"Once Upon Our Time Capsule" public art project helps 20,000+ kids reflect, move on from past year

Chicago’s kids have been through a lot this past year with remote learning, pandemic stress and not many opportunities for an outlet to express how they feel.  All this will change now thanks to a coalition of leading Chicago organizations who have teamed up to debut Once Upon Our Time Capsule, an all-new, citywide,  participatory art and storytelling project that will empower children to share their stories of resilience.

Starting now and through the summer, Once Upon Our Time Capsule (www.ourtimecapsule.org) will engage as many as 20,000 children grades K-8 from across all 77 Chicago neighborhoods. These kids will capture their thoughts and experiences from 2020-21 through a range of mediums, including writing, drawing and video. Their submissions will be assembled into 20+ giant time capsules to create a public art installation that will tell the story of life in Chicago during the pandemic through our children's eyes. They will be sealed at public celebrations and then kept for the next five years at iconic locations such as Adler Planetarium, Chicago Academy of Sciences/Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Chicago Children’s Theatre, Chicago History Museum and DuSable Museum of African American History.

In 2026, the Time Capsules will be unsealed for a new generation of elementary-school age children and families to discover.

The full list of community network partners (at press time) includes 826Chi, Adler Planetarium, After School Matters, Carole Robertson Center for Learning, Chicago Academy of Sciences/Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Chicago History Museum, Chicago Housing Authority, Children’s Museum of Art and Social Justice/KIPP Charter Network, DuSable Museum of African American History, Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana, Hearts to Art, Heartland Human Care Services, Hyde Park Art Center, Ingenuity Chicago, JCC Chicago Apachi Day Camp, Metropolitan Family Services, UChicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital and YWCA Metropolitan Chicago. The project was launched by lead partners: Center for Childhood Resilience at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Chicago Children’s Theatre, Chicago Public Library and My CHI. My Future.

For the latest Once Upon Our Time Capsule updates and to see creative submissions as they come in, follow @onceuponourtimecapsule on Instagram, @ourcapsule on Twitter. If you are interested in partnering with Once Upon Our Time Capsule, email hello@ourtimecapsule.org to get involved.