Amplifier's Community Vaccination Art Program encourages vaccinations in areas with lower rates by Suzanne Hanney, artist stories by Paige Bialik, Fran Johns contributing
Commissioned to create a Chicago mural promoting COVID-19 vaccinations, artist Katie Chung thought of the Al Green song, “Let’s Stay Together,” and depicted collective experiences that disappear under quarantine. The Art Institute lion, the Navy Pier Ferris wheel and a hot dog are all included in her mural at 32nd and Hoyne in the McKinley Park neighborhood. “I was also thinking that whether you agree with the vaccine or not, if we don’t solve it together, we will lose access to all the things on my artwork…the things we enjoy as a city, but that go away when viruses happen, when we do not want to get vaccinated, and the virus keeps spreading,” Chung said. “The words I chose to say were, ‘let’s get vaccinated’, something very simple and straightforward and not too demanding.” A QR code on the mural will allow people to access information about COVID-19 vaccinations at will. Chung’s artwork is part of a multi-city partnership between the nonprofit design lab Amplifier, which builds art and media experiments to “amplify” the most important movements of their time, and Facebook Open Arts, which will spread the message through digital social media. The Amplifier-Facebook Open Arts campaign is using public art this summer and fall to inspire people in communities with lower vaccination rates to get the vaccine. The campaign will encompass 12 cities across the United States and Canada: Chicago, Detroit, Edmonton, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Mesa, Montreal, Ottawa, San Bernardino, San Antonio, Seattle and Washington, D.C. Chosen artists have roots in the cities and were asked to emphasize community, trust, the value of vaccination, education, and access.
Chung is a graduate of Lane Tech and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has been resident printmaking artist at Lillstreet Art Center; a member of Candor Arts, a Chicago-based resource for artist books; a participant in the Center Program at Hyde Park Art Center and the recipient of the IAP grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Another two murals in Englewood will be done by Brandon Breaux, known as the artist behind all three of Chance the Rapper’s iconic album covers. Chung, who was Facebook Inc. Artist in Residence last year, is a native Chicagoan who has always lived here. “That’s why it was awesome to be part of this project. I love this city and want to see it thrive, not go through quarantine again. It was a pretty depressing time.” Just before the lockdown, Chung was working on her first project with Facebook, a mural at the entrance of its new offices. As the office faced a shutdown, her two weeks on the project were whittled down to one week of 12-hour days. “I was just in a bubble.” Then, when she went to the grocery store and saw the empty shelves, she felt the enormity of the virus and the office shutdown. The COVID-19 mural process was interesting for Chung because her art has mostly been personal, exploring what it means to be a first-generation Korean-American, simultaneously explaining her history and fitting in with the public. For the Amplifier-Facebook project, however, she had to analyze what wasAlt-J going on around her. “How do I engage with an audience that doesn’t want to engage? How do I want my art to interact with the public on a sensitive subject?
