<\/p>\nRepurposed concrete slabs from Lorado Taft’s Midway Studios advertise “Theaster Gates: Unto Thee,” a solo show opening at the Smart Museum of Art on September 23, 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n Courtesy of Sara Pooley<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nGates grew up on the West Side and studied ceramics and urban planning at Iowa State before moving to Japan to study pottery. He went on to get a master\u2019s in fine arts and religious studies at the University of Cape Town and a multidisciplinary master\u2019s degree in urban planning, ceramics and religious studies from Iowa State. He returned to Chicago in 1999.<\/p>\n
It was here where he began to blur the lines between studio practice and city-making. His development projects got started in Grand Crossing, where he lived. In 2009, he turned a vacant building on the 6900 block of South Dorchester Avenue into a library. He then redeveloped the former Dante Harper Housing Project into the Dorchester Art and Housing Collaborative, with 32 units for artists and low-income residents.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cInitially, it felt very intuitive and impulsive, like I should try to do something that helps my block,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a very nascent idea, it wasn\u2019t a project yet. And then it grew into a project \u2026 then it grew into an institution \u2026 then it turned into a contested and beloved idea, where we started thinking about principles of ethical redevelopment, and we were using all these words.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cAnd then we found ourselves owning buildings, but the buildings were just kind of a means to an end of having platforms where culture could live,\u201d he continued.<\/span><\/p>\nFrom this process came the Stony Island Arts Bank, Kenwood Gardens and the Currency Exchange Cafe. But Gates said the evolution brought a tension: Gates the artist versus Gates the developer, questions of culture and capitalism.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI would understand that if our neighborhoods are going to thrive, they needed capital,\u201d he said. \u201cBut my goal was not extraction, exploitation or some kind of targeted taking. My goal was replenishing, restoration, regeneration \u2014 even if that meant it was with my own resources most of the time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nA lesson he learned in doing this, he said, was to embrace both sides of the work: \u201cEvery time we were up against a hurdle, we tried to solve it, not by running away, but just reinventing ourselves.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, Gates said, it’s time to start handing things off to the next generation. Last weekend, he opened the Land School, located at 72nd Street and Dorchester Avenue. Owned by the Rebuild Foundation, his nonprofit, the school will disseminate insights from Gates\u2019 and Rebuild\u2019s work over the years, as well as share resources for navigating land and planning challenges for artists, architects, planners, theorists, scholars and creatives.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019m part of a radical tradition of self-empowered people who understood that there was value in trying to create a collective consciousness around land,\u201d Gates said. \u201cIf we were all excited about taking all of these buildings that have been forgotten and are no longer accessible, (then) we would be actively in the process of the reclamation of our neighborhoods and our culture.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nThe school\u2019s first creative partners in residence are International Anthem, a Chicago-based record label known for free jazz and alternative music, Black chamber music collective D-Composed and DJ Duane Powell. Gates said the Land School will start with hosting performances. He also wants to establish other residencies and opportunities for its archives, previously housed at the Arts Bank, as well as craft-based and process-driven programs.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThose things will come a little bit after we have full control of our building,\u201d Gates said. \u201cWhat we\u2019ll be doing at first is just inviting people in to talk with us about \u2018how can we model this?\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nFor the foreseeable future, Gates wants the Land School to be Rebuild\u2019s primary focus, serving as a central location that unites the work going on in the organization\u2019s other properties.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cRebuild will still continue to manage, operate, and build partnerships with artists and creative organizations in the other spaces,\u201d a spokesperson for Rebuild said in a statement. Gates himself noted the strength of local institutions like the Blanc Gallery, South Side Community Art Center and DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI think it\u2019s time for me to get out of the way and make space for the next generation of planners, builders, bankers, cultural leaders, neighbors,\u201d\u00a0 he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nTurning the page also extends to his artistic practice. After years of creating large-scale installations and work for international shows, Gates said he plans to explore a more intimate side of his work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m becoming more and more interested in the objects for everyday people,\u201d he said. \u201cIt may be that the future of my work becomes smaller and quieter and more affordable, and it\u2019s made to be touched and loved by people every day.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI felt really fortunate for the last two decades to have an art practice that allowed me to travel the world and to meet lots of interesting people and have museum exhibitions in different places,\u201d Gates said. This, he said, satisfied his soul and ego, and allowed him to check requisite boxes.<\/span><\/p>\nNow, he said, \u201cI feel like I have more command that I\u2019ve ever had of my ideas and the things I want to say,\u201d but \u201cI don\u2019t need a museum in order to say them, I\u2019m happy to say them at home.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cTheaster Gates: Unto Thee\u201d opens at the Smart Museum of Art, 5550 S. Greenwood Ave., on September 23 and runs through February 22.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.hpherald.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Theaster Gates is finally bringing a solo exhibition home.\u00a0 On September 23,\u00a0 Gates will open \u201cTheaster Gates: Unto Thee\u201d at the University of Chicago\u2019s Smart Museum of Art. With paintings, ceramics, installations, film and repurposed campus materials, Gates described the show as \u201csymbolic\u201d and \u201cloaded,\u201d the closing of one chapter and the opening of another. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2030264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[349474,354760,374394,21739,21738],"class_list":["post-2030263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-arts_and_entertainment","tag-evening_digest","tag-exhibitions","tag-local","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Theaster-Gates-next-chapter-Arts-Entertainment.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2030263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2030263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2030263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2030264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2030263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2030263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2030263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}