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As an artist...
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when I think about "home" for myself...
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it has less to do with the house.
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It has more to do with my neighborhood.
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On the South Side of Chicago...
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where people would normally
saythis is a violent place,
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or this is a placewhere
beauty doesn't live,
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I'm constantly surrounded by this beauty.
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The problem is, ain't no
cameracapturing the beautiful things.
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And so it's like, "All right.
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What can I make
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that allows us to then be a reflectionof
the beauty of everyday people?"
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These spaces do that.
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My history was not a history of,
like, a bachelor's of fine arts
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and then a master's of fine arts.
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My history was a degree in urban
planningand time on the job.
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My dad was a roofer.
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So, growing up roofing,
you're learning how to cut things,
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you're learning how to, like,
anticipate where water falls.
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But those roofing problemsthat
you're solving for
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are no different from trying to
figure outcompositional things.
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And I think that art is kind of like that.
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There's something in the
ideaof the seemingly small
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that has, for me,
the greatest potential for art.
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So, it's like, all right,
there's black oil painting.
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There's black acrylic.
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I didn't have those. I had tar.
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When you think about fantastic artists,
whether they are African American
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or white or Latino,
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Theaster Gates is in that milieu.
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He is at the very, very peak.
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I would describe Theaster's
artas unconventional
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but relatable and accessible.
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He is really interested
inrepurposing materials that are
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maybe not traditionally consideredto
be a part of the visual arts world.
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He takes old thingsand
gives them a refreshed look,
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but then he always putssome
historical relevance within them.
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I remember the fire hose seriesthat he did
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born out of the race
riotsseveral years ago.
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And that was incredibleand
very significant.
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And then he does the
piecesthat are all in wood,
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and then he works in glass and in light.
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And then he does performance art.
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It's hard to just pinpoint
himinto one genre and say,
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"This is just what Theaster does."
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It's not possible.
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But I think his art also transcends into
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his real love, which is urban planning.
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It's so interestingto try to
track what happened first...
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on the block.
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I'll give it a shot.
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When I moved to the South
Sideand I bought my house,
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we knew that the property
valuesin my neighborhood were low.
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And none of us knew about whether or
notthose values would ever change.
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Friends of mine who had
money sensewould say,
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"Don't invest all your
moneyin this building,
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'cause you're never gonna
getyour money out of it."
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And so I wasn't worried aboutor
concerned about resale value.
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I was investing in my life.
I was investing in my block.
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When you walk pastan abandoned building,
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it's hard not to feel heavy.
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It reminds youof a kind
of failure of a place.
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It starts to show youthe
dormancy that happens
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when a place no longer has value.
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The South Side of Chicago
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has the highest unemployment,
the highest poverty,
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the highest disinvestment,
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and these same communitieshave
the highest violent crime rates.
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They have the highestnumber
of homicides in the city.
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South Side neighborhoods have becomea
place where people don't want to live.
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Theaster has a really great eye for
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finding purpose and valuein
things that get destroyed
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or ignored or forgotten about.
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It is saying that
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there's more to these thingsthan
what we maybe initially thought.
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I wanted to be ableto walk down the block,
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go get a nice meal at a local restaurant.
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Or go to the movies.
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But those optionsweren't really
available where I lived...
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and I just started imagining
thatthose platforms could exist
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not just in white space.
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Great culture had a right
to livewhere I live.
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Where better than the hometo make
some of those other things happen?
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And so I just built thingswhere
I could with what I had,
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and I started in my first crib.
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Architecture and designare
not my professions.
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I don't have a professional relationship,
really, with a built environment.
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I build because it satisfies
me, it gives me joy.
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It makes me really happy.
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When I was just starting the renovation,
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these termites had infested the place.
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We had to move all my things out.
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And we took the kitchen floor out,
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and it revealedthis kind of
two-story, vaulted area.
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The proportion was so beautiful.
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And we ended upjust stabilizing the walls
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and building out built-ins,
metal rail detailing,
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bowling alley floors.
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And we created this kind of vaulted space
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that is now the footprint ofwhat
we call the Listening House.
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And while I was renovating it,
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a friend of mine happened to be
sellingthe building next door,
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and I became motivated to buy the land
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because I was interested in being ableto
do more things in my neighborhood.
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There's something that is
definitelynonconventional about the build-out.
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I'd build considering all of the layers...
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and then ultimately getting back to,
like, some kind of original structure.
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If you pull back the yearsof
underlayment and carpeting,
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what do the floors look like?
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If you removethe layers
and layers of paint,
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what do the built-ins look like?
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If you were to pull out the walls,
what do the bones look like?
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My job is to just findthe tools necessary
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to make the thing better than it had
beenand then re-present it to the world
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in a way that the
worldhasn't seen it before.
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That building eventually became
known asthe Archive House.
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So, between the Listening
Houseand the Archive House,
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I found myselfbecoming a cultural producer.
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I would invite other people in and say,
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"I want to builda creative
space, community.
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Would you like to build it with me?"
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Exhibitions would happen there.
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Music would happen there.
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And then there was this great
momentwhen the Smart Museum of Chicago
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had this exhibition called "Feast."
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We were part of that.
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All these things that were, like,
emergentwithin my artistic practice,
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but they were all happening at my crib.
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I want a big problem.
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Like, "Oh, no one's gonna
investin 69th and Dorchester."
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I'm not gonna move, because I could move.
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But it's like,
I'm interested in the problems
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that are right up under my nose.
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For me, the things that happenon Dorchester
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are the hottest things in the world.
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It's bigger than the Archive House.
It's bigger than the Listening House.
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It's bigger than the word "home."
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My buildings, they constitute...
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a love investment.
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My next renovation
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was the first space for
black cinemaacross the street
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in what is now my house.
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And I think it's a little bit of
an oasisin the middle of the block.
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On the first floor, we wouldblacken
everything, pull the screen down,
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and then watch emerging video artwork.
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You know, Black Cinema
Housewasn't so much about a place.
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Black Cinema House was about
filmmakerswho are making films--
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and they don't have a place to
screentheir films-- could have a place.
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It was about creating a movementso
that film mattered more,
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and, in that sense, culture mattered more.
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It was about defending the right
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that a black person hasto
make black space work.
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And now I have these buildings
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that I kind of move in between
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from my crib to 6916, 6918.
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In that sense, there's a kind
of constellation of spaces,
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and when you put those buildings
together, it's a kind of an exploded home.
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I don't actually needa lot of space for me.
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But I do want a lot of space
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so that I can seethe mad
potential within my people.
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What Theaster sayswhen
he transforms a place
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it's not just,
"Fix the placeand make it look pretty."
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He's saying, "We live here.
We raise our children here."
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For a child to have any sense of
hope, he's saying,
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"We don't have to move anywhere.
We have to transform where we are."
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We tackled the
buildinginitially as an artwork.
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-Right.-So, you know, all the cladding,
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you know, the exchange stuff,
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choosing to leave some wallsand
then make new things happen,
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all of that stuff felt
likeit's part of my aesthetic.
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-It feels good.-Dude, it's dope.
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See, 'cause what happens a lot of timesis
we're so hungry for representation,
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we wind up having to be
somethingfor everybody.
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-Oh, yeah.-That's the conversation
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that's a visceral conversationin
our community 'cause it's real.
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-We gotta make none of that up.-Yeah.
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-Yeah. Yeah.-Helping one another.
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-Yeah.-Yeah, that's what it's all about.
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The café is back. It's alive.
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-Yeah.-Yeah. It's live. It's back on.
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Don't forget it.
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I think Theaster's impact
herehas been incredible.
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Theaster comes in with vision,
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and he takes a look at these buildings,
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and he sees themmore than
just dilapidated buildings.
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He sees them with a second
lifeand a third life.
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That's what I think he's broughtto
this community. It's a vibrancy.
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69th and Dorchester is a lot likethe
neighborhood that I grew up in,
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and I feel like, in some ways,
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doing this work on the South
Sideof Chicago has to do with
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me looking for richnesswithin
the things that made me.
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I'm sure it was very difficult for himto
grow up on the West Side of Chicago
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in an area that was,
for all practical purposes, abandoned.
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No city resources.
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No light was shining on that place.
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I'm the ninth child of nine.
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I have eight sisters.
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My sisters and I grew upon
the West Side of Chicago.
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We didn't have a lot,
but we didn't know we didn't have a lot.
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When it was time for middle
school, my grades were very good.
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I got bused to the North Side school.
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As you went north,
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the neighborhood would go from
blackto Puerto Rican and Mexican
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to a kind of working-classand
middle-class white.
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As I moved neighborhood to
neighborhood, I could feel the change.
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I could see the brick
tuck-pointing, the grass mowed.
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Whenever I saw a nice building,
I assumed white people lived in it.
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Whenever I saw a busted-up building,
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I assumed black people lived in it.
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What started to happen wasl'd go to school,
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and a bulldozerwould be
showing up on my block.
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I'd come home,
and the building would be gone.
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If drugs were being sold in the
buildingor the building was abandoned
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we would erase the buildingas if
that would make the problem go away.
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We erased our architecture.
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It drastically changedthe built environment
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in black and brown neighborhoods.
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You gotta be proximate to the
problem, to the need, to change it,
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and I think that's the beauty of Theaster.
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With all of his relationships,
with all of his exposure,
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he could live anywhere.
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I think that's powerful.
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Fellas.
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-Yo, yo.-Hey, hey.
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-Hey, man.-What's happening, man?
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-How ya feeling?-Good.
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-How y'all been?-Good.
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Where did this tree come from?
Was it in the mix?
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It was in the mix.
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You know, the rotcould
conceivably go up to here.
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You might have decent
woodfrom here to here.
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But you could play aroundwith that rot too.
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We could potentially have a high stool.
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Yeah, a bar type stool. Okay.
236
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Let's look at these real quick.
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- I mean, it almost feels like
a tattoo.-Yeah, right, right.
238
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-It's dense though.-Yeah.
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Farmers used to use it for fence posts.
It's good outside.
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It feels good.
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I love it.
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I really do love it.
243
00:16:40,959 --> 00:16:46,219
In 2014, I received a callfrom the
Department of Cultural Affairs.
244
00:16:47,090 --> 00:16:48,090
They told me
245
00:16:48,175 --> 00:16:52,095
that the city was in the processof
having to cut down a lot of trees.
246
00:16:52,721 --> 00:16:55,271
They wanted meto consider
making an art project.
247
00:16:55,807 --> 00:16:59,227
When they explained to me the numberof
trees that was being torn down,
248
00:16:59,311 --> 00:17:02,361
I immediately thought
like,"You don't need artwork.
249
00:17:02,439 --> 00:17:04,439
You need a bigger intervention.
250
00:17:04,525 --> 00:17:09,065
You need a mill wherethese
90,000 trees could be processed."
251
00:17:10,489 --> 00:17:14,489
And maybe my artistic
interventionwould be to build the mill.
252
00:17:30,968 --> 00:17:34,598
What I found in our millis that
three things are happening.
253
00:17:35,097 --> 00:17:37,597
One thing is that trees are being cut
254
00:17:37,683 --> 00:17:40,483
and people are learning how to mill trees.
255
00:17:41,144 --> 00:17:42,154
That's great.
256
00:17:42,729 --> 00:17:45,609
The second thingis that
we're creating products.
257
00:17:46,233 --> 00:17:49,073
We're making tables,
we're making hardwood flooring,
258
00:17:49,611 --> 00:17:50,861
and we're making art.
259
00:17:52,155 --> 00:17:56,155
Then this third zone is,
the by-product of the wood
260
00:17:56,243 --> 00:17:57,623
feeds our wood kiln.
261
00:17:57,703 --> 00:18:00,123
So, we've createdthis kind of closed loop
262
00:18:00,205 --> 00:18:03,035
between the offshootsof the milling process
263
00:18:03,125 --> 00:18:07,415
and the energy or the fuel
neededin order to fire our kilns,
264
00:18:07,504 --> 00:18:11,764
which makes reallyexceptionally
beautiful ceramic objects.
265
00:18:13,177 --> 00:18:15,547
But I also think that there
arethese other things like
266
00:18:15,637 --> 00:18:18,387
this kind of philosophical arm of the mill
267
00:18:19,016 --> 00:18:23,436
that's like, "What can we do to make
lifeon the South Side more rich?"
268
00:18:24,771 --> 00:18:27,271
I think that the morewe
can start to demonstrate
269
00:18:27,357 --> 00:18:30,647
what can be done with these
pieces, the better.
270
00:18:30,736 --> 00:18:32,526
So, if we know that we have
271
00:18:32,946 --> 00:18:37,026
400 pieces of Osage like
this, or 800 pieces of ash,
272
00:18:37,492 --> 00:18:39,582
it then starts to allow us to think about,
273
00:18:39,661 --> 00:18:42,751
"Okay, what could a house
look likethat's all ash?"
274
00:18:43,248 --> 00:18:46,078
The wealth is in the
excess of woodthat we have
275
00:18:46,168 --> 00:18:47,498
that we're getting very cheap.
276
00:18:47,586 --> 00:18:49,796
This is great. These are beautiful boards.
277
00:18:51,798 --> 00:18:53,128
It's not about trees.
278
00:18:53,884 --> 00:18:55,474
It's not about abandoned buildings.
279
00:18:56,345 --> 00:19:01,515
It's do we have the ability,
the drive, the faith
280
00:19:02,100 --> 00:19:04,390
to make Chicago home?
281
00:19:11,693 --> 00:19:16,283
I think that there are several
messagesin Theaster's work.
282
00:19:17,616 --> 00:19:20,866
His messages are about culture.
283
00:19:20,953 --> 00:19:24,253
His messages are aboutthe
African American community.
284
00:19:25,207 --> 00:19:29,287
His messages are about how he
grew upand what he perceives.
285
00:19:29,378 --> 00:19:33,048
This is wherel think he finds inspiration.
286
00:19:37,636 --> 00:19:38,846
As I got older,
287
00:19:39,555 --> 00:19:41,515
I was trying to figure out a way
288
00:19:41,598 --> 00:19:47,098
to stop the hemorrhagingthat I
saw happening in my neighborhood.
289
00:19:48,230 --> 00:19:51,070
And so I studied urban planning.
290
00:19:52,693 --> 00:19:55,703
I had taken a buildings permit class.
291
00:19:56,154 --> 00:19:58,244
I was learning more about mapping.
292
00:19:58,824 --> 00:20:00,624
And at some point, it shifted...
293
00:20:02,327 --> 00:20:04,197
and I started being taught
294
00:20:04,288 --> 00:20:07,538
that black and brown peopleare
the challenges of cities.
295
00:20:09,209 --> 00:20:11,499
And it's because they're
lazyand they don't want to work.
296
00:20:12,296 --> 00:20:15,586
And that whole ideawas
rubbing up against...
297
00:20:17,467 --> 00:20:18,547
who I am.
298
00:20:19,636 --> 00:20:23,096
And I just rememberthis
feeling that I had of, like,
299
00:20:23,765 --> 00:20:26,385
"This world does not care about the poor."
300
00:20:27,144 --> 00:20:28,234
It just doesn't.
301
00:20:28,812 --> 00:20:31,272
So, I started to realize that...
302
00:20:31,773 --> 00:20:34,783
the most savvy urban planners...
303
00:20:35,319 --> 00:20:37,609
are not neighborhood advocates.
304
00:20:37,696 --> 00:20:39,486
They're not social activists.
305
00:20:40,324 --> 00:20:44,494
There could be solutionsto some
of the challenges of the city,
306
00:20:44,578 --> 00:20:46,578
but one actually has to have a vision.
307
00:20:47,664 --> 00:20:49,834
And so someone has to decide
308
00:20:49,917 --> 00:20:52,747
that land is gonna be
usedfor a particular mission.
309
00:20:53,879 --> 00:20:57,339
And I'm committed to making
sure thatthat land serves...
310
00:20:58,425 --> 00:21:00,295
people who need the opportunity.
311
00:21:04,139 --> 00:21:08,769
I had been living on the South
Sidealready for six or seven years,
312
00:21:09,686 --> 00:21:12,516
and I had, you know,
driven past this bank building.
313
00:21:13,774 --> 00:21:17,284
This building was an amazing building,
314
00:21:18,111 --> 00:21:20,111
and I found out from a friend
315
00:21:20,906 --> 00:21:22,986
that the bank was about to be demolished.
316
00:21:25,244 --> 00:21:26,504
In the '60s,
317
00:21:26,578 --> 00:21:29,498
this building was testament to
318
00:21:29,581 --> 00:21:32,211
the brightness and the
wealthof South Shore.
319
00:21:33,293 --> 00:21:35,633
And in the middle '70s,
320
00:21:35,712 --> 00:21:38,512
new migrations started to happen.
321
00:21:39,299 --> 00:21:41,389
That's when white flight occurred.
322
00:21:41,468 --> 00:21:43,968
And so you had the white people
323
00:21:44,054 --> 00:21:47,224
moving out of the inner cityto the suburbs.
324
00:21:48,058 --> 00:21:51,398
As they moved out,
the resources moved with them.
325
00:21:52,229 --> 00:21:56,229
The bank buildingbecame a representative of
326
00:21:56,316 --> 00:22:00,396
the flight of investmentaway
from the South Side.
327
00:22:01,321 --> 00:22:02,411
The demise of the bank
328
00:22:02,489 --> 00:22:07,329
was really also a demise of,
you know, my neighborhood.
329
00:22:08,996 --> 00:22:11,866
So, I had a meeting with the mayor,
330
00:22:11,957 --> 00:22:15,457
and I asked the mayorto
not tear down the building.
331
00:22:17,546 --> 00:22:19,046
I was in over my head.
332
00:22:20,048 --> 00:22:25,718
I didn't know how my historyof
learning urban planning
333
00:22:25,804 --> 00:22:27,514
would directly relate to this building,
334
00:22:27,598 --> 00:22:30,018
and it felt like those
thingswere worlds apart.
335
00:22:30,100 --> 00:22:31,520
And so I found myself...
336
00:22:32,728 --> 00:22:33,728
enthused...
337
00:22:34,771 --> 00:22:37,151
confident and ignorant,
338
00:22:38,066 --> 00:22:40,566
and that there was somethingmaybe necessary
339
00:22:40,652 --> 00:22:42,912
that was the right set of ingredients
340
00:22:43,447 --> 00:22:47,577
to keep me plowing
forwardwith the renovation.
341
00:22:51,246 --> 00:22:53,746
I knew that I wanted to celebrate
342
00:22:53,832 --> 00:22:58,882
the continued existence of the
buildingas a kind of act of resistance.
343
00:23:00,130 --> 00:23:03,010
That there would
besomething fighting against
344
00:23:03,091 --> 00:23:06,091
what felt like constant decay--
345
00:23:06,929 --> 00:23:08,259
that we would just fight that
346
00:23:08,347 --> 00:23:12,477
with the insistence of makinga
great building great again.
347
00:23:16,271 --> 00:23:20,651
So, we started making sketchesand
making plans and saying,
348
00:23:20,734 --> 00:23:24,454
"The first floor is gonna bean
exhibition space with live music,
349
00:23:24,530 --> 00:23:26,950
and the second flooris
gonna have this library.
350
00:23:27,032 --> 00:23:28,832
Third floor is gonna be offices."
351
00:23:29,326 --> 00:23:31,326
And no one really believed in it.
352
00:23:32,829 --> 00:23:36,169
I would tell people my vision,
I'd walk them through the space,
353
00:23:36,250 --> 00:23:39,590
and people would just say,"Yeah,
this is gonna break you.
354
00:23:40,671 --> 00:23:43,221
It's just not worth the money and effort."
355
00:23:48,053 --> 00:23:49,473
I'm born and raised in Chicago,
356
00:23:49,555 --> 00:23:52,805
so I've driven past that bankfor decades,
357
00:23:52,891 --> 00:23:54,641
and for decades, it was nothing.
358
00:23:54,726 --> 00:23:56,186
It was just crumbling.
359
00:23:57,020 --> 00:23:59,770
And so when Theaster took me over there,
360
00:23:59,857 --> 00:24:01,857
it was in complete disrepair.
361
00:24:02,734 --> 00:24:06,614
And I'm like, "Now,
how in the worldare you going to fix this?
362
00:24:07,155 --> 00:24:09,065
This is a huge undertaking."
363
00:24:10,158 --> 00:24:12,158
But I trusted Theaster.
364
00:24:13,954 --> 00:24:18,044
Linda came over,
and she invited me to Johnson Publishing,
365
00:24:18,667 --> 00:24:19,877
to the seventh floor.
366
00:24:20,377 --> 00:24:22,247
And it was their research library.
367
00:24:23,130 --> 00:24:26,300
Johnson Publishing Companywas
started by both of my parents,
368
00:24:26,383 --> 00:24:27,893
John and Eunice Johnson.
369
00:24:27,968 --> 00:24:30,388
This is where Ebony magazine was born
370
00:24:30,470 --> 00:24:32,470
and where Jet magazine was born.
371
00:24:32,931 --> 00:24:34,061
I said, "Listen.
372
00:24:34,141 --> 00:24:39,061
We've gotta move out of here,
and I've got this library of books."
373
00:24:39,146 --> 00:24:41,686
There's probably, I don't
know, 10,000 or 15,000.
374
00:24:42,316 --> 00:24:44,436
She said, "You can have the books."
375
00:24:45,277 --> 00:24:47,237
And I just couldn't believe it.
376
00:24:47,321 --> 00:24:51,661
The collection is probablyone
of the most significant
377
00:24:51,742 --> 00:24:54,792
single collections of black booksgathered.
378
00:24:55,913 --> 00:24:57,753
The mission of both publications
379
00:24:57,831 --> 00:25:02,961
really was to show African
Americansin a successful light.
380
00:25:03,670 --> 00:25:05,670
Her gift couldn't have been more timely,
381
00:25:05,756 --> 00:25:09,376
because the booksbecame kind of the heart,
382
00:25:09,468 --> 00:25:11,178
the main artery of the space.
383
00:25:20,062 --> 00:25:23,192
The library createdthis
kind of black calling card.
384
00:25:24,942 --> 00:25:27,362
And so I started
thinkingabout the bank, like,
385
00:25:27,945 --> 00:25:31,405
could the bank bethis kind of part archive,
386
00:25:31,907 --> 00:25:35,327
part cultural hot spot?
387
00:25:39,039 --> 00:25:41,749
A year later, I got this call from
388
00:25:41,834 --> 00:25:44,634
the executor of Frankie Knuckles' estate.
389
00:25:45,212 --> 00:25:49,382
Frankie Knuckles createdthe
Chicago house music tradition,
390
00:25:49,466 --> 00:25:53,386
a kind of launching
padfor old-school disco,
391
00:25:53,470 --> 00:25:56,180
early African drum and bass.
392
00:25:56,807 --> 00:26:01,767
We worked out a deal where I wouldfunction
as the steward of the archive
393
00:26:01,854 --> 00:26:03,064
for the next decade.
394
00:26:04,982 --> 00:26:08,242
It wasn't importantthat
people look at the albums.
395
00:26:08,318 --> 00:26:11,318
It was important that house
musiccontinued to get pumped.
396
00:26:15,576 --> 00:26:18,406
Another collection that we managed to land
397
00:26:18,495 --> 00:26:20,745
was by a brother named Ed Williams,
398
00:26:21,206 --> 00:26:25,126
who was a banker who lived
in Chicagoand collected,
399
00:26:25,544 --> 00:26:27,054
we call it "negrobilia,"
400
00:26:27,129 --> 00:26:32,299
but it's essentially derogatory
imagesof black people in paper form,
401
00:26:32,384 --> 00:26:34,144
paintings, sculptures.
402
00:26:34,469 --> 00:26:38,469
But often he was buying these
thingsto take them out of circulation.
403
00:26:39,641 --> 00:26:42,391
You have this thing,
which is a marker of history...
404
00:26:43,437 --> 00:26:45,687
and then you have John Johnson's library
405
00:26:45,772 --> 00:26:48,402
as a kind of counter-narrativeto everything
406
00:26:48,483 --> 00:26:51,113
that the Ed Williams collection had in it.
407
00:26:51,945 --> 00:26:55,775
So, the bank becomes a visualization
408
00:26:55,866 --> 00:26:58,286
of a complicated black experience,
409
00:26:58,869 --> 00:27:01,789
and that if peoplewould
spend time with these things,
410
00:27:01,872 --> 00:27:06,172
they would have a more
nuancedunderstanding of either themselves
411
00:27:06,251 --> 00:27:09,211
or the people that livedin
the neighborhood where we are.
412
00:27:16,470 --> 00:27:18,310
The opening day of the bank,
413
00:27:18,388 --> 00:27:22,138
there was a line of about
400 peoplewaiting to get in.
414
00:27:23,685 --> 00:27:25,845
And I don't remember ever
415
00:27:25,938 --> 00:27:30,688
seeing a line of 400 peopleon
the South Side for very much.
416
00:27:31,235 --> 00:27:34,145
All these people waiting in anticipation
417
00:27:34,238 --> 00:27:36,658
for this sleeping giant to wake up.
418
00:27:43,413 --> 00:27:47,333
The opening of the Stony
Island Arts Bankwas incredible.
419
00:27:48,669 --> 00:27:53,009
You had artists from all
over the countrythat came,
420
00:27:53,465 --> 00:27:55,585
African American artists especially.
421
00:27:56,593 --> 00:27:58,643
They came because of Theaster.
422
00:27:59,638 --> 00:28:03,928
The word "art" wasn't quite big
enoughfor what had happened.
423
00:28:04,601 --> 00:28:07,101
We just woke the community up and said,
424
00:28:07,187 --> 00:28:10,977
"Hey, great things can still happen
here, and they will."
425
00:28:12,192 --> 00:28:15,402
It's just a powerful statement of renewal.
426
00:28:15,863 --> 00:28:18,163
It reinvigorates a community.
427
00:28:18,574 --> 00:28:21,624
Something that used to bea grand boulevard,
428
00:28:21,702 --> 00:28:24,962
slowly coming back to life.
429
00:28:25,539 --> 00:28:28,129
It's become really clear to me
430
00:28:28,208 --> 00:28:33,758
that when peoplebelieve in
the place where they live,
431
00:28:33,839 --> 00:28:36,469
beautiful and amazing things can happen,
432
00:28:36,925 --> 00:28:39,465
and that beautyhas the
right to live everywhere,
433
00:28:39,553 --> 00:28:41,853
even at 68th and Stony Island.
434
00:28:44,933 --> 00:28:46,443
Thank you all for being here.
435
00:28:59,948 --> 00:29:03,368
Besides the bank, one of the
projectsthat I'm really excited about
436
00:29:03,452 --> 00:29:05,952
is St. Laurence Elementary School.
437
00:29:08,207 --> 00:29:10,037
It's 40,000 square feet.
438
00:29:11,043 --> 00:29:13,463
People in the neighborhoodwent
to that school,
439
00:29:13,879 --> 00:29:16,669
and so the stakes are very high.
440
00:29:24,890 --> 00:29:26,270
For the design process,
441
00:29:26,767 --> 00:29:29,437
we had to board it upand kind
of stabilize the building.
442
00:29:30,562 --> 00:29:32,862
And then we worked with a local artist
443
00:29:32,940 --> 00:29:36,440
to do these abstract forms on plywood,
444
00:29:37,110 --> 00:29:40,530
signals to the communitythat
great things are happening
445
00:29:40,614 --> 00:29:42,784
but it's happeningfor people who live here.
446
00:29:43,450 --> 00:29:46,080
Let's look at the overall
buildinga little bit.
447
00:29:46,161 --> 00:29:48,871
So, the plan still is
448
00:29:48,956 --> 00:29:53,376
to, you know, have the main entrycome
through the front of the building.
449
00:29:53,877 --> 00:29:55,087
My fear...
450
00:29:56,255 --> 00:29:58,085
is that the formality...
451
00:29:59,508 --> 00:30:01,428
would keep people from wanting to...
452
00:30:01,802 --> 00:30:03,432
-Just wander in.-...wander.
453
00:30:04,638 --> 00:30:07,098
You know, it feels as formal as the bank.
454
00:30:07,182 --> 00:30:11,352
This is a place for joy and
loveand happiness and community.
455
00:30:11,436 --> 00:30:15,186
We want peopleto feel
really comfortable hanging.
456
00:30:16,525 --> 00:30:20,485
In terms of the interior of the building,
the building will become a maker space.
457
00:30:20,946 --> 00:30:23,486
So, one of the thingsthat
I'm hoping to do now
458
00:30:24,157 --> 00:30:26,447
is raise the resources necessary
459
00:30:26,535 --> 00:30:30,905
to build traditional artist
studiosthat are intentionally large
460
00:30:30,998 --> 00:30:35,748
so that individual artistscan
have space to have big ideas.
461
00:30:36,503 --> 00:30:38,173
The goal isn't to just dream.
462
00:30:38,255 --> 00:30:42,425
It's to, like, to see threeor four
more projects completed by June.
463
00:30:43,594 --> 00:30:45,764
My hope is that Chicago
464
00:30:45,846 --> 00:30:49,766
will be a place that's knownfor
artists who decided to stay,
465
00:30:50,517 --> 00:30:53,307
artists who hadmore and more opportunities
466
00:30:53,395 --> 00:30:56,395
to do more and more where we live.
467
00:30:57,107 --> 00:31:00,687
I just need for usto kind
of get one step further,
468
00:31:01,486 --> 00:31:06,236
so that we can get this community involvedin
what's gonna happen on those lots.
469
00:31:07,492 --> 00:31:12,332
I want artiststo be able to be from Chicago
470
00:31:12,915 --> 00:31:18,245
and feel like they will alwayshave
permission to make Chicago home.
471
00:31:22,132 --> 00:31:27,472
Theaster's work proves thatthe
work that is being done here
472
00:31:27,554 --> 00:31:29,724
and the storiesthat are
sort of existing here
473
00:31:29,806 --> 00:31:33,976
deserve to be seen,
understood on a larger scale.
474
00:31:34,061 --> 00:31:39,071
That, to me, makes the workthat
he's doing so valuable.
475
00:31:40,567 --> 00:31:42,277
I think that Theaster
476
00:31:42,361 --> 00:31:47,531
is trying to give peoplea sense of oneness.
477
00:31:47,616 --> 00:31:51,906
You can take what others see
as garbageand make it useful.
478
00:31:53,789 --> 00:31:57,209
You know, what Theaster did is he sort
ofshined a light on this community.
479
00:31:58,335 --> 00:31:59,705
Buildings can come and go,
480
00:31:59,795 --> 00:32:03,715
but what has been built up over
a lifetimenever disappears.
481
00:32:05,092 --> 00:32:08,392
And now, in this immediate proximity,
482
00:32:08,470 --> 00:32:10,560
we have the Archive House,
483
00:32:10,639 --> 00:32:11,849
the Listening House,
484
00:32:11,932 --> 00:32:13,232
Black Cinema House,
485
00:32:13,308 --> 00:32:14,848
the Currency Exchange Café,
486
00:32:14,935 --> 00:32:15,975
the Mill,
487
00:32:16,061 --> 00:32:17,981
and the Stony Island Arts Bank.
488
00:32:18,605 --> 00:32:21,935
Those forces togetherare
the beginning of a town.
489
00:32:26,780 --> 00:32:31,540
And so I feel like, you know, poor
placesare always making richness happen.
490
00:32:32,119 --> 00:32:37,669
But we have to believe in themin
order to see that richness.
491
00:32:38,667 --> 00:32:40,087
And I feel like, you know...
492
00:32:42,004 --> 00:32:46,054
one of the unexpected by-productsof
believing in the South Side
493
00:32:46,133 --> 00:32:49,933
and believing in Chicagois
that it's allowed me to have
494
00:32:50,012 --> 00:32:53,642
one of the most amazing art
careersl could have ever imagined
495
00:32:54,057 --> 00:32:56,057
and allowed me to feel safe...
496
00:32:57,686 --> 00:32:58,686
and free...
497
00:33:00,647 --> 00:33:01,647
and home.
497
00:33:02,305 --> 00:34:02,692
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