Chicago's Mobile Street Art Cart invites adults in marginalized communities to dream and create

CHICAGO -- William Estrada rings ice cream bells and calls out to passersby to visit his vendor cart, but he's not selling paletas.

Since 2015, he's provided free mobile art workshops in Chicago neighborhoods, all in his spare time as an elementary school teaching artist and clinical assistant professor.

"For the most part, when people encounter the cart, they're curious," Estrada said. "They're trying to figure out what it is because I lied to them with my false advertisement of my ice cream bell."

Estrada's free art-making opportunities include screen printing, button making, banner painting, paper puppets and more. His goal is to inspire adults to take a break from working, rediscover creativity and use art as a way to mobilize themselves for good causes.

"I go out into the neighborhoods to invite adults to play, to dream, to imagine, to talk to each other but most importantly to think about the importance of art in the neighborhood," Estrada said. "As adults, we deserve to reflect, to color and to make."

The Mobile Street Art Cart was a project pitched by Estrada to Chicago's 3Arts organization, a non-profit that supports local artists through crowdfunding. Influenced by paleteros and other Mexican street merchants, he created the cart, and made venturing out into neighborhoods like Little Village and North Lawndale his practice as an artist.

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"I wanted to create a mobile cart that was inspired by the vendors I grew up with and a lot of the work they do as cultural ambassadors," Estrada said. "But instead of selling the delicious goodness that they sell, I wanted to provide free art projects."

Estrada spends most of his time in historically marginalized communities marked by negative media coverage. Bringing art-making to adults in these areas, he hopes to help locals see the good right where they live.

"It's within those neighborhoods that we are constantly told of all the bad things that exist," Estrada said. "This particular project aims to remind us we are brilliant, that there's a lot of resilience, but also a lot of love and joy."

In addition to his mobile street art cart, Estrada's other projects include a mobile family portrait studio and a print-making pop up. His hope for the future is that his endeavors sow seeds of optimism and creativity in Chicago.

"This little art cart has become this really special place for me, and I hope it's a special place for others as well," Estrada said. "Art is a way for us to imagine the world that we want to live in and the worlds that we want to build for ourselves."

For more information about William Estrada and his work as an artist, visit his website, werdmvmntstudios.com.