Wicker Park Art Center Losing Its Home? (original) (raw)

News Tue Mar 13 2012

"Who are you?"

It was the question Wicker Park community members had asked over and over again throughout the hour-and-a-half-long March 12 public meeting to discuss the sale of St. Paul's Community Church (2215 W. North Avenue) to the Love Holy Trinity Blessed Mission. As the new owners, the Midwest-based organization--which represents itself as part of the Roman Catholic Church without Vatican approval--will displace the Near Northwest Arts Council and some 29 other local arts organizations, including the Nelson Algren Committee, the NeuroKitchen Arts Collective, and CIMMFest.

"You keep mentioning your ministry. What is your ministry?" Ald. Proco "Joe" Moreno (1st) asked the mission's treasurer, Jacek Jankowski, after he spoke about the historic building's purchase--they bought it in December and have been trying to move into the space since late January but, despite piles of eviction notices Jankowski personally left, the arts groups haven't yet left.

Moreno had reason to be skeptical--the mission, which is active in Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, used to be headquartered in Chicago's 36th Ward on the northwest side and in 2005 was brought to court by the City of Chicago for zoning issues. Signs outside the building called it a communication center, which required a special-use permit, as did the building's use as a church. The ward's alderman, William Banks, warned Moreno to stay far away from the mission when they bought the Wicker Park church.

As owners of the building, Moreno said, the mission could do what it wants within the space, but to have congregation of more than a couple dozen people, they'd need a special-use permit. He sees no reason to give them one. "I tried to get information about your group and meet with you," Moreno told the group of seven mission members at the meeting, "but you sent your attorney in." And Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, he said, believes that the mission is "not on the up and up."

Unless the mission can prove with letters and papers from members of the communities in which they've lived that they're a reputable group of people, Moreno said, "I'm not gonna give you a special-use permit."

For all the anger toward and confusion about the mission, at the heart of the community meeting was uncertainty about the future of the arts in the neighborhood. Rents are high, and it appears difficult for the Near Northwest Arts Council and other organizations to find a space as conducive to their work as St. Paul's Community Church.

Moreno had met with the board of St. Paul's, which had no representatives at the community meeting, when they were trying to sell, requesting that the new owners have a "sustainable, robust arts component." "I don't have the power to tell them who not to sell to or who to sell to," he said, but he was disappointed that the message wasn't passed along to the mission.

Some organizations aren't planning to leave any time soon. "We've been here for 23 years," said a representative from the Nelson Algren Committee. "You want us out in 30 days. Not gonna happen."