BBF Family Services
BBF Family Services is a comprehensive human services organization that envisions a thriving, self-sustaining community where empowered children and families have access to all opportunities.
Plan your visit
Open Monday–Friday, 10 am–2 pm. Groups of more than 6 people must call to make arrangements at 773.542.7300.
Kerry James Marshall: Untitled (Circulation)
September 29, 2021–ongoing
Untitled (Circulation) is a new work by Kerry James Marshall designed specifically for the architecture of the BBF Family Services building. The work is composed of photographs taken by the artist over the past four decades of the Bud Billiken Parade, the largest African American event of its kind in the United States. The parade is a Chicago tradition, begun in 1929, that takes place annually on the city’s South Side. The procession begins in Bronzeville on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and ends in Washington Park. Bud Billiken, its mascot, is a symbol of good luck and a guardian of children. Marshall juxtaposes his photos with found images from various disciplines including astronomy, architecture, engineering, biology, chemistry, and medicine. Together, they are a celebration of Black joy and the unlimited avenues for achievement.
About
Founded in 1961, BBF Family Services is a comprehensive human services organization that offers six program and service areas: Community Engagement, Education, Employment Services, Family Services, Health Equity, and Youth Services. The mission of BBF Family Services is to improve the quality of life for underprivileged youth and their families by providing safe, stable, and nurturing experiences that enhance social, emotional, academic, and career development. BBF Family Services envisions a thriving, self-sustaining community where empowered children and families have access to all opportunities. In pursuit of this vision, BBF provides coordinated programs and services that combat poverty, low educational attainment, chronic disease, criminal activity, and trauma for people from the age of 5 and up.
Related
Engage in the themes of Toward Common Cause through a weeklong exchange between teachers, educators at multiple Chicago museums, and artists at the center of the exhibition. This Summer Teacher Institute offers participants—classroom teachers at any grade and any subject matter, teaching artists, and cultural educators from arts or community-based organizations—to engage deeply with the…
When Kerry James Marshall first read Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, the book’s opening pages stopped his artistic practice in its tracks. Writing to his audience, Ellison’s invisible man introduced himself as wholly present, alive and embodied, and yet also absent—because people “refused” to see him, because they either folded him into his surroundings or projected…