CHICAGO, IL.- Chicago Loop Alliance (CLA) unveiled today “GO DO GOOD,” a bold six-story mural by Midwest-based, internationally-acclaimed contemporary artist, Kay Rosen, painted in bright yellow and black on the North wall of the Stevens Building, 17 N. State Street. The mural, which was installed by Chicago’s Thomas Melvin Painting Studio, will remain visible throughout the year; Rosen’s companion “GO DO GOOD” pieces, on display through September, include a related installation at the State and Lake CTA train station and on a series of banners along State Street from Wacker to Congress. This commission marks the second annual Art Loop public art installation created to drive summer traffic to State Street and the central Loop area, building on the tremendous success of last year’s EYE sculpture by Tony Tasset.

“GO DO GOOD is inspired by language, letter forms, and the site, and the audience will hopefully experience it in three ways: seeing what at first looks like abstract shapes; reading and creating meaning from the eight letters that make up GO DO GOOD; and performance - acting out the message with good deeds and gestures, large and small, public and private, on a daily basis,” said Rosen.

In conjunction with Kay Rosen’s installations located in the heart of Chicago’s Loop, CLA and the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago are launching a “GO DO GOOD” campaign which will inspire individuals, organizations, businesses, residents and students in the Loop to connect art to action in a summer-long, city-wide movement to prepare Chicago’s kids to succeed in school. The “GO DO GOOD” movement will provide access to volunteer opportunities, events and social media programs with the goal of inspiring 100,000 “good deeds.” To measure these actions, a unique four-foot-tall sculptural installation located on State Street (between Washington and Madison) will serve as a visual representation of the number of “good deeds” performed throughout the campaign.

“Through Art Loop 2011, we are attempting to send a message with Kay Rosen’s installation. We are using the art as a call to action for Chicagoans to make a difference whether it is based in education, which we are certainly encouraging, or random acts of kindness – big or small,” said CLA Executive Director Ty Tabing. “We have launched the ‘GO DO GOOD’ campaign in the Loop in order to activate as many individuals as possible and ultimately generate a city-wide grassroots movement.”

As part of Art Loop 2011, CLA and United Way are collaborating with community partners and the CLA membership to offer a series of free public programming from May 24 to September 10 based on the “GO DO GOOD” message.

“We are thrilled to partner with the Chicago Loop Alliance and Kay Rosen on this unique opportunity to promote the importance of education. With such an audacious goal of mobilizing 100,000 acts of goodness over the next three months, the ‘GO DO GOOD’ campaign is the first step towards a social movement we predict will propel our city forward,” said Laura Thrall, president and CEO, United Way of Metropolitan Chicago. “By working together, we can all help kids succeed in school, graduate, contribute to our workforce, support their future families, maintain their health and, ultimately, build stronger communities.”

Kay Rosen is a Midwest-based artist who uses language to form the imagery of her paintings, drawings, prints, collages, and installations on walls, billboards, and buildings. Rosen's work has been exhibited in museums and institutions for several decades, including at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, where she had a retrospective exhibition in 1998-99; The Whitney Museum of American Art; The Hirschhorn Museum; The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco; MASS MOCA; and the MCA Chicago. Her work has also been featured in solo gallery exhibitions nationally and internationally. Besides GO DO GOOD, her work can be seen in 2011 at The Art Institute of Chicago; Ingleby Gallery, Edinburg; The Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke; Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork, Ireland; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the new Crystal Bridges Museum, Arkansas; and in a solo exhibition at Sikkema Jenkins & Co, New York, in early 2012. A book about her work, “Kay Rosen: AKAK,” was published by Regency Art Press, New York City in 2009. Rosen taught at The School of the Art Institute for eighteen years, and among her honors are three National Endowment for the Arts fellowships. Her work is in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, the MCA Chicago, and The Indianapolis Museum of Art, among others.