I love it when my friends impress the hell out of me with their awesome work. In this particular case, it’s a project is en pointe from top-to-bottom. Ten empty storefronts in Wicker Park/Bucktown now have artist inhabitants for the next four months thanks to Make Believe, Firebelly Design, and Pivotal Promotions. Not only have artists been allowed to move into a space to use as their own canvas for MONTHS, in a very high traffic area, but it’s a juried contest with a cash prize of $5,500. (Determined by free and public voting which anyone can do here). As we know, art/design just get no money these days, so the fact that there is some compensation incentive in such an accessible venue is just amazing. Shop, eat, drink and look at art. Perfect.

And the work IN the windows? Just wow. My girls, Indo Projects, snapped up my vote for sure.

These ladies pulled off this incredible feat under incredible parameters. They had just three days to find the cups, of which there’s several hundreds, and five days to build and install. At it’s most basic, their installation takes mundane, dirty, and senseless waste and makes it beautiful. But on a deeper level, it’s calling our accelerated pace sharply into focus and trying to promote a return to a simpler pace and slower, more responsible commerce.

Learn more about their window and vote here.