Gwendolyn Brooks   Richard Wright

The American Writers Museum Foundation (AWMF) recently received a grant from the S&C Electric Foundation to fund the museum's Writing Chicago exhibit. The AWMF is grateful to S&C for joining the Chicago Community Trust as co-sponsor and co-funder of the exhibit, scheduled to rotate through Chicago area libraries, cultural centers, and museums from winter to summer 2014.

 

A multimedia traveling exhibit created specifically for culturally underserved communities, Writing Chicago will be designed to showcase great Chicago writers who embraced the city's 

ethnically rich neighborhoods as the inspiration and subject of their work.

Lorraine Hansberry    Studs Terkel

Partnering with the Chicago Literary Council and Chicago Public Library, the AWM will tailor 

programming to the varied interests of each community with an exhibit designed to travel 

to other venues in Chicago. In fact, several other states have already made requests to house the exhibit.

Featured Chicago writers Gwendolyn Brooks, Lorraine Hansberry, Studs Terkel, and Richard Wright will be represented in the planned museum's signature Chicago Room.

Writing Chicago, like the future AWM museum, will tell the authors' stories through images, anecdotes, and their moving and influential words. Visitors will experience the author's neighborhoods, ideas, stories, language, and people as the authors knew them.

Writing Chicago will also invite visitors to share what the works of Chicago writers mean to them, along with suggestions for what they want to see in the American Writers Museum when it opens in Chicago in 2015. See the news release.

Raisin in the Sun show what happens to the people who are shut out of the dream or fail at it. They're both brilliant plays.

- Ann Patchett, American Novelist, PEN/Faulkner Award Recipient

"Sandra is an experienced communications professional with a deep appreciation for our nation's rich literary heritage," said museum founder and chairman of the foundation Malcolm O'Hagan. "I'm delighted she is joining our team as we embark on the next phase of developing the first national museum dedicated to American writers."

As communications director, Jones will work closely with Chairman O'Hagan, the AWM board of directors, and the Chicago Literary Council as the foundation begins its first major capital campaign, with a target to open the first phase of the museum in Chicago in 2015.

From the outset, the American Writers Museum founders envisioned partnerships with authors' homes and museums across the country. Now, the Author Home/Museum Affiliate Program continues to expand. Twenty-four author homes, museums, and foundations have become AWM Affiliates, most recently Joel Chandeler Harris' The Wren's Nest and the John Greenleaf Whittier Homestead. 

The AWM website Affiliates pages include a listing of American author homes and details about becoming an Affiliate. There is no cost involved, and no obligation beyond adding the AWM Affiliate logo to your website and Facebook to indicate your support. One Affiliate is showcased in each of our newsletters, helping the AWM and our Affiliates expand our literary network.

For more information on becoming an affiliate, please contact Lynne Pace Robinson or Pam Buckles at general@americanwritersmuseum.org or call 202.263.3330.