Theaster Gates Gets $3.5M Grant to Push Arts as a Tool for Revitalization
Submitted by Steve on May 8, 2014
From Sam Cholke at DNAinfo Chicago:
Artist Theaster Gates was awarded $3.5 million from the Knight Foundation Thursday morning to support his work using the arts to revitalize communities. “From my artistic practice, I learned early on that art has the capacity to change people's perceptions — not only about a concept or an idea, but also about a place,” Gates said in a statement released by the university Thursday morning.
“What I've tried to do is leverage my understanding of art and how people view art to help them reimagine what can happen in poor neighborhoods.”
Gates is an artist now well known for his work turning vacant buildings in struggling Midwestern cities into places for the arts. As director of arts and public life at the University of Chicago, Gates helped create the university’s Arts Incubator at 301 E. Garfield Blvd.