The Chicago-based Rebuild Foundation has announced a 10-year, $1.7 million program-related investment (PRI) from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in support of a cultural hub and arts incubator.

Together with a $100,000 joint donation from musician Harry Styles and the United Center, the PRI will support efforts to transform the former St. Laurence Elementary School on Chicago’s South Side into a site for cultural production, artistic expression, and economic development. The latest investments boost to $8.1 million the total raised to date toward the project’s estimated cost of $10.35 million. The site will support local Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) artists and creative entrepreneurs by fostering collaborative creative practice and professional development and offering studio space and materials, professional feedback, mentorship, archival research resources, and financial literacy and arts entrepreneurship classes. It also will host public programs such as film screenings, artist talks, live music sets, dance performances, and exhibitions.

The PRI will bolster Rebuild Foundation’s ability to expand its real estate development by providing financing for property acquisition, pre-development expenses, and bridging to other sources of public and/or private financing.

“As we make steady progress toward the completion of the incubator for artists and creative entrepreneurs at St. Laurence, this vital investment in resources for artists on the South Side will make decades of artistic exploration, research, and production possible in the Greater Grand Crossing community,” said artist and Rebuild Foundation founder and executive director Theaster Gates. “This support demonstrates the local and global support for artists realizing ambitious projects that will alter the trajectory of artistic freedom and lay the groundwork for generations of emerging artists to grow their practices while building social and financial capital to support their creative endeavors.”

(Photo credit: Courtesy of Rebuild Foundation)