We joined Harry Styles and the United Center to invest in a future cultural hub, bringing total funding to more than $8 million.
Rebuild Foundation—a platform for art, cultural development, and neighborhood transformation founded by artist and social innovator Theaster Gates—announced major progress towards the creation of the arts and creative entrepreneurship incubator at the former St. Laurence Elementary School on Chicago’s South Side. Announced today, a $1.7 million Program-Related Investment (PRI) from the MacArthur Foundation will further support the renovation of the future cultural hub and contribute to related infrastructural growth. An additional $100,000 joint donation from global superstar Harry Styles and the iconic United Center, as a community contribution to the arts in celebration of the recent six-night ‘Love On Tour’ concert residency in Chicago, brings the current fundraising total for the project to $8.1 million.
These recent contributions will play a pivotal role in progressing the transformation of a shuttered school into a site for cultural production, artistic expression, and economic development. The 40,000 square-foot building will be Rebuild’s largest site to-date among its constellation of cultural spaces in Chicago, joining the Stony Island Arts Bank, Dorchester Art and Housing Collaborative, Retreat at Currency Exchange Café, and Kenwood Gardens. Construction of the project, which will require an estimated total investment of $10.35 million is 40 percent complete and expected to finish in late 2023.
The once nearly abandoned school is steadily transforming into a site that will provide local Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) artists and creative entrepreneurs the resources, tools, opportunities, and connections to strengthen their practices and enterprises on the South Side. The site will champion collaborative creative practice and professional development, offering studio space and materials, professional feedback, mentorship, and archival research resources as well as financial literacy and arts entrepreneurship classes. A wide variety of public programs will also be hosted, including film screenings, artist talks, live music sets, dance performances, and exhibitions, among other programs. The emerging incubator for artists and creative entrepreneurs at St. Laurence will provide vital creative amenities and bolster artistic and economic activity on the South Side of Chicago.
The space’s four floors will boast a range of creative resources, including a makerspace featuring tools for woodworking, metalsmithing, and printmaking; a technology center; flexible co-working areas; and an archive laboratory. This permanent archival space for Rebuild’s expansive collection of culturally important objects and images will enhance public access and inspire dialogue among artists, curators, scholars, and community members. St. Laurence will act as a catalyst for thoughtful, artist-led social and economic development, amplifying Rebuild’s core values: Black people matter, Black spaces matter, and Black objects matter.
“As we make steady progress toward the completion of the incubator for artists and creative entrepreneurs at St. Laurence, this vital investment in resources for artists on the South Side will make decades of artistic exploration, research and production possible in the Greater Grand Crossing community,” said Theaster Gates, Executive Director and Founder of Rebuild Foundation. “This support demonstrates the local and global support for artists realizing ambitious projects that will alter the trajectory of artistic freedom and lay the groundwork for generations of emerging artists to grow their practices while building social and financial capital to support their creative endeavors. This generosity, coupled with the charitable contributions of our donors, gets us one step closer to readapting this formerly vacant school into a hub for artistic discovery and economic development. I am so thankful to Harry Styles, the United Center, the MacArthur Foundation, and our longtime supporters for their belief in our work and for their uncompromising generosity in helping us realize this cultural amenity."
MacArthur’s program-related investment (PRI) of $1.7 million over 10 years will accelerate Rebuild Foundation’s ability to expand its real estate development by providing it with financing for property acquisition, predevelopment expenses, and bridging to other sources of public and/or private financing. Rebuild will use proceeds from the PRI to turn at least five vacant buildings or parcels of land into arts and cultural spaces in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood of Chicago. Ultimately, these places will be used as a platform for Rebuild to produce arts programming and support local artists.
“Theaster Gates and the Rebuild Foundation have established a strong presence in Chicago’s Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood by developing and programming innovative real estate development projects and reclaiming them as places where artists can live, work, and engage in community activities,” said John Palfrey, President of the MacArthur Foundation. “With this investment, MacArthur is supporting the adaptive reuse of a vacant school building, transforming it into a work of art as well as a functional and creative space for artists living and working in the neighborhood. This is a step towards building equity for Chicago’s residents in areas of historic disinvestment, and we hope other investors will follow suit.”
“It is an honor to partner with Harry Styles and make a joint contribution to the transformative work that Rebuild Foundation continues to do in our community,” said a spokesperson for the United Center. “Since 1994, the United Center has served as a place to bring diverse groups of people and events under one roof through the unifying energy of live sports and entertainment. Knowing the power of connections, we’re excited that this contribution to Rebuild empowers the arts and creative entrepreneurship incubator to unite people with important resources and opportunities to keep creativity and community impact strong.”
When St. Laurence opens to the neighborhood, the center will focus on serving audiences that might not otherwise have proximate access to arts and culture programs. The world-class arts destination will complement Chicago’s downtown and North Side institutions, paying specific attention to the needs, histories, and heritage of Black and Brown communities. The space will be an invaluable platform where local, national, and international artistic communities and dialogues will cohabit and intersect. Programming will complement Rebuild’s current initiatives, such as the Mellon Archives Innovation Program—which supports the creation of new research, scholarship, and artistic production through engagement with Rebuild’s archives—and the Culinary Artist-in-Residence Program, which uplifts BIPOC entrepreneurs in the hospitality industry. The incubator will also demonstrate the impact of direct support for artists, evident through the Dorchester Industries Experimental Design Lab, a partnership among Theaster Gates, Prada, Rebuild Foundation and Dorchester Industries created to support and amplify the work of emerging and established designers of color across the globe with a specific emphasis on Chicago-based designers and innovators.
Learn more about Rebuild Foundation and the St. Laurence Arts Incubator.
