Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
The “Italians in Chicago” traveling exhibit may be appearing at a public library near you in the not-too-distant future, thanks to the efforts of the volunteers at the Italian Cultural Center at Casa Italia.
The idea for an exhibit documenting the Italian-American immigrant experience in Chicago was hatched in 1978 by Dominic Candeloro, who taught Italian-American studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago campus at the time. The display moved from concept to reality when a grant to create the exhibit was awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The permanent exhibit was first displayed at the Chicago Public Library Cultural Center in downtown Chicago in the spring of 1981. After its run at the library, it found a permanent home at the Italian Cultural Center in Stone Park, at which point a portable version of the exhibit was created.
The permanent exhibit was updated in the 1990s and again in 2023, but the traveling exhibit remains as it was originally presented in 1981.
The 16 6-by-5-foot panels cover eight decades, from 1880-1961, documenting living conditions in Italy, the passage to Chicago, festas, weddings, work, schools, churches, neighborhoods, societies and more.
The permanent exhibit can be viewed from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Saturday at the cultural center, 1621 N. 39th Ave., Stone Park. For more information, call 708-345-5933.
To find out where the traveling exhibit is currently displayed, check out Casa Italia Library on Facebook.
