Herd Around Town
Call it bovine intervention. This year, from June 15 through October 31, Chicago will host “Cows on Parade,” a public art project that will line our streets with no fewer than 300 near life-size fiberglass cows, decorated by a variety of local artists, architects, and graphic designers. The 90-pound replicas of Swiss dairy cows will be installed on specially crafted concrete pads down Michigan Avenue, throughout the Loop, along Oak Street Beach, and around the new museum campus at the south end of Grant Park; strays may show up as far afield as O’Hare and the Museum of Science and Industry.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
For a city that likes to dye its river green every year, this may seem like a natural. But “Cows on Parade” was actually swiped from Zurich, which presented a similar exhibit last summer; Swiss officials claim the 800 cows increased the city’s summer tourism by a million people. Chicagoan Peter Hanig, president of the Hanig’s Footwear chain, was visiting Zurich and ran into the cows everywhere. He was baffled at first, but eventually he realized that the exhibit was filled with “humorous visual puns and some great art.” Hanig came home convinced that Chicago would benefit from such a show and, enlisting Michael Christ of Tiffany & Company and Daniel Nach of Salvatore Ferragamo, presented the idea to cultural affairs commissioner Lois Weisberg. “Her positive response was almost instantaneous,” says Hanig. The Department of Cultural Affairs will orchestrate “Cows on Parade” in conjunction with the Illinois Bureau of Tourism and the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association; individual cows will be sponsored by local businesses and arts institutions.
According to Lash, “Cows on Parade” is targeting tourists within a 500-mile radius who typically visit Chicago once or twice a year: “Unless they happen to be serious cow lovers, people aren’t going to fly in from New York or Los Angeles.” But not every artist in town is lining up at the trough. “What’s the point, unless you plan on a future in animal husbandry?” asks Tony Fitzpatrick. “Chicago is a great city, and it doesn’t need six-foot plastic tchotchkes to bring in tourists.” Fitzpatrick may be right. But there’s no use crying over . . . well, you get the idea.
