Art and Poverty Action

A few months ago, I read an article in The New Yorker about Theaster Gates, an artist from Chicago who has recently garnered a lot of attention by art critics. Gates has degrees in fine arts, religious studies, and urban studies. He has traveled all over the world but seems to be especially interested in working in—and, as the article puts it, “reshaping”—some of the poorest parts of Chicago. He has become famous for “projects aimed at reviving a part of the city—plagued by unemployment and gang violence, its streets pocked with abandoned buildings—that he says has been ‘left to rot’ since the sixties…he has been buying dilapidated houses and turning them into small cultural centers and meeting spaces: ‘places where moments of beauty can happen.’”

What seems especially interesting is that Gates’ work is not simply art for people to look at—he creates space for people to come together and talk: “he encouraged visitors to talk and argue about race and spirituality, and at times brought them to a West Side shoe-shine stand called the Shine King…Gates shined shoes and pressed gallery patrons to do so, too…He brought all of these new people to the Shine King…and gave them a new way of looking at the neighborhood.”

For me, Gates provides an example of how art can be used as a part of poverty action. His work in Chicago seems especially relevant given the recent economic recession followed by huge numbers of home foreclosures. His art not only creates beauty where it seemed to have been lost, but also encourages discussion among some of the most affluent members of society about how to make the poorest spaces feel different—and better.

Here’s a link to Gates’ website: http://theastergates.com/section/29120.html. There are pictures and descriptions of several of his projects in Chicago. I find his work really inspiring and exciting.