The Front Porch Project, a placemaking program of archi-treasures, is an artistic intervention into the isolated culture of subsidized housing with the goal of rethinking embedded poverty while creating more livable communities.

 

archi-treasures is launching the Front Porch Project at Germano Millgate Apartments in 2016 with the support of the Chicago Community Trust, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Chicago Community Development Corporation. Additional program partners include Claretian Associates, SKYart, Eastlake Management, and the Germano Millgate Tenant’s Association.

 

Germano Millgate Apartments, located in South Chicago, is a 350 unit low income housing complex originally built to house steel workers. With the permeation of gang culture in communities such as South Chicago, residents fear coming out of their homes. The Front Porch Project strengthens resident’s ability to navigate public and private space by using design as a community engagement tool.

 

By investigating the dichotomy between the ideal and real front porch--the idealized porch of neighborly exchange and the real front porch of drug distribution and gang domination--the Front Porch Project explicates the border between private/family space and public/community space.

 

archi-treasures’ Front Porch Project is an annual cycle of resident engagement opportunities that are designed to partner community members with creative professionals. Employment, internship, mentorship and volunteer opportunities for residents are interspersed with quarterly facilitated community conversations (Front Porch Talks) that provide an iterative feedback loop for the design of built projects. Creative professionals are engaged as collaborators, investigators and facilitators, lending technical expertise as needed, while residents are given the opportunity to have a direct, positive impact on their community.

 

Overall Front Porch Project Goals are to:

• involve residents in planning, designing and implementing projects that enhance their physical environment • develop collaborative projects with arts/design professionals and residents that create and enhance social connections

• build relationships between residents and the surrounding community through partnerships with organizations, churches, businesses and schools.

 

A Request for Qualifications will challenge artists/designers to rethink community engagement, the role of artists in a race and class-divided society, and the function of public/private space in under resourced Chicago communities. Four artist/designer finalists will be invited to participate in Front Porch Talks, to develop proposals based on information garnered during these talks, and to present their proposal to a core group of residents who will make the final selection of one artist/designer for the Front Porch Project Residency.

 

During the residency, the selected artist/designer will collaborate with a core group of residents to develop a project that enhances the physical space of Germano Millgate while strengthening social connections and civic engagement. The project will be managed by the archi-treasures team which includes expertise in architecture, social work and arts administration and will provide support for an effective artist and community collaboration. An exhibition documenting the conversations, design process, and implementation of the Front Porch Project will take place at SKYart during the final quarter of 2016.

 

 

 

 

 

archi-treasures 3500 South Lake Park, First Floor West, Chicago, IL 60653 www.architreausures.org