We finally got a chance to check out the Stony Island Arts Bank today. It was AMAZING! Below is an image looking towards the entrance. A little side note: we found out the door was an original door used in a jail for solitary confinement!
I will definitely be going there again and checking out their Open Shelves: Glass Lantern Slides day. You know how I love me some photography-related stuff.
Alex and I rarely get a day off together so today (on our day off) we decided to head over to the Stony Island Arts Bank with our pal Oscar Arriola. It was definitely an afternoon well spent. We also got a chance to semi-run (I write semi because we saw him, stared, then he disappeared ha) into Theaster Gates while we were chatting it up with the Librarian there.
The Stony Island Arts Bank has a massive collection–60,000–of Glass Lantern Slides that were donated to them from the University of Chicago. They also had SO MANY BOOK! The books are from the Johnson Publishing Library acquired from the Chicago-based publishers of Ebony and Jet magazine. The Stony Island Arts Bank also holds weekly Cataloging sessions where volunteers assist in the ongoing cataloging of Rebuild Foundation’s collection.
Here is a section of the beautiful shelves
A close up view of the Glass Lantern Slides donated to the Stony Island Arts Bank from U of C
Entry view into the Glass Slide/Reading room
I was amazed by a lot of stuff here. The art, the glass slides etc but what struck me the most was also this vintage bar that Theaster had placed within the space. It looked so cool.
