Arts and Food Hub Opens in Gary
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA highly-touted arts and culinary effort has officially launched in downtown Gary. ArtHouse: A Social Kitchen offers access to a commercial training kitchen, culinary business and gallery space as well as a pop-up cafe influenced by participants in its incubation initiative.
The community’s art director is Theaster Gates, who is a proponent of combining urban planning and art and is founder of the nonprofit Rebuild Foundation and a professor at the University of Chicago.
Work on transforming the abandoned commercial location into ArtHouse began last year. Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson says "we are excited about the opening of Gary’s ArtHouse, and about the resurgence public art can bring downtown. This project represents a new perspective as we imagine the future of our city. We are grateful for the partnerships that brought us to this day."
It received funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Public Arts Challenge and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Knight Cities Challenge.
Leaders say training sessions and seminars designed to establish and engage local artists and drive regional economic activity will take place in the coming weeks. You can connect to more about ArtHouse: A Social Kitchen by clicking here.