NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
WERE IT NOT FOR Big Car Collaborative’s track record, their plans for the Garfield Park area might sound a tad grandiose. Maybe even nuts.
Until recently, the near-southside neighborhood was known almost as much for its abandoned buildings as the green space for which it is named. Crime rates were high and rents were low. But Jim Walker and his wife Shauta Marsh, cofounders of Big Car, saw potential in the place. And where the leaders of that community arts group see promise, good things usually happen. The two were instrumental in Fountain Square’s renaissance. They planted a hip art gallery in the commercial wasteland of Lafayette Square. A few years ago, they brought a popular outdoor exhibit called Spark: Monument Circle to downtown. And their efforts to transform Garfield Park into a neighborhood known for the arts are already staring to bear fruit.
The project’s ground zero is a maker space/gallery/office called the Tube Factory. Located just off traffic-snarled Shelby Street, the mural-covered Big Car headquarters is a bright spot on a road still blighted by empty commercial spaces. But Walker insists that will change. “If you walk through here in a few years, you’ll see storefronts and green spaces,” he says. “The whole idea is to create a commons area for the neighborhood.”
He’s not just dreaming. Across a large parking lot (soon to be an outdoor performance area) crouches an industrial building Big Car is renovating into artist studios. A weed-choked trickle of water called Bean Creek, which bisects the property, will soon be restored and furnished with chairs and tables along its banks. Farther down the road, Walker and Marsh plan to convert a stretch of empty curbside property into storefront shops with second-floor living quarters and studio space in back.
"ARTISTS ARE THE SCRUBBING BUBBLES OF GENTRIFICATION," SAYS ONE GARFIELD PARK RESIDENT. "PEOPLE START SEEING THE VALUE OF THE BUBBLES GET WIPED AWAY".
Perhaps the most ambitious aspect of their endeavor to bring creatives to the neighborhood, though, is a program called the Artist and Public Life Residency. For the
