“Artists who have been uplifted by Chicago’s creative communities over the years say they’re paying forward the support they’ve received by rehabbing a former Southeast Side church to house and educate local artists.

“The ARTEMPLE Foundation is under contract to purchase the former St. George Church, 9546 S. Ewing Ave. in East Side. The sale is expected to be finalized early this year, said Yasmin Quiroz, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Chicago.

“The church closed in 2020 due to financial constraints and combined with Annunciata, St. Kevin and St. Francis de Sales to form the Our Lady of Nazareth parish.

“In the next five to seven years after the sale is complete, ARTEMPLE will renovate St. George’s main building, school and rectory into ‘a one-stop shop for almost any art for you can think of,’ executive director Tommy Martello said.

“The project’s first phase is renovating the six-unit rectory into ‘a place where someone could be proud to live,” Martello said. ARTEMPLE will host resident artists for several months to a year, who will access housing ‘far below market value’ as well as ‘work space and tools that the individual artists cannot attain on their own,’ they said.

“The first floor of the school will be turned into a ‘maker space’ with tools found in traditional wood and metal shops, alongside newer technology like CNC machines, laser cutters and 3D printers. The second floor will host studios for art forms like glassblowing, music and video production, pottery and textiles, Martello said.

“The basements of the school and main church buildings will host practice areas for performing arts like dance, circus and theater. The main sanctuary will be transformed into a venue for local and national artists to perform, and will host holistic wellness programs like yoga, tai chi and sound baths outside of performance times, Martello said.

“ARTEMPLE is ‘a culmination and continuation of my life’s work’ for Martello, who has spent three decades renovating local warehouses into affordable spaces for people to live in and create art.

“Artists living in these collectives pool their money to pay rent and to build improvements like studios, wood and metal shops and other artistic facilities. Martello has ‘had a hand in creating, building and managing maybe 20 of these spaces’ across Chicago, they said.

“Such work is ‘necessary,’ as artists in need can worry less about finances, compared to finding outside housing and studio space, Martello said. It’s also come with the support of the property owners, who make money off the arrangement and are often ‘intrigued by what we’re doing’ in their buildings, they said. But ‘it’s not legal. … You can’t just move people into warehouses,’ said Martello, who works as an audiovisual professional. Without legal protections, artists risk losing their homes and studios without warning if the landlord sells the building, or if the city finds out about the unapproved housing.

“The Southeast Side project is “a chance to not have to duck inspectors. To do it right, so the people working and staying there won’t have to worry, ‘Will the rug get pulled out from under us?” Martello said. ‘If we want to make this sustainable, we don’t want to be blowing very precious resources that we’re generating from our hard work’ every time a property changes hands, they said.” (Evans, Block Club Chicago, 1/6/25)

“St. George Church was established in 1903 to serve Slovenian immigrants who settled near the steel mills in South Chicago. This national parish was founded within the territorial parish of St. Patrick at 95th Street and Commercial Avenue.

“The origins of the St. George national parish were found in Slovenian and Slovak fraternal and benevolent organizations of the 1890s. The pastor of a Slovenian parish in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood celebrated Mass for the small South Chicago Slovenian congregation for a time in a German Catholic church at 91st and Exchange, and he encouraged the South Chicago congregation to form a national parish. The group bought land on 95th Street between Avenues M and N, and had secured the services of a Slovenian priest who began to work with the St. George parish in May 1903.

“Initial plans to build a small wooden church were revised when the parishioners acquired a new site at the northwest corner of 96th and Ewing Avenue. With the help of Croatian Catholics who were among the large numbers of Southern Slavs settling in the neighborhood, the large brick church of St. George was constructed in Gothic style with a prominent bell tower. Ground was broken at the end of June 1903, the cornerstone was laid at the start of August, and the first Mass was celebrated in the new church on December 6, 1903.

“In January 1904, the church bells were blessed. They had been a ‘gift of the single men’ of the parish. In June 1904, Auxiliary Bishop Peter J. Muldoon dedicated the church. In 1906, Andrew Carnegie made a ‘sizeable donation toward the purchase of the church organ.’

“By 1911, the parish debt was reduced by $8,000. The following year, the membership of the church decreased when the Croatians decided to form their own national parish west of the Calumet River. After several changes of the pastorate, beginning in 1922, St. George parish was staffed by the Slovenian Franciscan Fathers from Lemont, Illinois. In the 1920s, the parish hall was enlarged, the Slovene artist John Gosar was commissioned to redecorate the church interior, and later, stained glass windows were installed in the church. From the end of the 1930s, worshipers other than Slovenians were encouraged to participate in parish life at St. George.

“Parish debt was liquidated in 1943 and shortly thereafter, a new fundraising campaign began for construction of a parish school and additional parish structures. Over the next 20 years, a community center, a school, and a new rectory were built.

“Decades before the 75th anniversary celebration of St. George parish in 1978, the parish was no longer exclusively Slovenian. By the 1970s, Masses were no longer celebrated in Slovenian. The parish had become ethnically diverse, serving a congregation that included a large number of Italians, among others.

“From its beginnings as a national parish for immigrant laborers of South Slavic populations, St. George Church grew to welcome worshippers of a variety of backgrounds. The gradual enhancement of its interior by parishioners of modest means manifests the depth of community devotion to this structure over many decades. Despite the history of caring stewardship and diversity of the community served, St. George Church was closed by the Chicago Archdiocese in 2020. It was one of four South Chicago parishes that were combined with only two churches, Annunciata and St. Kevin, remaining open. (Preservation Chicago 2021 Chicago 7 Most Endangered Book, Roman Catholic Church Chapter, pg. 77-78)

Read the full story at Block Club Chicago and Preservation Chicago

• Artists Renovating East Side’s Old St. George Church Into ‘ARTEMPLE’ With Studios And Housing; The ARTEMPLE Foundation will debut an “Art of the DJ” program this year, with plans to bring artist residencies, performances and more to the former church campus, Maxwell Evans, Block Club Chicago, 1/6/25
• Roman Catholic Churches, a Preservation Chicago 2021 Chicago 7 Most Endangered Chapter
• ARTEMPLE Website