A new building in Chicago from Theaster Gates, which will provide artists and other creative entrepreneurs space to work, broke ground this week.
The art incubator, located at the former St. Laurence Elementary School in the Grand Crossing community on the South Side, is a $10.35 million project slated to be competed by 2023. Theaster Gates and his nonprofit organization Rebuild Foundation purchased the property in 2016, rescuing it from being demolished.
Now, thanks to Gates, the space will turn into more 40,000 square feet of artist studios, classrooms for entrepreneurship courses, coworking space, performance venues, lab space and more, the group said.
Gates, a renowned artist based in Chicago, received backing from the City of Chicago, the Chicago Community Trust, the Clayco Foundation, the Illinois Department of Economic Opportunity, the Kresge Foundation, the Litowitz Family Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the Miami Foundation for the project.
The goal of the incubator is to bring more resources and workspace for artists and entrepreneurs of color on the South Side.
"This project strengthens our ability to support artists and artisans with the tools, training and resources that will enable them to experiment and create innovative projects right in their own community," Gates said in a statement. "St. Laurence is as much about preserving Black space as it is about giving new life to creative possibilities on the South Side.”
Programming in the space is expected to begin next fall.
