One Of These 6 Sculptures Will Be Wicker's Largest Public Art Commission

Here are five of the six finalists for a new sculpture at Wicker Park's intersection of Milwaukee Avenue and Wood Street.

Wicker Park Sculpture Contest

WICKER PARK — With the selection of six finalists, public art is one step closer to livening up Wicker Park's Milwaukee Avenue and Wood Street intersection.

On Friday, the Wicker Park Bucktown Chamber of Commerce and Special Service Area Taxpayer District No. 33, which brands itself as "WPB," announced that John E. Bannon, Lynn Basa, Nicole Beck, Curt Brill, Paul Kuhn and Chris Boyd Taylor have been tapped as finalists for the largest public art commission in the group's history.

Selected by a jury of Chicago arts professionals after a call for submissions this past fall, one of the six artists will be awarded a $30,000-$75,000 commission to create a permanent installation at the southeast corner of the highly visible intersection of Milwaukee Avenue and Wood Street.

The intersection was redesigned in 2014 using money from the WPB commission — which levies a special tax on property owners for communal services such as snow removal, landscaping, sidewalk cleaning and graffiti removal — in collaboration with the Chicago Department of Transportation and Ald. Joe Moreno (1st).

The redesign served two purposes: making the intersection safer for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians and developing a location specifically for future public artwork.

"The [WPB Special Service Area No. 33] has a longstanding record of supporting the artistic and cultural communities in Wicker Park Bucktown," the group said in a news release. "Through both arts initiatives led by the WPB SSA #33 Arts Committee and the annual Community Grants Program, the [WPB Special Service Area No. 33] awards funds to local artists and organizations to enhance quality of life within the neighborhood and foster community growth and development.:

Each finalist has received $1,000 to create a small model to be publicly displayed at Jackson Junge Gallery, 1389 N Milwaukee, for public comment from Feb. 21 to Mar. 21. The commission's arts committee will announce a winner in late March 2017.

Here's a sneak peek of the finalists and their proposed sculptures.

"Urban Coral" by John E. Bannon

^{John E. Bannon.}