Fourth time was a charm for glass blowing and ceramics studio Firebird Community Arts in East Garfield Park.
Marine Tempels, Firebird’s development and finance director, said that’s how many times the studio applied to the city’s community development grant before it was awarded last month an estimated $2.5 million.
Since 2015, Firebird has been working with an estimated 60 kids each year to teach them how to make art and earn money by selling their pieces.
With its recent grant, the studio plans to use the funds to move into a larger building, still in East Garfield Park. The location will house a state-of-the-art glass blowing and ceramic studio, healing garden and expanded trauma-informed programming.
“I think there’s often a narrative that people [in the West Side] are at risk or underserved, and it’s a deficit approach to looking at individuals,” Tempels said. “We’re seeing it as all the talent and everything they need is there — it’s just that they don’t have the resources that could even come close to what the North Side has.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson announced two weeks ago that 61 development grant recipients, including Firebird, were awarded a total of nearly $30 million in funding, with amounts ranging from $55,000 to $5 million. The funding from the Chicago Recovery Program is meant to help businesses and organizations expand.
Revolution Workshop in East Garfield Park was also awarded about $2.5 million. The nonprofit provides pre-apprenticeship training to people who are historically shut out of the construction industry such as communities of color.
“It’s not like it’s 12 weeks, they get out, we get them a job in construction and then we walk away,” said Manny Rodriguez, executive director of Revolution Workshop. “A lot of our folks don’t have the support a lot of their white counterparts have.”
Rodriguez said after five years the nonprofit has outgrown its space and is currently renovating an old warehouse, also in East Garfield Park, that will be its new home.
In Austin, Bethel New Life’s Mildred Wiley Wellness Hub was awarded $2 million, which will help expand the center’s programming. Bethel New Life CEO Sharif Walker developed the hub on the organization’s 9-acre campus, and it offers visitors a horticulture center for therapy and intergenerational programs specializing in seniors and early learners.
Walker envisions building a “microcosm of community” on the West Side to address health disparities and closing the “death gap” between affluent and disadvantaged areas.
“Ten years from now, you’re looking at Austin, and you’re like, ‘Wow, they built out this urban horticulture ecosystem that’s now producing not only fresh fruits and vegetables from the community, [but it’s] being offered to the community through grocers,” he said. “This is about self-sustainability for our community.”
Another project that was awarded funding included the Bronzeville Arts & Residences, which along with the Fields Studio in Avondale was awarded the most with $5 million.
Developer Revere Properties said the Bronzeville project will take over a vacant building at 454 E. 47th St. and turn it into a multipurpose center that will hold artist condos, a restaurant, comedy club and retail store featuring artists’ works.
Lee Reid, president of Revere, said the former legendary South Side comedy club All Jokes Aside will be one of the property’s tenants.
“The goal is to populate all the vacant lots on those blocks,” Reid said. “So we’ve got a plan for every vacant lot on that block, and this is the second one to kick off now.”
