20/20 Clarity of Vision

Sweet Water Foundation entered 2020 with a clarity of vision.

Having just celebrated SWF’s 10th anniversary and experiencing one of its most successful years yet, Sweet Water Foundation entered 2020 firmly rooted in our values and equipped with a plan to bring the next phase of The Commonwealth to life.

In the early months of 2020, SWF hit the ground running. Early 2020 was spent planning and preparing for a full year of Sweet Water Academy programming that would include 3 Urban Ecology Apprentice cohorts and the launch of two new programs: an Urban Ecology Exposure Program for teens and Seeding The Future, a seed-to-table, STE(A+)M exposure program that was on track to engage more than 60 3rd-4th grade students from three neighborhood elementary schools.  Beyond Sweet Water Academy, the SWF team began preparing to share its vision for The Commonwealth via an art exhibit in the Thought Barn in late Spring 2020 that would coincide with a campaign to cultivate supporters. 

We deconstructed exhibits of the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial,

In the spirit of “Turning Wastes to Resources,” the Sweet Water team deconstructed exhibits at the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial in early January; salvaging truckloads of wood, metal, and other materials for reuse at The Commonwealth.

hosted visitors from near and far, 

From ArtPlace America’s Arts, Culture, and Workforce Development Working Group to students, educators, artists, and funders representing organizations and institutions around the globe, The Commonwealth hosted dozens of visitors in the early months of 2020. Writers, poets, policymakers, community activists, researchers, and artists such as Belvie Rooks, Mel Chin, Rick Lowe, and Iñigo Manglano Ovalle engaged with the SWF community, and students from MIT and SUNY Westchester Community College in New York took part in intensive immersion programs on SWF’s practice of Regenerative Neighborhood Development.

and engaged an intergenerational audience in Arts + Culture.

In early 2020, SWF officially launched a monthly Artist Talk series in Gallery at [Re]Construction House, featuring Janelle Dunlap in January and Rick Lowe in February, and welcomed elders and children to the Thought Barn to Celebrate Black History Through Art. A full year of monthly arts + culture focused workshops and events at The Commonwealth were off to a great start.

 Then… the world changed.

As the rest of the world turned indoors, the essential work of Sweet Water continued.

The onset of COVID-19 forced a values-based alignment of our way of living, calling into question what is truly essential versus that which is not. Sporting events, concerts, conferences, parties, and vacations were cancelled. Schools and non-essential businesses were closed. Strict shelter-in-place and social distancing orders were issued. The essentiality and sacredness of growing food locally became more important than ever before.

Equipped with new social distancing practices, PPE, and disinfecting protocols, our team worked to continue to GROW the neighborhood with greater resolve each day. In the initial months of the pandemic, we limited our operations to the most essential, life-sustaining tasks and put all education and outreach programming, events, artists talks, and community workshops on hold. In response to the impacts of COVID-19 and the uprisings sparked by police brutality and continued racial oppression, SWF initiated its weekly market more than a month ahead of schedule. Beginning in early May, SWF’s Social Distance Market provided 1,000’s of seedlings to local residents and community gardeners as traditional garden centers struggled to meet growing demand amidst a disrupted supply chain.  

The SWF team also distributed food to individuals and organizations addressing growing food insecurity.  In addition to feeding more than 400 families each week via the Social Distance Market and Community Garden, SWF distributed fresh, local produce each week to local residents and community-based organizations working to address food insecurity throughout the entire 2020 harvest season.

In 2020, it became clear that It’s Time for the Essential Economy.

With humanity facing a global pandemic, unemployment at an all-time high, and our planet, once again, on track to reach its hottest year on record, sharing the practice of Regenerative Neighborhood Development became more critical than ever before.

The Essential Economy operates with a triple bottom line that recognizes people, planet, and profit. It employs regenerative and resourceful practices and is accountable not only to those amongst us today, but to seven generations into the future. Most importantly, the Essential Economy restores our connection to that which is essential in our daily lives - building, caring for others, growing food, making art, and engaging in community and culture.

The Humans of Sweet Water embraced the precarity of the moment and, amidst a myriad of social, political, and economic uncertainty,... a New Normal emerged.  

The SWF team created new farming, carpentry, and team formations to continue practicing Regenerative Neighborhood Development amidst a COVID reality.  Sweet Water Academy and arts + culture events shifted to a blend of online and in-person programming with increased virtual engagement of audiences near and far. A virtual, Matterport tour of The Commonwealth was launched in Fall 2020 to bring Sweet Water Academy’s vibrant campus to life from afar.  Despite the global pandemic, the Academy successfully reached 1,000’s of individuals via workshops, virtual tours, Google Meets, and limited, in-person programming.

• Engaged 200+ youth, students, and educators from three summer programs (One Summer Chicago’s Chicagobility Program, After School Matters Culinary Program, and Lindblom Math and Science Academy Go Green Summer Program) via seedling distributions, produce pickups, and weekly virtual Urban Ecology Lessons ranging from gardening tips to an introduction to beekeeping to online cooking demonstrations.

• Launched Sweet Water Academy’s Urban Ecology Global Fellows Program, welcoming 11 graduate, undergraduate, and doctorate students from University of Chicago, Rhode Island Institute of Design, Harvard University, Cornell University, University of Illinois at Chicago, Illinois Institute of Technology, and Yale University to participate in a hybrid of virtual and in-person programming. Click here to view the Fall 2020 Global Fellows Final Presentation.

• Welcomed 5 Humans In Residence to share their artistic practices via immersive and regenerative experiences at The Commonwealth. 2020 Humans In Residence included: Janelle Dunlap, Andrea Yarbrough, Shani Crowe, Thad Smith, and Amy Stelly . 

• Reached a global audience via meetings, seminars, panels, and keynote presentations in collaboration with a2ru, Build Peace 2020, Chi Hack Night, Harvard GSD, Illinois Institute of Technology, Imagine a Day Without Water, The 100 Day Studio, RISD, and Towards a Common Cause: Art, Social Change, and MacArthur Fellows at 40.

We opened the inaugural art exhibit in the Thought Barn,

In October, Sweet Water Foundation officially opened well · ness at The Commonwealth, a catalytic assemblage of art, artifacts, and history that explores the many facets and dimensions of water as the source of all life. Virtual and in-person visitors, alike, safely explored this ‘living’ installation to critically examine the precariousness of this precious life source.  As part of the exhibit, SWF hosted a virtual event to recognize the US Water Alliance’s Imagine A Day Without Water, featuring panelists Emmanuel Pratt, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Commissioner Debra Shore, and Amy Stelly. To learn more and experience well · ness at The Commonwealth, click here.

continued transforming the neighborhood,

From infrastructure improvements to the design of new products, the Humans of Sweet Water continued to sow seeds of regeneration via:

• Design + build of four Monarch Towers to support the watering infrastructure on the Community Farm, 

• Introduction of Sweet Water Stackable to Sweet Water Academy’s portfolio of hands-on carpentry lesson plans and projects,

• Installation of a drip irrigation system in the Hoop Houses to improve watering efficiencies during the winter,

• Enclosure of the Meeting House to become a year-round seedling distribution space, classroom, and greenhouse,

• Construction of 20 new Community Garden Beds to hold produce throughout the entire growing season,

• Design + build of of three compost bins on the Community Farm, and 

• Redesign and construction of a new porch to develop internal knowledge and experience of essential home repair that will be replicated throughout homes in the neighborhood.

...and The Commonwealth expanded to include an abandoned church.

In early 2020, SWF acquired the latest addition to The Commonwealth, an abandoned church at 5810 S. Lafayette Avenue that was once an anchor in the neighborhood. The SWF team immediately began envisioning how the church might be renovated and activated into a place that honors and preserves history that has been erased and untold. To that end, Sweet Water Foundation was awarded an African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to reimagine and revitalize the church and other spaces across The Commonwealth. In Fall 2020, SWF began to transform the church into the Civic Arts Church with arts + culture programming and carpentry workshops with Fall 2020 Global Fellows. 

In 2021, Sweet Water Foundation will bring Civic Arts Church to life and crystalize lasting transformation of the neighborhood.

Sweet Water Foundation is undertaking a collaborative and contextualized approach to historic preservation that will amplify the rich African American heritage of the SWF community and offer guidance to a more radical and imaginative collective future. In collaboration with our Values-Based Partners, SWF will demonstrate how cultural preservation, neighborhood development, and reconciliatory practices can not only coexist, but also be intentionally woven into the urban fabric of present day realities.  In 2021, [re]construction of the Civic Arts Church and continued development of The Commonwealth, will crystallize the lasting transformation of the neighborhood.

A campaign to fund transformation of Civic Arts Church into a community design center will launch in 2021. We hope you’ll join us on this journey! Click here to learn more about Civic Arts Church.

There GROWS the Neighborhood!

None of this would have been possible without the SWF Team + Family and our partners and supporters!