Chicago Hyde Park Arts and Culture - The Hyde Park Art Center’s mission is to stimulate and sustain the visual arts in Chicago. It is the oldest alternative exhibition space in the City and boasts a long record of education outreach in the community. Celebrating more than 60 years of success, the Hyde Park Art Center (HPAC) has been serving the Hyde Park-Kenwood community and surrounding neighborhoods as well as the metropolitan Chicago area with outstanding visual art exhibitions and education programs. Since its inception in 1939, the Center’s mission has been to stimulate and sustain the vitality of the visual arts in Chicago. To fulfill this mission, the Center actively pursues arts mentorship within the community it serves, fostering a collective spirit among artists, teachers and students, children and families, collectors, and.