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It’s about time for Chicago to get some physical change ans hopefully the changes will spark some internal change.  The south side of Chicago is long over due for change even it’s on the outside, a Chicago artist has been granted some big bucks to help bring the change to a reality.  Artist Theaster Gates is going to have $10,25 million big ones to build a network of arts institutions in the community. How cool is that?  Change is a must and the residents of Chicago’s south side could use some inspiration and it’s always a good thing because the residents can be proud of where they live again. 

EarHustle411 and the writing staff congratulates the Theaster Gates Project on this awesome news and we look forward to seeing his phenomenal artistry. 

Read more as reported by Arch Paper:

Artist Theaster Gates is getting $10.25 million to grow a network of arts institutions on Chicago’s South Side.

Chicago Arts + Industry Commons (CAIC), a collaboration between Gates’s Rebuild Foundation, University of Chicago’s Place Lab, and the City of Chicago, will receive $5 million from four major foundations: JPB Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation to use the arts as a tool for neighborhood revitalization. The rest of the money will come from individuals and philanthropic organizations (contributing organizations will be announced in a few days).

Ultimately, the CAIC will be self-sustaining: “[The] Chicago Arts + Industry Commons employs an evolving cultural reinvestment model that uses the revitalization of sleepy assets as part of an engine that spurs new development and new capital, a portion of which is used to support the civic commons,” the project description explains.

The Stony Island Arts Bank, a community hub and art center that the Rebuild Foundation opened last year, will anchor a network of design studios, an industrial arts center, and public gardens in Grand Crossing. A West Side power plant next to the Garfield Park Conservatory will be converted into Garfield Park Industrial Arts, a warren of art galleries and the industrial arts center, surrounded by an amphitheater, cafe and plaza, while a shuttered Catholic school on the South Side will host art and design studios, as well as a “design accelerator” that will offer workshops to residents, DNAinfo reports. Finally, 13 vacant lots, on Kenwood Avenue between 68th and 70th Streets, will be turned into Kenwood Gardens, a park filled with art and sculpture.

Construction begins soon and programming is slated to begin late next year or early 2018.

Source: Arch Paper