BAPA - The Beverly Area Planning Association

The Beverly Arts Center was founded in 1967 to provide educational and cultural enrichment to Beverly Hills/Morgan Park and surrounding neighborhoods. Today, the Arts Center welcomes patrons from throughout the South and Southwest Sides and greater Chicago with a multidisciplinary program that encompasses performing arts, education (with a non-credit School of the Arts offering more than seventy-five different classes in the visual arts, music, theater and dance), film, and art exhibitions.

The Beverly Theatre Guild was formed by local theater craftspersons in 1963, and began producing quality community theater. Since 1969, all Guild productions have been staged at the Beverly Arts Center. For information on the current theater season or auditions, call 312-409-2705.

Hands On! Children's Art Museum, 1800 W. 103rd St., 773-233-9933, opened in November 2002 in Chicago's historic Beverly neighborhood. Offering art classes, open-art studios, and art-related activites, Hands On is a terrific place for children and adults to spend time together in an atmosphere that rewards creativity and imagination.

The mission of Hands On is to encourage children of all ages to develop their full creative potential through the visual and performing arts. Hands On strives, through the fine arts, to create a unique environment in which children of all ages, abilities, and experience can feel free to imagine, create , and welcome the arts into their lives.

Ridge Historical Society, 10621 S. Seeley Ave., preserves and promotes the history of Beverly Hills/Morgan Park, mounting exhibits, presenting programs and providing assistance with historical research. The Architectural Resource Center provides expert help in researching house histories. Call 773-881-1675.

Vanderpoel Art Association Gallery in Ridge Park, 9625 S. Longwood Drive, 773-445-9616, houses an important collection of late 19^th and early 20^th century Impressionist paintings, prints and sculpture by American artists is on permanent exhibit in Beverly/Morgan Park. More than 600 works by painters such as Grant Wood, John H. Vanderpoel, Mary Cassatt, Ethel Wirtshafter, Chester Danforth, Maxfield Parrish and many other fine artists are housed in the newly refurbished Ridge Park field house art gallery with regular hours for public viewing.

John H. Vanderpoel lived in Beverly Hills/Morgan Park for about 15 years. Shortly after his death at age 53 in 1911, his former neighbors in Beverly Hills/Morgan Park formed the Vanderpoel Memorial Association. They were instrumental in the naming of both Vanderpoel Avenue and Vanderpoel School.

The newly refurbished gallery at Ridge Park holds about 200 paintings. The rest of the collection is in storage, but will be rotated on a regular basis. Gallery hours are Tues. and Thurs., 1 to 4 p.m. and Sat. 10 a.m. to noon, or by appointment (773-779-0007). Admission is free.

World Folk Music Company 1808 W. 103rd Street, 773-779-7059, opened in 1997, has 5,000 square feet on two levels, providing studio and class space, retail space and a concert hall.

Entertainment at World Folk Music Company has included star-quality performers like
Anne Harris, who regularly performs with such area musicians as Ramsey Lewis, Michael McDermott, The Juleps, Hello Dave and Poi Dog Pondering; Michael Smith, singer/songwriter whose songs include “The Dutchman” and a regular at spots like the Earl of Old Town and No Exit; Greg Cahill, co-founder of the Special Consensus Band who has appeared at music festivals in Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Chile, Uruguay, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and in more than a dozen of the United States; and Sons of the Never Wrong, a Chicago-based trio with rave reviews from Chicago Magazine, The Washington Post, Heard Magazine, Australia, Chicago Tribune, Dirty Linen and PopMatters magazine

World Folk Music currently has 28 instructors and 450 students, offering classes in all kinds of folk music including rock. Sheet music is for sale at the store along with high-quality instruments.