One must first understand the community of Berwyn, Illinois, to understand the controversy that started in 1980 centering on the construction of the first piece of sculpture erected at the Cermak Plaza.

History of the Berwyn
The Cermak Plaza Shopping Center is located in Berwyn, Illinois, a near-west suburb of Chicago. The shopping center was built during the 1950s when shopping malls were just starting to pop up in various communities, allowing residents to consolidate their shopping needs by providing easy access for customers with automobiles. The city of Berwyn consists mainly of hard-working, middle-class, mostly blue-collar families, and is admittedly and unabashedly conservative in its viewpoints. Through waves of various immigrants moving into its tree-lined streets of small brick bungalows, it has remained a relatively stable, safe place to live.

When the Cermak Plaza was first built in the 1950s, the community consisted mainly of Czech and Bohemian families. In the 1960s, a wave of Italian residents uprooted from the Taylor Street area of Chicago because of the building of the University of Illinois at Chicago (formerly Chicago Circle Campus) moved into the area. More recently, members of the Hispanic community has added to the ethnic mix that makes up the city.

The Art Lover and the Shopping Center
David Bermant was president of the National Shopping Centers Management Corporation, and the owner of the Cermak Plaza, as well as 20 other shopping centers across the country. He's also a patron of the arts who has purchased modern sculptures as an investment for his homes. But his passion extended to placing pieces he has purchased in a few of his shopping centers. In 1980, Mr. Bermant commissioned Nancy Rubins to construct the work Big Bil-Bored for the price of $25,000. The piece was a three-story, 60-ton porkchop-shaped sculpture composed of hundreds of pieces of castoff materials from everyday life, including appliances and car wheels, constructed on-site along Harlem Avenue.

Almost immediately after the sculpture was erected, the citizens of Berwyn were demanding that the sculpture be torn down. But because the land is privately owned, the citizens were unable to force Mr. Bermant to tear down the sculpture.(For a more complete discussion of the controversy read the Big Bil-Bored Controversy

Big Bil-Bored, now sadly gone, was not the only sculpture in the Cermak Plaza to raise debate. In 1989, David Bermant commissioned Dustin Shuler of Los Angeles to design Spindle, a $75,000 project consisting of 9 gutted automobiles stacked as if skewered on a large vertical spike. Once again the citizens wanted the piece taken down. Luckily, so far, art has won out over conservativism.

Less Controversial Art
Although Big Bil-Bored and Spindle generated adverse interest, most of the other sculptures there are relatively small. They have generally gone unnoticed and unheralded for years, except for a few children who love watching the Rube Goldberg-like action of the Good Time Clock or the sunlight glisten off of the rotating torso of mirrors called The Embrace. Most of the time, however, the works are just ignored by the good citizens who run past the Pinto Pelt to get their prescriptions at Walgreens.

Go See the Art
This is an attempt to document those sculptures and give those artists, as well as David Bermant, recognition and thanks for their attempts to enrich this community with modern art and ideas. Something we can best accomplish, perhaps, by a visit to one of America's most unusual parking lots and art centers.

Update, 2007

A visit in July 2007 revealed broken and rusted sculptures, and some even removed. The BerwynArtsCouncil.org has started a campaign to Save the Spindle.

Update, May 2008

A few days ago, the Spindle was been removed from the parking lot. The art was removed to make room for... a Walgreens. Current management of the shopping mall saved two of the cars before demolition, and has expressed interest in re-creating the famous, and controversial sculpture.

The Embrace has been removed, leaving an empty case.

Millenium Fountain is no more than shards of broken glass.

Bee Tree is broken and rusted.

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