Banking on culture

The Stony Island Arts Bank, built in 1923, is being given a second lease of life thanks to urban planner Theaster Gates, founder of the Rebuild Foundation, a non-profit-making organisation that rebuilds and creates cultural institutions in neighbourhoods lacking in investment.

The space, open to the public for the first time during Chicago’s current Architecture Biennial, has been partially renovated, with the rusted old vault, cracked moulding and blistered paint remaining in order to keep the current building connected to its past. On the ground floor there are plans for a bar and gallery, while other floors will house Rebuild Foundation’s library, ‘godfather of house’ Frankie Knuckles’ vinyl archive, and slides from the University of Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. 

‘This is an institution of and for the South Side – a repository for African American culture and history, a laboratory for the next generation of black artists and culture-interested people, a platform to showcase future leaders, whether they are painters, educators, scholars or curators,’ Gates told Wallpaper* magazine.

The Big Picture: Unused spaces are increasingly finding new value through artists and cultural figures. For more, see our Innovate on the Listeners Project.