Chicago church serves as a creators' sanctuary for the South Side Artists in Sacred Spaces
CHICAGO (CBS) — A new South Side program combines two problems for one shared creative solution.
Churches with unused space -- and artists who need a place to work.
It's called South Side Artists in Sacred Spaces, and they're showing how their funds serve a higher calling.
"The minister of music will tell us what page you can find that, but Sing Unto the Lord. Great is thy faithfulness. Amen. Amen."
Every Sunday, music fills the sanctuary of South Shore's Bryn Mawr Community Church.
But for nearly five years, a theater upstairs has gone quiet.
"Probably back in the '60s, Time magazine did an article that featured the Christmas programs that would happen in this room right here. And I said, 'We have got to get this back online,'" said Pastor JeVon Moore of Bryn Mawr Community Church.
Once 5,000 strong, Pastor JeVon Moore said they now see 70-80 members weekly.
"Where we are today, things are just greatly different. Not just for us but for churches all over," Moore said.
Used as little more than storage for the last half-decade, the theater is now getting a second act.
"It's like a lightbulb goes off, honestly."
Reverend Sarah Jones is with the South Side Artists in Sacred Spaces program.
"Artists on the South Side of Chicago need space to create, exhibit, rehearse, perform. And Sacred Places have those spaces in abundance that are affordable and other underutilized," Jones said.
The program is a partnership between several agencies and brings religious groups and artists together.
They previously helped cover the rent for artists' studios in unused church rooms, including the work of Rhonda Hardy, whose historic Bronzeville Babies CBS 2 reported on in February.
Now, they're giving grants to six congregations to improve their facilities so they can open to more artists, including $20,000 for renovations at Bryn Mawr Community Church.
"I said we gotta do this. Like we have to."
Bringing the music back to this corner of the community church.
Organizers said most of these projects should be completed by this summer or the end of the year.
The partners behind this program hope to expand with more grants on the South Side and to cover other parts of Chicago and the state.
