US at 250: Civic Action in Chicago includes local artist responses to four founding documents: the Declaration of Independence, Northwest Ordinance, US Constitution, and the Thirteenth Amendment.

Opening April 7! Porta(til) is part of a series of portable, altar-inspired monuments that respond to the legacies of colonial expansion, displacement, disenfranchisement, and environmental harm. Created for the Chicago History Museum’s America 250 commission, this project engages the Northwest Ordinance (1787), highlighting its promises of freedom for formerly enslaved African Americans and land rights for Indigenous peoples, and reimagines its expansionist legacy through participatory, community-driven installation.

Read the Northwest Ordinance (1787).

Meet the Artists

Carlos Flores is an interdisciplinary artist, flower farmer, and earthkeeper, born in Atemajac (present-day Guadalajara) and now based in Shikaakwa (Chicago). His work moves between collective construction, performance, and environmental organizing, using hybrid forms to redirect tools of colonization and capitalism toward placemaking and community care. Rooted in Chicago’s Southwest Side, especially Archer Heights, Marquette Park, Little Village, and Pilsen, Carlos draws from 26 years of living in immigrant and BIPOC neighborhoods shaped by industry and resistance.

In his Porta(til) installation, Carlos creates an altar-inspired monument in response to legacies of colonial expansion, displacement, and environmental harm. Learn more about Carlos.

Deon Reed is a multidisciplinary visual and sound artist, designer, and creative director based in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago. His work explores the influence of identity on perception through language, storytelling, and visual expression. With a robust creative practice and diverse media, Deon constructs narratives that seed reflection and healing, rooted in the lived realities of Chicago’s South and West Sides, yet infused with liberative play and futurity (reimagining). His diverse creative practice ranges from concept design and creative direction to immersive sculptural interventions in indoor and outdoor space.

In his installatoin, Porta(til): Crimson, Deon explores the legacy of redlining, a practice that denied African Americans mortgages to own homes to keep Chicago neighborhoods racially segregated.