MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Artspace Projects announced on April 20 a $500,000 grant award from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), in support of the Pullman Artspace Lofts capital campaign. The Pullman Artspace Lofts will provide 38 affordable live/work units for artists and their families in Chicago, as well as exhibition and community space.
The landmark project has been designed into the planning of the Pullman Historic District, a working class “company town” dating to the 1880s that was proposed for partial demolition—but was instead designated a National Monument by President Obama in 2015, following a successful community campaign. Artspace’s mixed-use development is considered a significant investment to the neighborhood and will integrate new construction on vacant land with the historic preservation of two gorgeous apartment buildings, anchoring Pullman’s eastern boundary.
The generous grant award from the SNF has allowed Artspace to break ground early Summer 2018 and begin construction. It has also leveraged an additional $100,000 matching grant award from The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation to move the project forward.
“We are deeply grateful for the long-term partnership that has developed between Artspace and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation around our shared values,” said Kelley Lindquist, Artspace President. “This grant award will help Artspace advance the construction of the Pullman Artspace Lofts, which will have a positive, catalytic impact on the Pullman community by providing local artists and arts organizations with affordable space to live and create work.”
“The Stavros Niarchos Foundation is thrilled to partner once again with Artspace Projects,” said Sarah Needham, Program Officer at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. “The Pullman Artspace Lofts will further reinvigorate this National Monument, which holds such an important place in history both for its design and the people who have lived and worked in the District. The collaboration between Artspace, Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives and PullmanArts is sure to generate a thriving creative community and SNF is proud to support this project.”
The partnership between Artspace and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation developed in 2015, when the two organizations first came together to move forward the vision for the Bell Artspace Campus in the Tremé neighborhood in New Orleans. The Pullman Artspace Lofts is Artspace’s second significant project made possible in part with funding from the international philanthropic organization.
About the Stavros Niarchos Foundation
The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) is one of the world’s leading private, international philanthropic organizations, making grants in the areas of arts and culture, education, health and sports, and social welfare. Since 1996, the Foundation has committed more than $2.5 billion, through more than 4,000 grants to nonprofit organizations in 124 nations around the world.
The SNF funds organizations and projects, worldwide, that aim to achieve a broad, lasting and positive impact, for society at large, and exhibit strong leadership and sound management. The Foundation also supports projects that facilitate the formation of public-private partnerships as an effective means for serving public welfare.
About Artspace Projects, Inc.
Artspace’s mission is to create, foster, and preserve affordable and sustainable space for artists and arts organizations. Artspace was founded in 1979 to support artists being displaced by rising costs–the unintended consequences of the positive community changes that they inspired. Through both the adaptive reuse of historic buildings and new construction projects, Artspace creates affordable places for artists, as well as moderately scaled arts organizations and other creative enterprises, and retains ownership to ensure that the buildings remain permanently affordable, mission focused, and high quality. Today, Artspace’s unique portfolio includes 50 projects nationwide, many of which are located in culturally distinct communities, representing more than $600 million invested in America’s infrastructure. Artspace properties ensure that creative communities flourish, benefitting the neighborhoods where they reside.
With headquarters in Minneapolis and offices in Denver, New Orleans, New York, Seattle, and Washington DC, Artspace is renowned as America’s leading nonprofit real estate developer for the arts and arts-based community development. Artspace also leverages its expertise to support the next generation of transformative art spaces, with a robust consulting division that has worked on more than 250 projects coast to coast, including city-wide planning projects, arts districts, and more. Embracing the value that the arts bring to individual lives, Artspace champions the once-radical idea that the arts can leverage fundamental social change. More information is available online at: www.artspace.org.
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