My Edgewater Story by Karen Ami
Karen Ami, Founder Chicago Mosaic School
In 2016 The Chicago Mosaic School was invited to look at many neighborhoods in Chicago as we sought to relocate from our longtime industrial Ravenswood/Lakeview location. Through our local community activists and landlords, Bob and Rae Ann Cercle, and former Alderman Harry Osterman, we found our dream location for the school at 1127 W. Granville.
The Chicago Mosaic School brings artists and students to Edgewater worldwide, so the school brings a lot of international visitors and appreciation of our great neighborhood to the area. We continue to beautify Edgewater with public mosaic artworks and community and school outreach and collaborations. Our gallery faces Granville, and we have outstanding new exhibitions every two months.
I also have a great personal connection to Edgewater through my family and friends, so relocating to Edgewater was a natural transition for both the school and me. My dad (born in 1930) grew up on Winthrop and Thorndale and went to Senn High School, graduating in 1948 with neighborhood friends he maintained his whole life.
My grandfather lived on Sheridan and Ardmore, and I have wonderful memories of watching the “L” from his studio apartment window while eating Campbell’s alphabet soup. When I was 5 years old, I would walk with him to his barbershop on Granville, and if I sat quietly, he would give me a silver dollar.
I recall those memories now as I look out the window from The Chicago Mosaic School. I could not have dreamt that someday I would be working and living here. My best friends also relocated to Edgewater in the ‘90s and kept bugging me to move there too--which I finally did.
I love it here. Everything is within walking distance. I see the beautiful lake every day; there are dogs and smiling neighbors that have settled here from all over the world. For me Edgewater epitomizes the best of Chicago, and I feel grateful to live and work here to help to make the neighborhood a better place.
Karen is the founder and executive director of The Chicago Mosaic School.
Copyright © 2024, Karen Ami