Chicago’s North Side has a regional library. So does the South Side. But the West Side hasn’t had one since 1977, when the stately Beaux Arts Legler library building in West Garfield Park was decommissioned and made a regular branch.
But the expected proceeds from the sale of a valuable Kerry James Marshall painting that now hangs in the Legler Branch will fund its return to regional status, the city is expected to announce Monday. For the library, it would mean longer hours, significantly more services and programs for adults and children, and collections unique to the surrounding West Side community.
The large painting, “Knowledge & Wonder,” is owned by Chicago Public Library. Christie’s will handle the sale, which library officials said could be valued at between $10 million and $20 million. Proceeds from the art sale also will be used to establish what Mayor Rahm Emanuel called the city’s first-ever permanent public art fund to support public art in under-served communities.
Emanuel, along with Chicago Public Library Commissioner Brian Bannon, and Mark Kelly, who heads the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, plan to announce details of the library turnaround effort at an event at the library Monday. The mayor called the absence of a West Side regional library a “big hole” in the community.
“It’s a piece that was done in 1995 — it’s up on the second floor. Not many people knew it even existed,” Emanuel said. “We’re taking something on the second floor and investing in the larger West Side community and modernizing and really improving the neighborhood library. Given this is a beautiful building, but hasn’t had the type of capital investment it needed to really make it shine, that’s what we’re going to do.”
Marshall’s work is known for featuring African-American life and history. The “Knowledge & Wonder” painting shows several children and adults facing oversize books that depict objects of fascination: shooting stars, planets, cells, a bright red cardinal perched on a tree. One of Marshall’s paintings, “Past Times,” which had been purchased for $25,000 by the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (owner of McCormick Place) in 1997, sold this year at Sotheby’s to Sean Combs for $21.1 million. It was widely reported that Marshall, who lives in Chicago, became the highest-paid African-American artist with the Sotheby’s sale.
The library painting was commissioned for $10,000 in 1993 as part of the city’s “Percent for Art” program, which required that construction and renovation of municipal buildings contribute about 1 percent of the project cost to public art at the facility.
“We’re not set up in a neighborhood library to preserve and secure it,” said Bannon, the library commissioner. He said city officials have shared their plans with Marshall and that he is supportive. Marshall could not be reached for comment.
“What’s so exciting is we’re taking something that was part of a public arts program for this neighborhood, turning that around, selling it and making a deep investment in the arts and in the neighborhood itself,” Bannon said.
The two existing regional libraries in the city are in the Lincoln Square neighborhood and in Washington Heights. They keep the same hours as the Harold Washington Library, which is Chicago’s main facility.
“Harold Washington Library can’t really serve the city as a central library because we’re so geographically spread,” Bannon said. “What a regional library does is serve as a quasi-central library for that region of the city.”
The regional library designation means Legler will be open seven days a week with extended morning and evening hours, Bannon said. That could happen as soon as 2019. And while the Legler library currently has story time for children, the new funding from the Marshall art sale will allow the library to expand its children’s space to include early childhood classes and workshops, and a new STEM-focused children’s library, Bannon said. The current space for teens will gain a high-tech sound studio.
A new computer space will be paired with an adult workforce training center, and the library will get an adult “maker space” similar to the ones at the Harold Washington Library and Woodson Regional Library.
Officials said Legler will be the first city library location to have an “artist in residence” with a studio space named for Marshall. A community artist will use the space to host adult, teen and family art programs, and the space will gain digital arts and digital production capabilities, Bannon said.
The library plans to hold a competition for the interior building design.
It’s not clear why Legler was decommissioned as a regional library, Bannon said. Often such moves are budget-driven, as regional libraries cost more to operate than branches, he said.
Built in 1920, Legler, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, has received more than $900,000 in renovations over the last two years for structural repairs and to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. The art-auction proceeds will give the library the money it needs to do more than just basic upkeep, Bannon said.
“When we invest in libraries and invest in neighborhoods through libraries, people use them,” Bannon said. “When it comes to this neighborhood, this is a high-need neighborhood. They deserve to have a regional library like the north and south.”
