This post is by Lynda Lopez, a young writer in Hermosa, writing for Chicago Cityscape.
Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates serves as a Professor in the Department of Visual Arts and Director of Arts and Public Life at the University of Chicago. Gates is also the founder and artistic director of the Rebuild Foundation, a nonprofit he founded that is focused on the revitalization of under-resourced neighborhoods through culture and art.
On Wednesday, September 26, the Chicago Public Library hosted their 2016 Cindy Pritzker Lecture on Urban Life and Issues, which featured Theaster Gates in a conversation with Professor Adam Green of the University of Chicago.
Current Rebuild Foundation projects include the Stony Island Arts Bank, the Black Cinema House, and the Dorchester Art + Housing Collaborative in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood. Tying these projects together is his eye for the vacant and unused, to create something new. This is the theme Gates emphasizes throughout the course of the discussion.
Take, for example, the Stony Island Arts Bank, one of Gates’ most popular projects. Gates bought the abandoned building of the former Stony Island Trust & Savings Bank and turned it into an arts center, which includes a library, gallery, and exhibition hall. Pointing to Gates’ unique approach to development, Professor Adam Green asked him, “Why is reuse so important to your approach?”
It all goes back to value, Gates said. We need to unlock the power within objects that have hidden significance, that have been neglected but still hold value. By reusing and restoring, value can be added. We can’t have a conversation about revitalization and reuse without also touching on real estate speculation, which is the investment in areas in the hopes of an eventual surge in value. While speculation often has a negative connotation, especially in relation to gentrification, Gates has another perspective on the word. We should use hope, rather than speculation. “Speculation is hope for things not seen,” Gates said.
More broadly, Gates wants the South Side to develop cultural enclaves, such as Devon Avenue and Little Italy. Devon Avenue is a stretch of the far north side bustling with Indian restaurants and offering a feeling of immersion in a multicultural South Asian environment. Sitting on the near west side, Little Italy is a glimpse into Chicago’s early 20th century immigration and offers us a taste of Italy, one of its most famous staples being Mario’s Italian Ice.
Gates envisions a South Side with cultural hubs and enclaves like these that can serve to revitalize what has been neglected. He sees his work with the Rebuild Foundation playing a role in this vision, but he doesn’t want to appear like a “Black savior” for the South Side. “We shouldn’t look for heroes,” says Gates. “There needs to be more stories about the people who live across the street from me than about me.”
When the topic of gentrification comes up, Gates seems to jokingly scoff. “I want people who are there to want to stay there and for other people to want to live there.” He shares that he wants Greater Grand Crossing residents to be homeowners and to be able to plant roots. As Gates develops more projects throughout the South Side, this complicated theme of development and gentrification will undoubtedly be part of the conversation.
While much of what Theaster Gates has focused on centers on beautification and the arts, he also wants to go beyond that. He also wants to create spaces to elicit emotional responses. In September, it was announced that the gazebo in which Tamir Rice was shot and killed would soon be on display at the Stony Island Arts Bank. Professor Green asked Gates the significance of this. The gazebo is a place to mourn and remember, Gates said. “I’m not an expert on violence, but I’m a caretaker of things. This gives us an opportunity to talk about hate.” Creating spaces where people can experience life through the arts and share emotions and culture through various lens seems to be at the root of Gates’ vision.
Some of Rebuild Foundation’s upcoming projects include converting a West Side power plant and old stables into Garfield Park Industrial Arts, a group of spaces for artists and makers to create and sell their work — this will be Gates’s first project away from the South Side, and only blocks from where he grew up.
A former Catholic school on the South Side will be the home of art and design studies, in addition to a “design accelerator” offering workshops to residents. On Kenwood Avenue between 68th and 70th streets, 13 vacant lots will be turned into Kenwood Gardens, a park filled with art and sculpture.
-Lynda Lopez