(RELEASE) During this year's 55th Dearborn Garden Walk, presented by the North Dearborn Association, a Near North Neighborhood organization, visitors can delight in some of Chicago's most unique private, rear gardens, many featuring outdoor garden vignettes created by Chicago designers inspired by the life and works of Nobel Prize winning author Ernest Hemingway. The event will take place on Sunday, July 21st, 2013 from 12pm-5pm and tickets are $30 (advance) / $35 (gate).
Year after year, visitors travel from all over the country to experience this annual event and walk away with ideas for their own outdoor spaces. Approximately twenty private rear gardens are featured and range from minimalist to classic small gardens and patio/terrace designs, each showcasing the most creative use of outdoor space in an urban setting. Many of the gardens are created around entertaining and sitting areas, offering city dwellers additional living quarters in the warmer months.
During the walk, guests will have the opportunity to follow the adventurous and well-documented life and times of Ernest Hemingway as they tour garden vignettes inspired by his life and works. Chicago designers are set to create dramatic outdoor spaces utilizing a variety of outdoor tables, chairs, colorful cushions, linens, floral decorations, and other accessories including fine china, crystal, and flatware. From Cuba, Paris, and Spain with a nod to Oak Park, Illinois, this will certainly be a most spectacular interpretation of all things Hemingway.
This year's designers include: Stanley Smith and Amanda Wolfson, Oak Street Design; Maura Braun Designs; Ramsey Jay Prince, RJP Designs; Elizabeth Drake, Elizabeth Drake Designs; Hunter Kaiser - Creative for Life; and Stephen Gertz of Milieu Design.
As an added perk to the program this year, visitors will also have the opportunity to listen to Hemingway author and scholar Dr. Nancy Sindelar, a member of the Board of Directors of The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park, Illinois and author of the forthcoming publication, Papa's Places. Dr. Sindelar will be speaking at dedicated times throughout the afternoon at the Hotel Indigo at 1244 N. Dearborn Parkway. Stuart W. Hubbard, a former Associate Professor of English at the University of Kansas where he taught undergraduate classes on American Literature and Composition and Rhetoric, will be leading an informal discussion on "Ernest Hemingway in Chicago" outlining his early life in and around the city and the effect the area had on his personality and writing. Hubbard's discussion will take place in the rear courtyard of Hemingway's former residence at 1239 North Dearborn Parkway. Access to the courtyard is through the hallway of the building in which visitors will have the opportunity to take a look at a collection of Hemingway memorabilia that will be on display.
As with each year, visitors can participate in an hour-long, wonderfully entertaining and educational sidewalk guided tour of historic Dearborn Parkway that highlights the outstanding architectural facades in the neighborhood. The architectural tour, which starts at 1:30pm, 3:30pm, and 5:00pm, includes both pre and post-Chicago fire structures, sites that have been used in movies, homes formerly occupied by famous celebrities, and even a US President.
Nonrefundable tickets are $35.00 on July 21, 2013 and $30.00 in advance. Advance sales end on Saturday, July 20th, 2013 at 12:00pm - all advance ticket purchasers are automatically entered in drawings for goods and services from neighborhood businesses. Admission includes a Dearborn Garden Walk program with a map for a self-guided tour of the gardens, live jazz and classical music in select gardens, and guided architectural walking tours of historic Dearborn Parkway.
The program booth will be at Latin Middle School, 45 West North Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60610. Children 16 years of age and younger accompanied by an adult, as well as North Dearborn Association Partner in
Preservation members, are free. For ticket purchase information, please call: 312-632-1241 or visit online at: http://www.DearbornGardenWalk.com
