We at Blue Tin Production are so excited to share with you our newest–and most ambitious–project yet: we purchased a massive, 11,250sq. ft. commercial building to transform alongside the community into an innovative, radical space that meets multiple needs of the neighborhood!
63rd House is our abolitionist, multi-functional community space and manufacturing studio designed in collaboration with Black and brown organizers and youth-led organizations in Chicago Lawn, including TGI Movement, Good Kids Mad City – Englewood, Magnolia Screen Printing, Prison Neighborhood Arts + Education Project, and others.
Over the past two years, we have manufactured tens of thousands of garments for designers around the world out of a classroom converted into a studio. We’ve been cited by fashion industry leaders as a revolutionary model that addresses some of the most pressing issues facing supply chains while meeting critical needs of those consistently marginalized and overlooked by the industry.
However with our incredible growth in impact, clients, and members, we decided we needed a little bit more…space. So we purchased a building!
Blue Tin is built as a creative approach to systems-change, tackling historic issues in the fashion industry related to gender, class, race, sustainability, and colonialism that have long remained ‘too complicated’ to address.
Everyday we get to imagine what we want the world to look like for our team and actively work to build it together—and now we’re so excited to be able to explore what this means on a larger, community level.
The historic and abandoned building in Chicago Lawn, only blocks away from where Martin Luther King Jr. was assaulted marching to desegregate housing, will be developed into a net-zero carbon emission community space designed based off months of conversation with youth & community members. In this collaborative vision, 63rd House will include:
– co-working space for organizers & youth after school
– media space with computers, cameras, printers, and other tech available for use
– a small library
– shared kitchen
– exhibition and gallery space to feature the work of currently incarcerated people and local artists
– space for mental health practitioners (who are currently meeting clients in their apartment lobbies given a lack of available space)
– prayer + meditation room
– event space for political education and mutual aid
– rooftop bee garden, solar PV panels, & deck
– meeting & office space for local organizers
– the new sustainable Blue Tin HQ manufacturing studio!
All donations are tax-exempt, and processed through our 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor. Donate below via our registry or click here to open the fundraiser in a separate page. Thank you for helping us make 63rd House possible.
[p.s., in the meantime, follow along on all the progress & upcoming events on our new 63rd House instagram account!]
Concept images created by Studio Gang Architects
