Artist collective raises $350K to invest in West Side

alt_ (you can call it “Alt Space”) plans to put the money to work on education and beautification projects, among other things.

SHARE Artist collective raises $350K to invest in West Side
Jon Veal, co-founder of alt_ Chicago, an organization that aims to transform communities through art. Veal, 30, passed away suddenly on December 21 from complications due to cardiac arrest.

Alt Space Chicago co-founder Jon Veal sits at the artist collective’s St. Lucas Studio in the Austin neighborhood. The faith-based collective, which created free markets on the South and West sides and provides a community space, received grants totaling $350,000 to continue its work.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

An artist collective that started as a way to change perceptions about the West Side now has the money to do that in a more concrete way.

Over the past year, the collective has received a slew of grants and donations — $350,000 in all. The group, alt_ Chicago — pronounced “Alt Space” — plans to use that money to hire staff, open a permanent studio, expand its educational programming and beautify the area.

It’s a new day for the Austin-based nonprofit that when launched in 2019 couldn’t even afford morning doughnuts — or the staff to eat them, recalled co-founder Jon Veal.

Veal and co-founder Jordan Campbell started the group because they wanted to use art to tell positive stories about the West Side — a part of Chicago where, they say, many residents believe news coverage focuses too much on crime.

Photos of West Side residents decorate the wall of alt_ Chicago’s studio.

Photos of Chicago residents decorate the wall of alt_ Chicago’s studio. The artist collective is looking for a more permanent home.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

“We believe that art can rebuild the city,” Veal, who grew up in Austin, said in a recent interview in a subterranean studio that the collective is renting for now.

A donor who wants to remain anonymous gave them $250,000. The rest came from a variety of grants, including $65,000 from E(art)H Chicago and $10,000 from the Blackivists, a Chicago-based group of Black archivists documenting communities of color.

An Austin resident sits for a portrait in Hubbard Park as part of the group’s “Project Stamp,” a campaign to document the lives of West Siders through portraits taken in neighborhood spaces.

An Austin resident sits for a portrait in Hubbard Park as part of the group’s “Project Stamp,” a campaign to document the lives of West Siders through portraits taken in neighborhood spaces.

Jordan Campbell/Provided

The Blackivists funds will go toward archiving the group’s flagship venture, “Project Stamp,” a campaign to document the lives of West Siders through portraits taken in neighborhood spaces, such as Hubbard Park. Subjects were photographed sitting in plush furniture, a pose intended to convey a sense of power.

“We wanted people to feel special. We wanted people to feel like royalty,” said Veal, who volunteered his own leather armchair for some of the photos.

In all, about 150 people were photographed. The portraits were printed across several sheets of paper and plastered together on buildings around the city. The works have since faded, but they have now hired a curator to document the project and ensure the people who were represented won’t be forgotten.

The remains of a project Alt Space did three years ago.

Jon Veal checks out the remains of a project his group, alt_Chicago, did three years ago. For that effort, West Side residents posed for photo portraits with a leather chair because “we wanted people to feel like royalty,” said Jordan Campbell, who co-founded the group with Veal.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

The collective has been based out of a studio at 5539 W. Lake St. for the last year and a half but has used some of the new funds to hire an architect to design a better, permanent home for when they find the right property.

In addition to housing an artist studio, their new home will also have an “Alt_ Academy,” a program to help young people from the area learn about possible career paths in art. For now, they offer some programs out of their current studio, but hope to expand.

On a whiteboard in the current Alt Space location, co-founder Jon Veal has sketched out his ideas for the new home of the artist collective.

On a whiteboard in the current location, co-founder Jon Veal has sketched out his ideas for the new home of the artist collective.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Toward that end, the collective hired artist Alexandria Eregbu to be assistant director of education. Eregbu is from Austin and previously was with the Chicago Park District’s TRACE program, where she had worked with youth on the South and West sides since 2015.

By the end of her time at the Park District, she was leading programs connecting youth with working artists. She said she hopes to bring similar initiatives to her new job.

Up first is a collaboration with another Austin-based art studio, Happy Returns.

For that project, the two groups plan to collect plastic litter in the community and recycle it into public benches. It’s part of the collective’s goal of “redeeming the neglected aspects of our neighborhood and communities,” Eregbu said.

Alt Space Chicago co-founder Jordan Campbell (right) signs up Austin resident Richard Stewart to take his free portrait in 2019 as part of “Project Stamp.”

Jordan Campbell (right), co-founder of alt_Chicago, signs up Austin resident Richard Stewart to take his free portrait in 2019 as part of “Project Stamp.” The artist collective photographed subjects and plastered the pictures around the neighborhood.

Manny Ramos/Sun-Times

On Saturday, the collective will begin interviewing people for the project, hoping to find 10 representatives who can soon start leading residents through the process of designing and building the benches.

In the short term, the hope is that installing the benches will spruce up some community areas. In the long term, Eregbu said she hopes the whole process leaves the residents with some thoughts as enduring as those benches.

“The end goal,” she said, “is really to get people more interested in how their consumption habits generally impact the environment.”

Michael Loria is a staff reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South and West sides.

A free community market, supported by Alt Space, in the Austin neighborhood.

A free community market, supported by the artist collective alt_, in the Austin neighborhood.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

The Latest
Glass-facade buildings can disorient birds in flight. The city is expected to update and revise rules for new developments and rehabbed buildings next month. But bird groups say the proposed guidelines need to be mandatory.
The man was shot in the left eye area in the 5700 block of South Christiana Avenue on the city’s Southwest Side.
Most women who seek abortions are women of color, especially Black women. Restricting access to mifepristone, as a case now before the Supreme Court seeks to do, would worsen racial health disparities.
The Bears have spent months studying the draft. They’ll spend the next one plotting what could happen.
Woman is getting anxious about how often she has to host her husband’s hunting buddy and his wife, who don’t contribute at all to mealtimes.