Wed 9/14 @ 6PM
Thu 9/15 @ noon
Chicago artist Theaster Gates is not just an artist but a visionary, imagining ways in which the arts and culture can transform urban neighborhoods and the people who live there. Gates, who also teaches at the University of Chicago, has acquired properties to the south and west of the campus located in the heart of the city’s south side and transformed them into galleries, a film screening room, performance spaces, a bookstore devoted to art-related publications and a coffee shop/cafe (the red beans and rice are great!). It’s all part of his nonprofit Rebuild Foundation.
The centerpiece is a long abandoned but stunning 1923 bank building on Stony Island Avenue in Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood that he acquired from the city for a dollar. He restored it as the Stony Island Arts Bank with galleries, event spaces and a spectacular glass-fronted second-floor library containing books and publications from the former library of Chicago-based Johnson Publishing (Ebony, Jet). In addition, the building has a collection of tens of thousands of art and architect slides donated by the University of Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a collection of vinyl records owned by the late house music producer/DJ Frankie Knuckles.
Gates refers to the sweeping, three-story space as “a laboratory for the next generation of black artists and culture-interested people; a platform to showcase future leaders.” Many made the trek to the south side for the first time when the space hosted the opening of the first Chicago Architecture Biennial last fall.
Meanwhile, this insanely productive artist —whose works coverage sculpture, installation, performance and what he calls “urban interventions” — has exhibited his work in Venice, London, the Whitney Biennial in New York, Art Basel, and dOCUMENTA13 in Kassel, Germany, among other places.
Gates will be in Akron for two events. On Wednesday evening at 6pm, he and members of the Black Monks of Mississippi will do a musical performance called A Cultural Revival, a free event at the Akron Art Museum’s new Bud and Susie Rogers Garden.
Then on Thursday, the Akron Roundtable will host him at a luncheon at Quaker Station, co-sponsored by the Akron Art Museum, Downtown Akron Partnership and GAR Foundation. He’ll speak on “The Importance of an Artist as an Entrepreneur.” Tickets are $20.
Akron, OH 44308
University of Akron, Akron, OH 44308