"It's a shame this has been vacant for so long," Richard Mott told Block Club Chicago in August. He was talking about the Humboldt Park Boathouse, which the outlet called an underused space. Its indoor kitchen hadn't been used since the former cafe closed in 2020.
This weekend gives that building a full evening on the neighborhood's cultural calendar. On Friday, Nov. 13, the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture opens its next exhibition, "La Isla" by Ali Six, at the Humboldt Park Boathouse Gallery, 1301 N. Humboldt Drive. The next morning, the same artist leads a family workshop at the museum's own home on Division Street. For three days, one Humboldt Park artist links the museum and the Boathouse into a single route through the park.
Friday: "La Isla" opens at the Boathouse Gallery
The opening reception runs from 6 to 8:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 13, and it's free, according to the event listing on MATO. After opening night, the exhibition stays on view during gallery hours on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., or by appointment.
Ali Six is the artist name of Nikko Locander. The museum describes him as a Puerto Rican multimedia artist, designer and community leader in the Humboldt Park area. He's known for heavily illustrated work built around his own original cartoon characters, which have appeared in murals, galleries and children's books. His brand collaborations include the Chicago Bulls, Nike, WB Pictures, Rust-Oleum, MLB and the Jordan brand.
An artist whose characters already show up on local walls is now showing in a gallery inside the park. That's why Friday works as a neighborhood night out. You can walk over after work, see the show with the people who came for the artist, and still be home early.
The Boathouse is filling in from the veranda side, too
The gallery is one of two new uses planned for the Boathouse. In August, the Chicago Park District approved a concession application for Boathouse Cafe, run by the team behind North Pond in Lincoln Park. North Pond is also on Park District property. Block Club reported plans for an all-day menu: pastries and drinks, plus empanadas, sandwiches, wings, Cubano sliders and hot dogs, with ingredients from local farmers and businesses.
The cafe plan covers about a third of the veranda and patio, with tables, chairs and a small space for live music. In August, new chairs, tables, lighting and flowers were already on the patio. A beer garden is part of the plan, and it needs a separate city liquor license. Mott also mentioned a remote-control alligator toy for kids.
The two plans divide the building between them. The gallery side gets art, and the cafe plan sets up the veranda for food and music.
Saturday: the coquí, at the museum on Division
On Saturday, Nov. 14, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Locander leads Art & Story-time at the museum, 3015 W. Division St. The workshop is built around his new children's book, The Coquí That Lost Its Voice. Here's how the museum's event page lays out the morning:
- A 10-minute reading of the book.
- A hands-on session where young artists sculpt their own coquí from air-dry clay.
- Coloring pages and crayons for the youngest kids, who can decorate a favorite scene from the book.
Booking is online through the museum's event page. If your family went to the reception Friday night, Saturday is a chance for kids to make something with the artist himself, not just look at finished work on a wall.
Sunday: yoga on Division, then gallery hours at the Boathouse
Sunday is the one day this weekend when both buildings have something going on, and the times line up well:
- 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Respira | Breath: Sunday Yoga at the Museum. Admission is $10, and proceeds benefit water-relief efforts in Puerto Rico.
- 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Regular Sunday gallery hours for "La Isla" at the Boathouse Gallery.
Yoga ends 30 minutes after the gallery opens. That leaves time to get from Division to Humboldt Drive and still have more than two hours with the show before it closes for the week. If you missed Friday's reception, this is the easiest way to see it without making an appointment.
The rest of the museum's calendar runs to Three Kings
After this weekend, the museum's posted calendar has two more public dates, running through early December.
- Saturday, Nov. 21, 12:30 to 1:40 p.m. Fall Into Art, a free docent-led tour at the museum.
- Saturday, Dec. 5, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Three Kings Ornament Workshop, led by Puerto Rican artist Janice Aponte.
The Nov. 21 tour comes the week after "La Isla" opens, so you can follow a weekend at the Boathouse with a guided look at the museum's own galleries. The Dec. 5 workshop is the latest date on the museum's current calendar. It's a natural pick if you want to make an ornament with your family before the holidays instead of buying one.
Dinner after the reception: TAAN on Augusta
If you'd like a sit-down dinner after Friday's reception, TAAN at 2759 W. Augusta Blvd. is the neighborhood's newest fit. It opened Sept. 1. Owner Chanita Chayaluk, a Chicago native, serves Thai food in a wine-bar format and builds it on seasonal Midwestern ingredients. She explained the idea to WTTW:
"Chicago deserved a place where Thai cuisine could be celebrated in a different way, where it wasn't just limited to cheap take-out or cheap eats."
WTTW described a room with a pressed-tin ceiling, exposed brick and wine bottles lining the shelves. When the station visited in August, the menu had no pad thai. The only noodle dish was glass noodles in a clay pot with local shiitake mushrooms and Chinese celery. Other dishes included chu chee curry with tiger prawns, steak with jaew dipping sauce, and dry red curry with pork belly. Because the menu follows the seasons, the November menu may look different from those August dishes.
The sourcing is very local. WTTW reported that the kitchen buys pork from Catalpa Grove and hard-to-find coriander root from Closed Loop, along with produce from the farmers market. The team grinds and stuffs its own sai oua sausage. It also makes its curry paste in-house, which WTTW said takes a whole day. Eater Chicago included TAAN in its list of new Chicago restaurant openings.
All together, the weekend looks like this: Friday night at the Boathouse, then dinner on Augusta. Saturday morning with the coquí on Division. Sunday yoga at the museum, then a second look at "La Isla" in the park. Every stop is in Humboldt Park, and most of them start with Ali Six.
If you're settled in Humboldt Park and thinking about what comes next, or you know someone weighing a move between Chicago and Arizona, I'd be glad to talk it through over coffee after one of these events. My mortgage-finance background lets me connect the house to the budget and the timeline, and I keep the conversation personal and responsive. Let's Connect with Anthony Provinzino whenever you're ready.
