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'You Are Beautiful' Signs Coming to Andersonville in May

By Mina Bloom | April 15, 2015 5:52am
 A rendering shows the public art installation near the Swedish American Museum.
A rendering shows the public art installation near the Swedish American Museum.
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Courtesy/eco-Andersonville

ANDERSONVILLE — It's official: you are beautiful, Andersonville.

The positive message will be plastered around the neighborhood come May.

Nonprofit community group, eco-Andersonville, launched a Kickstarter campaign in early February to help bring Chicago artist Matthew Hoffman's public installations that simply read "You Are Beautiful" to the neighborhood. They ended up surpassing their goal of $5,500, raising a total of $7,312.

Andersonville is the latest location for Hoffman's work, which has been displayed around the city — everywhere from Beverly to Humboldt Park. 

There will be four installations, three of them will be attached to fences and one will be painted on a sign.

One will be attached to a fence between Winona Avenue and Carmen Street, or on the parking lot fence belonging to AT&T. Another will be at Foster and Ashland avenues attached to the parking lot fence belonging to the Swedish American Museum. A third sign will be installed at Clark and Olive streets; this one will be done using chalkboard paint.

Hoffman's signature message will also be painted on Lyman Trumbull Elementary School's old sign at the corner of Foster and Ashland avenues.

Before installation can begin, the nonprofit is inviting residents to help paint and prime the letters this weekend beginning at 12 p.m. until 5 p.m. Saturday at the Berwyn Red Line station, 1121 W. Berwyn Ave. If more help is needed, residents will be asked to help Sunday, too.

For Brian Bonanno, the sustainability programs manager at the nonprofit, the installation marks one of his final accomplishments in his current role. Bonanno is leaving his post at the nonprofit at the end of May.

"It's a really good project to go out on," said Bonanno, who has worked for eco-Andersonville since 2010.

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