This is a guest post by Savannah Wood June 1 marked the first day of Rebuild Foundation’s Sewing/Textile Arts Program. This class teaches middle- and high-school aged students basic sewing and design skills, focusing on embellishment and reworking existing garments, while fostering conversations about personal style. In our first session at Dorchester Projects, we created… Learn More
Expo Chicago at Dorchester
On Sunday, September 23, we welcomed visitors from Expo Chicago to work with us and some of our neighbors on a handful of projects at our spaces on Dorchester Avenue…
Black Cinema House Nearing Completion
Windows are all replaced, floors are level, and our beautiful historic metal bay has been restored. At this rate, we are are planning to have things at 6901 S. Dorchester up and running in by this summer. Work by our general contractor, Structures LLC, is quickly giving way to our custom finishes of salvaged materials… Learn More
Dorchester Artist Housing receives Tax Credits and Approval from Plan Commission!
It’s been an exciting start to the year for the Dorchester Artist Housing project in Chicago. Back in January, we found out that the project, led by a partnership between Rebuild Foundation and Brinshore Development, and designed by Landon Bone Baker Architects, will be the recipient of low-income housing tax credits. These tax credits will… Learn More
Kansas University in Chicago and Omaha
Recently, a group of 5th year architecture students from Kansas University, led by professor Josh Shelton of el dorado inc. architects and joined by Bemis Art Center Chief Curator Hesse McGraw, visited us in both Chicago and Omaha. For their spring semester project, Josh’s students are investigating the North Omaha community, specifically in relation to… Learn More
Japanese Potters Visit the Smart Museum Ceramic Collection
We’d like to share a post written by Alice Kain, Study Room Supervisor at the Smart Museum of Art, in participation of the upcoming exhibition Feast: Radical Hospitality in Contemporary Art. Japanese Potters Visit the Smart Museum Ceramic Collection Theaster Gates is currently collaborating with three Japanese potters as part of his Soul Food Pavilion project for Feast…. Learn More
Chicago Film Archives Summer Residency
We know that this is late in the year to finally post about this, but if not now then when? This past summer the Chicago Film Archives curated the screening of a series of silent movie outdoor films, which took place in the backyards of several of the Dorchester spaces. There was expressed interest by neighbors… Learn More
The Listening Room : Upcoming exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum
As the recipient of the 2011 Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Fellowship, Theaster is creating an installation for the Seattle Art Museum based around the Dr. Wax record collection now housed at Dorchester Projects. Theaster’s Listening Room will be an intimate space to listen to and browse the closing inventory of Dr. Wax, a small… Learn More
Manufacturing ‘Soul’
Soul Food Pavilion and Soul Manufacturing CorporationCeremonial soul food wares are being handcrafted by visiting Japanese potters at Theaster’s studio in the west Loop. International artists in residence, Master potter Kouichi Ohara and his two assistants, Haruku Komatsu and Yoko Matsumoto, are making ceramic wares that will be used for ‘soul food’ dinners as part… Learn More
Dante Harper Project: Artist Housing on the South Side
Located 3 blocks from the Dorchester Projects, Dante Harper Townhomes once was a CHA development that consisted of 5 low rise buildings that offered 36 townhome style units. The buildings have stood boarded and vacant for several years and has become a symbol of abandonment and deterioration in the economically struggling yet culturally vibrant Greater… Learn More
Black Cinema House : Recipient of Art Place Grant for creative place making
We recently received a Creative Placemaking grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to activate a formerly abandoned building with cultural programming, public gatherings, and residency exchange. This house is located on the same block as other Dorchester spaces and will become a screening center for films reflecting cultural themes in the Black Diaspora,… Learn More
Rebuild Retreat
Over a few days during the first week of August, Rebuild practitioners-in-residence from both St. Louis and Chicago traveled to Wisconsin for a few days of conversation, swimming, eating, more conversation, and visioning around what Rebuild has done over the past few months, and what we are poised to do moving forward. Once we got… Learn More
Design Build and Design Workshop
The Chicago South Shore’s finest young apprentices, Nick and Daniel, got a crash course in design drawing in a day-long workshop. After spending time outside measuring and looking at the existing containers in the garden, we analyzed the different connections that could be made for a wooden box planter. We weighed aesthetics and functionality in mitered corners,… Learn More
Summer on Dorchester Ave.
In Chicago, 5 summer design residents have been working hard on making the outdoor spaces at the South Dorchester Ave site engaging. Andy has been building fences and cleaning up empty lots with some of our teenage apprentices from the block. Kate and I have been working on designing, building, and planting some of the… Learn More