The Santuario Sculpture Park looks to create a unique space in the city of Chicago, where an open air gallery and artist residency meet active ecological stewardship. Hidden in the Little Village Industrial Corridor is the former site of the Torco Oil Company’s Chicago Terminal, abandoned in 2009. Since then the brownfield has sat dormant as the city has changed around it. But no space is vacant forever, and this land must be protected from potential private development. We see this as an opportunity to protect natural habitat, river access and communal space, all while creating a first of its kind art space in Chicago.

The sculpture park is built on the idea that natural space is the most dynamic and necessary space of all, specifically where plant life is not manicured and controlled, but left to show its natural beauty. We look to create spaces where people can empathize and connect with nature, through regenerative habitat building and thoughtful coexistence, harnessing the balance of natural systems and bringing new life to this space that has been stripped of it.

Alongside the work of regeneration comes the opportunity to make art which amplifies and intertwines with the sentiment of thoughtful coexistence. The land, existing in the intersection of nature and industry, is ripe for further action and gives people something concrete, a space in which they can question and hypothesize about the built environment. Between the native landscape that we want to reintroduce and the city that surrounds it, the park would provide a rich context for artists and community members to make commentary and project their thinking to the world.

More than anything, the goal of the park is to be a space of inspiration, a park that doesn't exist passively, but challenges and interacts with its visitors. The proposed artist residency would focus on bringing voices from Chicago and the global art scene to enter conversations relevant to the future of Chicago, through sculptural intervention, experimental actions, site specific research, ecological pragmatism, education and social engagement. In creating this space we look to create a sanctuary, a reserve, a case study for a world that prioritizes harmony with nature and each other over everything.

The proposed site for the Santuario Sculpture Park is a vacant lot in the Little Village Industrial Corridor. The area has long been shaped by heavy manufacturing, freight traffic, and land use patterns that have limited access to the water front and contributed to inequities surrounding public space. Decades of industrial activity have resulted in air-quality concerns, soil degradation, and a lack of ecological restoration in a neighborhood that consistently ranks as the highest most polluted neighborhood in Chicago. Despite this, Little Village remains a vibrant cultural hub, home to one of the largest Mexican communities in the Midwest.

As the historic industrial corridors of Chicago have changed over the years, with the exodus of factory jobs and opening of vacant spaces. These spaces pose not only the opportunity but the necessity of community driven development and reclamation, as these moments of transition are the only time we can justifiably protect and reshape the future of our communities and natural spaces.

This property is owned by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) who has no current plans for the property. The MWRD does not plan to sell the property, but it does lease it through a public bidding process and would like to lease this property.

The Identified parcels numbers are:

42.02: 3301 S Kedzie Ave, 4.5 Acres

41.08: 3300 S Kedzie Ave, 1.8 Acres

And can be viewed at the MWRD Atlas:

Residencies

Santuario Artist Residency

The annual artist residency would give a selected group of artists the opportunity to work at a park (beginning between April-June), drawing from facilities, the land and a stipend amount of money to create. The residency would culminate in a final exhibition, in the late summer (July or August) and their work would remain installed until the winter.

The artists would be encouraged to create something specific to the site, the city or the ecological project that they will be immersed in and would have to participate in a community engagement or site specific event of their choosing.

Aside from the cultivation of the artist's personal practices, the residency aims to infuse the park with a sense of life and with that, become more actively engaged in community life.

Research/Scientific Based Residency

The interaction between public art, which calls people into a conversation, and ecology, which is more focused and pragmatic is where Santuario could really become unique and exciting. With this, it would be interesting to have an annual research and science based residency. The program could give qualified individuals the opportunity to come to the park and propose ways to make the space better, more diverse, beautiful and exciting. Collaboration between the two residencies would be encouraged to expand or support each other's work.

Programming

Programming events present a number of opportunities to use the park to the fullest of its potential. The hope would be that we could provide many activities for free, like Workshops, Volunteer days and Gathering Spaces. But there is also the opportunity for programming such as: Summer Camps, Concerts and Weddings, which could help provide a critical source of funding for the park.

Here is the MWRD Guide to Public Leasing.

The MWRD Leasing District Real Estate Documents and Procedures

Under the public leasing rent clause set forth in Section 3.8(B)(2)(b), Leasing District Land – Public Leasing, Rent to be Paid to the District:

“Land Made Available for Public Recreational Use (Non-Revenue Generating): The only rent that shall be paid to the District for the entire term of any public lease of District land where the leased premises is generally made available for public recreational use and is not used to generate income shall be a fee of $10.”

This clause suggests that the MWRD is willing to play an active role in supplying the land and even incentivizes this use, given that the park is open to the public, non-revenue generating and meets the environmental requirements laid out by the district.

Requirements for green infrastructure can be found here:

Green Infrastructure Land-Use Policy Form for Public Leases

This property is zoned M3-3 (Heavy Industrial)

This zoning means that rezoning or a special use permit would be required to move forward.

But there is a precedent for this type of rezoning, La Villita Park, also in Little Village. The park was built on the former site of the Celotex Asphalt Factory, opened in 2014, the 22 acre project was the largest brown field remediation in Chicago to date!

Until 2009 3301 S Kedzie Ave was operated by the Torco Oil Company as their Chicago terminal. With large amounts of oil being stored and moved in and out, the site is assumed to have substantial petroleum-based contamination and require remediation.

The environmental goal of the Santuario Sculpture Park is to care for this land to the point where it can function independently as it once did. A large portion of this work will use techniques of Bioremediation such as where native plants and microorganisms are introduced to consume and breakdown pollutants within a site.

Where possible we would also want to call upon the Illinois EPA Site Remediation Program for assistance in this matter.

Socrates Sculpture Park, New York City

The Socrates Sculpture Park is a one of a kind art space located in Astoria Queens and in many ways it has provided the proof of concept for this proposal.

In 1986 a group of artists and community members working alongside the prominent artist Mark Di Suvero came across this riverside land, at the time it was an illegal dumping site. Over some weeks they cleared the space transforming it into an open studio and exhibition space.

Today, the sculpture park is an internationally renowned outdoor museum and a designated New York City public park. Known for fostering ambitious and visionary artworks, Socrates has presented more than 1,200 artists, providing them the financial support, materials, equipment, and space necessary to create large-scale works in the public realm.

It is clear when visiting Socrates’ that it is not just a park, but a vibrant public good, it does not sit passively but maximizes the possibilities of public space, through reclamation, revitalization and creative expression. It is hard to measure the effect that a place like this can have on a community, but when done right, and in collaboration with its members it is clear to be a transformative space.

Help Make Santuario Sculpture Park a Reality, Sign our Petition!

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