The Hairpin Arts Center is a community art center in the historic Morris B. Sachs building within the Chicago Community Area of Avondale at the gateway to

Chicago's Polish Village Avondale () is one of Chicago's 77 officially designated community areas. It is on the Northwest Side of the city. The northern border is Addison Street from the north branch of the Chicago River in the east to Pulaski Road in the west. The ...

. The space is managed by the

Logan Square Chamber of Arts The Hairpin Arts Center is a community art center in the historic Morris B. Sachs building within the Chicago Community Area of Avondale at the gateway to Chicago's Polish Village. The space is managed by the Logan Square Chamber of Arts, a 501(c ...

, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit established in 2009.

Location

The Hairpin is located at the intersection of Milwaukee Avenue, Kimball Avenue, and

Diversey Parkway Diversey Parkway (, 2800 N.) is a major east–west street on the North Side of Chicago. Diversey separates the Chicago lakefront neighborhoods of Lakeview to the north and Lincoln Park to the south. West of the North Branch of the Chicago Riv ...

in the former Morris B. Sachs building—an iconic flatiron structure that is part of the

Milwaukee-Diversey-Kimball District The Milwaukee-Diversey-Kimball District is an official City of Chicago Landmark District straddling the Chicago community areas of Avondale and Logan Square at the gateway to the Polish Village. This district includes 7 buildings in the vicin ...

. This 8,000-square-foot second floor serves as a community art center, providing performance and exhibit space with multiple stage configurations, and the opportunity for live music, improv, theater, dance, film, and poetry performances. The space is managed by the Logan Square Chamber of Arts, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit established in 2009. The organization was the first Chamber of Arts to be created in the city of Chicago. It was formed as an organizing body to implement the Quality-of-Life-Plan arts strategies drafted through a community wide task force as part of the LISC/Chicago New Communities Program. The master plans calls for the chamber to establish sustainable partnerships with artists and arts organizations of various disciplines, and to assist with the production and presentation of their work by providing space, resources and time.

Morris B. Sachs Building

This office and retail building was designed by the firm of Leichenko and Esser, the design team that executed the Narragansett Apartments in the lakefront neighborhood of

Hyde Park Hyde Park may refer to: Places England * Hyde Park, London, a Royal Park in Central London * Hyde Park, Leeds, an inner-city area of north-west Leeds * Hyde Park, Sheffield, district of Sheffield * Hyde Park, in Hyde, Greater Manchester Austra ...

. The camel insignia that abundantly decorates the building's exterior is a version of the

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...

that decorated Hump Hair Pin packages, which is why local

Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Ce ...

colloquially referred to the structure as ''"pod wielbłądem,"'' which translates into

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

as ''"the building beneath the camel"''. Colloquially known as "the Hump building", it was built in 1930 for Sol Goldberg, an entrepreneur who made his fortune by redesigning the hairpin. Goldberg's "hair pin with the hump" was a U-shaped wire with a "non-rust satin enamel finish," a few crinkles on each side, and the company's signature innovation: a strand-grabbing short third arm in the center. Goldberg survived the bobbed hair trend by creating a bobby pin, but by 1947 the Hump was home to the Morris B. Sachs department store, part of the chain started by another colorful Chicagoan, a onetime door-to-door salesman. The store closed in the 1960s, and the building passed through several subsequent owners. After being mostly empty for at least the last two decades, the recurring camel motif on the facade and the lobby floor has been restored as the building is now part of an official Landmark District of the City of Chicago.

External links

Hairpin Arts Center Homepage

References

{{Chicago, state=collapsed Arts centers in Illinois Artist groups and collectives based in Chicago Buildings and structures in Chicago North Side, Chicago Art museums and galleries in Chicago