{"id":47316,"date":"2016-12-06T16:31:02","date_gmt":"2016-12-06T22:31:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=47316"},"modified":"2016-12-06T16:31:02","modified_gmt":"2016-12-06T22:31:02","slug":"stony-island-arts-bank-works-to-change-narrative-of-chicagos-south-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/stony-island-arts-bank-works-to-change-narrative-of-chicagos-south-side\/","title":{"rendered":"Stony Island Arts Bank works to change narrative of Chicago\u2019s South Side"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>by Christen Gall<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"dropcap\">Ten minutes south of Hyde Park, the South Side\u2019s intellectual haven, sits a neoclassic building on the unlikely corner of\u00a0Stony\u00a0Island\u00a0Ave. and 68th\u00a0St. in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/theaster_gates_how_to_revive_a_neighborhood_with_imagination_beauty_and_art\">Theaster Gates<\/a>, a renowned Chicago artist, urban planner and University of Chicago professor, bought the building in 2013 for a mere $1 from the city of Chicago just before the abandoned building was set to be demolished. Gates renovated the former bank &#8212; which once stood 6-feet deep in water &#8212; into a cultural center for African American history and art. The Stony Island Arts Bank opened in Oct. 2015, aligning directly with Gates\u2019 non-profit organization, Rebuild Foundation, and its mission to revive the city\u2019s South Side.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Stony Island Arts Bank\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/194571295?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The Stony Island Arts Bank houses 15, 000 books and collections of Ebony and Jet magazines. It also hosts artists in residence from around the world and often is the location for Black Cinema House, another Gates\u2019 project, to highlight African American film. President Barack Obama was a recent guest during his last visit to Chicago in October. For a community with a median household income of $23, 333, according to the Census Bureau, and the 8th-highest rate of violent crime in Chicago over the last month, according to the Chicago Tribune\u2019s database, the proximity to world-renowned artists and presidents might seem like a stark dichotomy to the poverty and violence in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n<p>Blair Kamin, architecture critic of the Chicago Tribune wrote that the building was, \u201ca small miracle:\u00a0once-decrepit, neoclassical bank temple that&#8217;s been transformed into a venue where the coin of the realm is culture, not currency; soft power, not hard cash.\u201d The New Yorker called it, \u201chis [Gates\u2019] most ambitious project\u201d back in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>Mejay Gula, building strategist and construction manager for the University of Chicago Place Lab, worked on the bank with Gates halfway through the project. Gula said she appreciated the early praise the project has garnered from critics and journalists, but she is more interested in knowing what the long-term impact of the building will be on the community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was more curious about how the space was going to be used,\u201d said Gula. \u201cAre people really benefiting? You design these things and all you can do is just wait. Wait and see if it works. And if it doesn\u2019t work, how can you change things to make it better.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"featurecaption\">The Stony Island Arts Bank, on Chicago&#8217;s South Side, is a cultural center for African American history holding over 15, 000 books and collections of Ebony and Jet magazines. (Christen Gall\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Christen Gall Ten minutes south of Hyde Park, the South Side\u2019s intellectual haven, sits a neoclassic building on the unlikely corner of\u00a0Stony\u00a0Island\u00a0Ave. and 68th\u00a0St. in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood.\u00a0Theaster Gates, a renowned Chicago artist, urban planner and University of Chicago professor, bought the building in 2013 for a mere $1 from the city [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":297,"featured_media":47323,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2941],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2016"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Stony Island Arts Bank works to change narrative of Chicago\u2019s South Side - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/stony-island-arts-bank-works-to-change-narrative-of-chicagos-south-side\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stony Island Arts Bank works to change narrative of Chicago\u2019s South Side - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Christen Gall Ten minutes south of Hyde Park, the South Side\u2019s intellectual haven, sits a neoclassic building on the unlikely corner of\u00a0Stony\u00a0Island\u00a0Ave. and 68th\u00a0St. in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood.\u00a0Theaster Gates, a renowned Chicago artist, urban planner and University of Chicago professor, bought the building in 2013 for a mere $1 from the city [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/stony-island-arts-bank-works-to-change-narrative-of-chicagos-south-side\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-12-06T22:31:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/12\/Chairs2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"786\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"christengall2016\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"christengall2016\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/stony-island-arts-bank-works-to-change-narrative-of-chicagos-south-side\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/stony-island-arts-bank-works-to-change-narrative-of-chicagos-south-side\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"christengall2016\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a58122701c79348ae70c65084b932086\"},\"headline\":\"Stony Island Arts Bank works to change narrative of Chicago\u2019s South Side\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-12-06T22:31:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/stony-island-arts-bank-works-to-change-narrative-of-chicagos-south-side\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":443,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/stony-island-arts-bank-works-to-change-narrative-of-chicagos-south-side\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/s3.amazonaws.com\\\/medill.wordpress.offload\\\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/3\\\/2016\\\/12\\\/Chairs2.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Fall 2016\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/stony-island-arts-bank-works-to-change-narrative-of-chicagos-south-side\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/stony-island-arts-bank-works-to-change-narrative-of-chicagos-south-side\\\/\",\"name\":\"Stony Island Arts Bank works to change narrative of Chicago\u2019s South Side - 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