Coming to the Commons
Radical Neighborliness in South Side Chicago
Now that 2018 is in full swing, we’re taking a peek at each of the five Reimagining the Civic Common’s demonstration cities to highlight one thing to keep your eye on in the year ahead. We’ve already made stops in Akron, Memphis and Detroit. Check back next week as we visit Philadelphia.
St. Laurence Elementary School and the Garfield Park Mill: Chicago, Illinois
If you wander around the south Chicago neighborhoods of Greater Grand Crossing and Washington Park, you’re likely to stumble upon any number of redevelopment projects that have sprung to life in recent years thanks to the vision of artist, urban innovator and neighborhood resident Theaster Gates along with South Side community-focused organizations like Rebuild Foundation and Arts + Public Life. From the iconic Stony Island Arts Bank (a community gathering space, performance and arts venue, collections archive and more) to the laid-back but architecturally striking Currency Exchange Café, these places pay homage to the area’s heritage while also infusing new energy and purpose into corners of Chicago that have long endured economic hardship and civic disengagement.
While Gates and company have provided the impetus, energy and insights to get these projects off the ground, they’re quick to point out that every initiative is intentionally designed as a partnership with the community that surrounds it.
“We consider it neighborhood development with the neighbors,” says Lori Berko, putting a little extra emphasis on that word “with.” Berko is deputy director of Arts + Public Life, a University of Chicago-affiliated initiative that harnesses the arts to establish unique and lasting connection among neighbors and the community itself. “We want to make sure the neighbors are as included in the process as we are.”
“It’s really about making sure that the people who are here are part of what the change is,” adds Nootan Bharani, associate director of design and university partnerships at Arts + Public Life. “To us, it’s radical neighborliness.”
This “radical neighborliness” will be especially evident in two marquis projects: the renovation of the now-shuttered St. Laurence Elementary School and the opening of a permanent ash tree mill in Garfield Park. At both places, community members serve as vital contributors to the conception, creation and ongoing operation of the facilities.
St. Laurence, a dilapidated building in Greater Grand Crossing that was last operational as a church in 2002, is being reimagined as a maker space where artists and creative entrepreneurs will meet, collaborate, receive training and swap learnings. But before the doors even open in late 2018, the spirit of community collaboration is running strong. Berko says the initiatives’ leaders have worked extensively with neighborhood residents, as well as the still-active alumni groups for the old St. Laurence Elementary School, to craft a project plan that best reflects community needs and respects neighborhood perspectives. Local workforce members are helping with the construction. And when the space is up and running, neighbors will staff as well as utilize the space.
There’s a similar commitment to community engagement in Garfield Park, where a permanent ash tree mill is in the works. Milling is already happening at a temporary facility managed by timberwork veteran Damon Doerschuk (a Northside resident) and staffed by Khris Williams, who was born and raised in the neighborhood.
After the mill moves into its new location (projected for summer 2018) Doerschuk expects to see the number of neighborhood residents working there to increase.
While building a local workforce at the mill is an essential part of its DNA, it’s not the only way that it will engage the community. The millwork that Doerschuk and Williams are doing is already yielding products — from finished tables to structural materials like 2 x 4s — that are used in neighborhood places and projects.
In other words, throughout 2018, it won’t simply be civic assets that’ll take center stage; it’ll be an approach, too — an approach built on the belief that when community members are engaged, the community itself becomes a stronger, more vibrant place. And that’s why Berko promises the Chicago civic commons team will be more devoted than ever to “creating more opportunities for folks to participate.”
Reimagining the Civic Commons is a collaboration between The JPB Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation and local partners.
