculpture and ceramic mosaic


Information:  A playful, imaginative neighborhood space reclaimed from an abandoned lot next to the ABC Youth Center. Schuster, a concrete sculptor, and Jolly, a ceramicist, worked with landscape designers and local children to transform a woodlot into an art garden abloom with whimsy and wonder.

Six separate artworks--three bird baths, a flowing “river” bench, a triangular planter bench, and Schuster’s 23-foot-long writhing snake--are all decorated with glass mosaic, cracked-ceramic tile, handmade clay relief tiles, stones, and other bric-a-brac. A spray mural executed by Dzine in 1993 forms a backdrop for the garden.