Theaster Gates' Green Line Arts Center and Park Project in Chicago

Theaster Gates, the influential African American artist born in Chicago in 1973, is collaborating with the University of Chicago to create a new park along Garfield Boulevard. The park will feature pedestrian paths, lighting, outdoor performance areas, fencing meets, and film screenings, with a budget of 1.5 million euros. The project was presented to residents on April 19 at a local Baptist church. The university will purchase five vacant lots, its largest land investment since 2012, as part of its Arts Block initiative to convert empty spaces into artist studios and exhibition areas in Washington Park. The centerpiece is the Green Line Arts Center, designed by architect Johnston Marklee, which will include a theater, rehearsal room, cinema space, green room, dressing room, artistic incubator, and exhibition halls. Construction is set to begin in summer 2017. Gates, a professor of visual arts and director of Arts + Public Life at the University of Chicago, stated: "I believe in the power of art. The Art Block and Green Line Arts Center will attract local artists and cultural organizations, residents and patrons from across the city, stimulating greater cultural and economic activity in the Washington Park neighborhood." This project follows Gates' 2016 solo exhibition at Fondazione Prada in Milan and aligns with similar international initiatives like Grayson Perry's housing project for artists in a London borough and the Superkilen park by Superflex in Copenhagen (2013).