The celebrated ongoing restoration of Chicago’s St. Laurence elementary school by the Theaster Gates’ Rebuild Foundation has added new leadership to support the $10.35 million project, which broke ground on the city’s South Side in May 2022.

The Foundation shares that Nonprofit Operations Strategist Racheal Allen, Special Collections Librarian Heather Hummons, and Director of Finance Mileak Harper have all been hired in support of the initiative, which seeks to “[support] artists of color and their livelihoods, while bringing new cultural resources into the South Side community.”

Once completed the project will deliver a total of 40,000-square-feet 40,000 square feet of artist studios, co-working floors, a research archive, classrooms, and spaces dedicated to various objects from the Foundation's own collection.

In a statement, Gates said: “Central to the redemption of St. Laurence is to celebrate the artistic lives of the South Side and the larger Afro-diasporic community. With the leadership and support of our expanded team, we’ll be able to further our mission of providing creative resources, amenities, and programs to a community that has historically been denied access to them. In the process we’ll be able to connect the South Side’s history to the present while amplifying Black voices and Black art."

This year, the former Serpentine Pavilion designer was awarded the  2023 Isamu Noguchi Award. The Foundation says the St. Laurence restoration is on track for a public opening in late 2024.