Cicada Parade-a is Ending!

As of september 29, sales for Cicada Parade-a have ended.
TIA has started deinstalling cicadas we installed, and have already completed deinstallation of cicadas in Ravenswood. We are deinstalling in chronological order, so if we installed your cicada later in the summer, it will remain up for longer.
If you installed your own cicada somewhere, please remove it when you can.
If you would like to retrieve a cicada you returned to us at TIA, please drop by. We are compiling a number list of all the cicadas currently at our space.
The date for the garden rooftop fundraiser is still TBD.
This project has been fantastic! Enormous gratitude to all the wonderful artists that participated and to the City of Chicago for working with us.
If you have any questions, please email us at theinsectasylum@gmail.com.

Cicadas currently at TIA:

831, 943, 265, 139, 560, 571, 623, 968, 313, 656, 206, 418, 910, 577

Chicago Cicada Parade-a

We were able to make 1300 plaster cicadas with the help of Formstone Castle to honor this years historic emergance, Artists, sponsors,, community members all participated to decorate and hang these cicadas all throuought our region. This map depicts where you can find some of them.

* We are still building and adding to the map daily, check back in regularly for updates!

** If you have hung or decorated a cicada and don't see it on the map contact us to confirm we received your information

*** We still have about 100 cicadas left in stock if you would like to purchase one to decorate yourselfs!

Everyone at TIA would like to shout out a huge thank you to our community for making this incredibly large scale art project possible. Y'all are incredible!

Cicada Merch

Cicada Parade-a 2024

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!

Buy, Host, Sponsor, or Foster a Cicada

Interest Form

Learn more about our Rooftop Garden

Read or Donate

Check out more events for Cicada Fest and TIA

Events & Classes

Submit your cicada to be added to the integrated map for others to view

Updates and Information for Cicada Parade-a

Due to issues beyond our control if you submitted an email, call, or form on or after April 23, 2024 please resubmit your inquiry directly to The Insect Asylum at theinsectasylum@gmail.com
- The two forms needed for resubmission are the following, feel free to click the active links:

Artist Form for the Cicada Map Inquiry Form

All authorized and official communication regarding Cicada Parade-a will come directly from The Insect Asylum. Please disregard any communication that is not from The Insect Asylum website, email, or in-house team. We are sorry for any confusion or inconvenience.
- If you didnt get a cicada yet and are still interested in participating there is still time!
  - We have about 100 RAW FSC cicada sculptures left and will not be producing any more, you can purchase them in our giftshop, were open for walk ins at a first come first serve basis for $75 each, We also have Mini cicadas that are "Pay what you can" donations.
  - With our Cicada adoption and foster program, local artists can get sculptures for FREE if they agree to display them publicly!
    - The number of cicadas available for artists is based on sponsorship donations and sculpture sales.
    - If you’d like to help support the project, Sponsorship is a great way to gain representation for your orginizations and helps us provide more sculptures to artists.
      - Sponsorship comes with perks such as cicadas being displayed at your location for everyone to enjoy. Check out the sponsorship page for more details.
    - After the summer is over all adopted and fostered cicadas will be removed from the streets of Chicago and either return home to the artist that decorated them or will be donated to the rooftop garden fundraising auction where members of the community can purchase them to help raise the funds nessisary to build a beautiful eco sustainable community garden for everyone to learn, grow, and thrive in.

Purchase, Adoption and Foster Recipients:
- If you would have not done so already, please fill out this Artist form to be added to the map.
- Thank you all for being part of such an incredible project, we are so grateful for your participation!
- If your need a recommendation for sealing your Cicada, our friends at Rust-oleum recommend their 5 in 1 Clear Coat spray.
- The map will be updated continuously to get everyone's information displayed.

Past Cicadas from the 2021 Emergance
(Click the Cicadas on the map to see images, artist information, and sponsorship details)