Washington Park Gets a New Mural — and the Artist Celebrated With an Ice Cream Social
By Socialhood News · Washington Park ·
A blank wall in Washington Park is now a work of art, and the community got to meet the person who made it happen over scoops of ice cream. On September 3, 2026, Community Investment Corporation (CIC) unveiled the first mural from its new citywide mural pilot program — and Washington Park was chosen as the place to kick things off, with local artist Reco the Great bringing the vision to life.
CIC is a nonprofit lender and community development financial institution (CDFI) with a specific mission: financing the acquisition, rehabilitation, and preservation of affordable rental housing across Chicago. The mural program represents a natural extension of that work — a recognition that investing in a neighborhood means more than rehabilitating buildings. It means investing in the look, the feel, and the cultural identity of the streets where residents live.
The $10,000 pilot program was made possible through philanthropic support CIC received from MacKenzie Scott, whose large-scale giving to community-focused nonprofits has rippled out into projects exactly like this one. CIC directed a portion of those funds toward what it describes as a commitment to strengthen the communities where its borrowers own and manage affordable housing — and for Washington Park, that commitment now has a very visible form on a neighborhood wall.
The unveiling was paired with an ice cream social, where residents gathered with Reco the Great to see the finished piece in person. It's the kind of community moment that rarely gets a headline but lingers in a neighborhood's memory: a local artist, neighbors with ice cream cones, and something new and permanent on a wall that used to offer nothing. Reco the Great is a Chicago-based artist, and being tapped to inaugurate a new citywide program — one with Washington Park as its launch point — is a meaningful recognition of his work and his connection to the South Side.
The mural is the first in what CIC intends to grow into a broader pilot across Chicago neighborhoods, making Washington Park something of a flagship for the initiative. That distinction fits. Washington Park has long been a neighborhood where cultural investment and artistic expression are taken seriously — from the African Festival of the Arts drawing thousands to its namesake park each September, to the DuSable Museum of African American History standing as one of the country's foremost institutions dedicated to Black history and culture. A new mural, painted by a local artist and celebrated with the community, lands in that tradition.
For residents who want to follow the mural program as it expands to other neighborhoods, or who are interested in CIC's broader affordable housing lending work, more information is available at cicchicago.com. And for those who haven't yet seen Reco the Great's finished piece in Washington Park, it's there to find — the kind of public art that rewards a walk through the neighborhood. The Washington Park Advisory Council, which meets every third Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m., is the neighborhood's primary civic forum and a good place to weigh in on community investments like this one. Visit washingtonpark.org for meeting schedules and updates.
Sources:
1. https://www.cicchicago.com/4631-2/