A network of eight community leaders says it has raised $75 million to help build or redevelop nine Bronzeville cultural sites and solidify the neighborhood as a national destination for the arts. The sites include the National Museum of Gospel Music, Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley House, and a recreational Bronzeville Trail.
The Bronzeville Legacy Collective, which is the group behind the effort, is trying to raise more amid cuts to federal arts funding for projects that appear to champion diversity, equity and inclusion. Ultimately, the collective has a long-term goal to raise $250 million, which includes $100 million for the Bronzeville Trail to be constructed from 40th and Federal Streets to 41st Street and Lake Park Avenue by 2034.
Other sites on the cultural map include a food hub called Bronzeville Cookin’, the Muddy Waters MOJO Museum, the forthcoming Deeply Rooted Center for Black Dance and Creative Communities, a new home for Definition Theatre, The Forum arts and culture complex, and the South Side Community Art Center.
To help spread the word, the group on Thursday arranged a bus tour of the destinations for some of Chicago’s top donors, who gathered in the garden outside of Waters’ home, viewed blueprints inside Bronzeville Cookin’ and had lunch while listening to live ragtime in the nearly 130-year-old Forum Hall performance space.
Among the invitees were co-hosts the Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation, Field Foundation and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation. Attendees also included Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) and representatives from the MacArthur Foundation, the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.
Members of the collective contend the investment will bring tourism to Bronzeville and other parts of Chicago, thus boosting the local economy.
“We can expand Chicago’s portfolio as a cultural destination,” said Naomi Davis, founder and CEO of the Blacks in Green nonprofit, which is restoring the Till museum. “Chicago routinely gets praised as one of the greatest cities for this, that or the other. What about being one of America’s greatest cities for investment in Black culture?”
Titled “The Great Promise: Bronzeville Convening & Bus Tour,” the event referenced The Great Migration, which brought thousands of African Americans north to Chicago in search of a “promised land.” But they were redlined into communities, including Bronzeville, which ultimately suffered from years of disinvestment.
“That promise was fleeting,” said Bernard Loyd, president of the collective and founder of the Urban Juncture development firm, which oversees The Forum, 318-328 E. 43rd St., and Bronzeville Cookin’, at 300-314 E. 52st St.
“We were not able to access the resources to build on that promise.”
Founded in 2023, the collective is hoping to realize that promise with the revitalization of the sites, which are all located in the federally designated Bronzeville Black Metropolis National Heritage Area. The state of Illinois also deemed Bronzeville an official cultural district in 2023.
In addition to building a $50 million capital fund, the group is seeking $5 million over the next several months for a starter fund. A portion of the amount will help two sites on the cusp of meeting their financial goals: the South Side Community Art Center, due to reopen an expanded facility at 3831 S. Michigan Ave. in spring 2027, and the new Deeply Rooted Center to be constructed at 5339 S. State St. by the end of 2027.
The collective’s goal is to drive economic development through the arts. That pitch has appealed to funders like the MacArthur Foundation, which contributed $25,000, the group’s first-ever grant.
“We try very hard not to dictate what organizations do or force marriages between them,” said Tara Magner, director of the Chicago Commitment team at the foundation. “But when they come together organically, that’s very compelling.”
Naomi Davis, founder and CEO of the Blacks in Green nonprofit, stands in front of the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley House in 2023. “Chicago routinely gets praised as one of the greatest cities for this, that or the other,” she said. “What about being one of America’s greatest cities for investment in Black culture?”
Anthony Vazquez/Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
Magner called Thursday’s bus tour “awe-inspiring.”
Also among the attendees was Beth Valukas, director of the Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation, which has donated $300,000 in operational support.
“At a time when our own federal government is actively erasing Black history and culture from museums, public lands and monuments, we have an opportunity and a responsibility to invest in these historic places, spaces and experiences,” she said.
Leaders at the Black-led Deeply Rooted Dance Theater said they have felt the effects of changes in government funding. The dance group was in the process of applying for U.S. Department of the Treasury New Markets Tax Credits, a program historically benefiting projects in low-income communities, when the agency announced a pivot away from “woke DEI and ESG priorities.”
Now, Deeply Rooted is relying more heavily on local funding and recently received a $10.5 million Community Development Grant for its new facility from the city of Chicago. But the organization is still about $3.4 million away from its goal.
“We should be across the finish line already,” said Deeply Rooted Dance Theater co-founder Kevin Iega Jeff. “The gap is not a lot of money. So this is a real opportunity for people to step up at a time where it’s critical.”
Owning its own building is vital for Deeply Rooted’s preservation of the legacy of Black dance, said executive director Makeda Crayton.
“Having this place where we get to freely explore that in our bodies and not be told to be ashamed of our bodies and how they’re shaped is important for us as an organization,” she said.
Antoinette Wright, president and executive director of the National Museum of Gospel Music, said she also has changed her approach to applying for federal funding amid attacks on DEI.
“I had to be careful,” said Wright, who is working to raise $20 million to restore the museum’s building, which is the Pilgrim Baptist Church at 3301 S. Indiana Ave. The historic site was damaged by a fire in 2006. “I had to rewrite all my proposals.”
Among the collective’s other long-term projects is Definition Theatre’s new facility, to be constructed at 6400 S. Cottage Grove. While that endeavor is a couple years away, the public will see the fruits of the collective’s labor when the South Side Community Art Center re-opens early next year.
Established in 1940, the rehabbed space will feature additional gallery areas and classrooms, plus, for the first time, air conditioning.
“We are proud to say that we’re still standing,” said executive director Monique Brinkman-Hill.
She said she hopes visitors to the city will be inspired to explore more of the South Side beyond the Obama Presidential Center.
“We have these institutions that celebrate the hard work and the migration of the people,” she said. “I’m happy that we are celebrating our history with the restored building. And then we’re moving beyond to have a new space that will bring in new voices, new experiences and new talent.”