Cicada Parade-a is a large-scale collaborative art project organized by The Insect Asylum and Formstone Castle Collective that will be on display in and around Chicago starting in May and running through the end of summer 2024. This project celebrates once-in-221-year re-emergence of Broods XIII and XIX, Illinois’ 17-year and 13-year cicada broods. The periodic cicadas are re-emergeing in the trillions to sing, dance, and mingle. We have hand crafted plaster cicada sculptures for the community to decorate that will be hung all over the state to increase traffic to places of interest inspiring people to explore and connect while searching for the 18 inch cicada sculptures; creating joyful encounters that can spark transformative conversations and promote social change. Each sculpture was hand cast in Avoldale by local artists and decorated by the community. The cicadas will be geo tracked on an integrated map that contains information on each of the incredible artists, their community, and their journey. By learning about our artists we can recognize, represent, and understand how many different communities and cultures make up our diverse and special collective of Cicada Lovers. Proceeds from this project will help TIA raise funds to build a community rooftop garden advancing our mission to support, protect, and grow our community and ecosystem together!

Visit Cass at the Chicago Public Library Austin Branch, and find many more of his buddies across the Chicagoland area.