BandWith, a free performing arts program, will be moving into a permanent home in a former East Garfield Park casket factory.
The Glasser & Rosenthal families donated a 25,000-square-foot building in East Garfield Park on South California Avenue, a block away from where the program started 10 years ago.
“It’s going to be beautiful. We’re super excited,” said Annie Palomino, founder of BandWith.
Palomino founded BandWith, a nonprofit organization, in 2013 after LEARN Campbell Charter School in East Garfield Park dropped the band program because of budget cuts.
The total cost of the project is $12.4 million. It comes from the Community Development Commission-approved $5 million in TIF funding, and more than $8 million in grants.
BandWith is providing free music programs and opportunities to perform. Its drumline and dance team played the half-time show at the Bears game on New Year’s Eve.
BandWith is serving 165 students annually and with a new building, they will be able to serve 300 community members weekly because the building will include other organizations.
Palomino added that there are plans for the building to include a coffee shop and a tenant space.
“We have submitted the permit and depending on how long that takes we’re hoping to be closing and breaking ground by late spring,” Palomino said.
The building used to be an old casket factory and is being designed by Lamar Johnson Collaborative and built by Bulley & Andrews. Both of these companies are founded and based in Chicago.
BandWith is now located on South Francisco Avenue, a space that was donated by Marillac St. Vincent, a Chicago-based organization that provides early childhood education, youth services, and community outreach to fight poverty and violence.
Although BandWith is moving, Palomino said they want to stay close to Marillac St. Vincent because they have supported them throughout the years.
“We are limited by the amount of space that we have to operate, we have outgrown our current space,” Palomino said.
Currently BandWith is only working with elementary and high school students. But with the new building, Palomino said that they are looking for local community partners to use the space.
In collaboration with these local community partners BandWith wants to offer multigenerational programming during the day or for a community ensemble or chorus to use the space for rehearsals.
BandWith is offering free dance, drumline, sound engineering, instrumental and choral ensemble programs.
The new building will have specialized rooms for these programs. Palomino said that the building will include a music recording studio, music library, event space, indoor and outdoor community gathering spaces, dance studio, band and ensemble rehearsal space, practice space and choral rehearsing space. The recording studio will be available to rent out for local musicians. Palomino also said they are hoping to hold farmers markets in their parking lot space. The new building is set to open in early 2025.