Work has begun on a project backed by prolific Chicago artist Theaster Gates to repurpose a vacant South Shore school building as an incubator for creative business owners.
Gates’ Rebuild Foundation partnered with JPMorgan Chase to offer a $300,000 grant for the rehabilitation of the former home of St. Laurence Catholic Elementary School, Block Club Chicago reported on Wednesday.
The foundation bought the building in 2014 for about $451,000, and two years later Gates revealed his plan to open the Rebuild Foundation Arts and Innovation Incubator, an education and job training site for visual artists, according to DNAinfo. The building had been vacant since the school closed in 2002.
Starting when the renovation is complete in 2020, Gates plans to run intensive 10-week entrepreneurship courses for up to 30 artists at a time.
The building is about a half-mile south of Gates’ Stony Island Arts Bank, and a mile south of the planned site of the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park.
And in neighboring Woodlawn, the Cook County Land Bank Authority issued a Request for Proposals earlier this year seeking a developer to remake the 94-year-old Washington Park National Bank into a “mixed-use community space.” [Block Club Chicago]—Alex Nitkin