Arts & Entertainment
Making Space for Art and Redemption in a Former Bank Building in Austin
Alt Space Chicago co-founder Jordan Campbell inside the gallery. (Marc Vitali / WTTW News)
When WTTW News arrived, the gallery director was literally cleaning up the neighborhood, picking up litter and trimming weeds around the 100-year-old bank.
Set on a large parcel of property at 5645 W. Corcoran Place, the historic building is even more impressive on the inside. Vaulted ceilings cover thousands of square feet of space. A mural of the Milky Way fills an entire wall. Mid-century modern details suggest a long-ago renovation.
Once known as the Austin Bank of Chicago, the property was gifted to Catholic Charities in 2017 and has now been acquired by Alt Space Chicago.
Alt Space Chicago is an art gallery that aims to involve the entire community.
“Sustainability is the bedrock of everything,” co-founder Jordan Campbell said. “That’s why we bought a building that was to be redeemed, to find this space and to reclaim it instead of building a new space.”
Campbell calls it an artist-led engine that uses art and faith to galvanize the community. And he’s big on redemption.
“Reduce, reuse and recycle are the three Rs, but we needed a fourth R, which is redemption,” Campbell said. “We wanted to restore value back to things that were deemed ‘not valuable’ and also think about doing that in the community.”
At Alt Space Chicago, an exhibition called “Building Legacies” celebrates their history in a gallery across from a row of old bank teller booths.
The flexible spaces invite creativity — they have already hosted a wedding reception, complete with a DJ in the bank vault.
Inside Alt Space Chicago. (Marc Vitali / WTTW News)
And there’s room for tenants. The first tenant is EarthPaint.
“They do a recycling process where they collect paint from different sources,” Campbell said. “And those paints get mixed up to create different color palates. They employ folks who are special needs or disabled, and the prices are lower than market rates, so it’s easier for folks to access paint at a cheaper price but still the same quality, and that allows them to remodel their homes. It’s another way to invest in the community.”
The gallery’s Redemptive Plastics program brings recycling to the heart of the neighborhood.
“Knowing that plastic is a global issue, how can we localize it?” Campbell said. “How can we empower people right here in Austin to be a part of redemption with us? So that’s when we started to collect plastic to create benches and fences out of sheets of HDPE, No. 2 plastic.”
They’ve made trash bins from plastic and from wooden pallets.
“We noticed that in Oak Park [four blocks west] there are more trash bins than there are in Austin, so how can we employ people and empower them through coming together to build these bins?” Campbell said. “You pick up a drill and design and make, but you’re also putting these things out to beautify.”
Partnerships across the city are a big part of the effort at Alt Space Chicago. Since 2019 (at their previous location) they have worked with the Chicago Bulls, Dark Matter Coffee and Lurie Children’s Hospital, among others.
Locally they’ve teamed with Root2Fruit, the Austin Safety Action Plan and the West Side Justice Alliance.
Alt Space Chicago co-founder Jordan Campbell inside the gallery. (Marc Vitali / WTTW News)
Campbell co-founded Alt Space Chicago with his best friend, Jon Veal, who died unexpectedly in 2022, and he sees this as his legacy.
“Jon used to say that sustainability is love over time,” Campbell said. “So we’re cultivating a self-sufficient community.”
The mission is already being tested.
“Today I got word that a National Science Foundation grant that we received has been canceled because of the political climate,” Campbell said. “The funds for it just stopped, and this is something that we were relying on to help Redemptive Plastics create more job opportunities, to get more involved with environmental justice.”
Campbell sees every risk as “a movement of faith,” and he’s in it for the long run.
“This time is going to pass, but once it does pass, are we still going to hold true to what it means to work inclusively and collaboratively?” Campbell said. “That’s what I’m interested in, and that’s why I’m forward-thinking. Let love, empathy and understanding be that bridge. We won’t stop momentum just because we’re experiencing challenges.”
Marc Vitali is the JCS Fund of the DuPage Foundation Arts Correspondent.
