Currency Exchange Café offers a ‘RETREAT’ for artists

‘RETREAT’ at Currency Exchange Café, located at 305 E. Garfield Blvd, is an artist-led activation from Rebuild Foundation, which provides a space for food, art and music creators to develop their work. Photo courtesy of Rebuild Foundation.
‘RETREAT’ at Currency Exchange Café, located at 305 E. Garfield Blvd, is an artist-led activation from Rebuild Foundation, which provides a space for food, art and music creators to develop their work. Photo courtesy of Rebuild Foundation.

Currency Exchange Café offers a ‘RETREAT’ for artists

BY TIA CAROL JONES
     The Currency Exchange Café, located at 305 E. Garfield Blvd., is now a place where artists can develop their work.
     ‘RETREAT’ is an artist-led activation from Theaster Gates’ Rebuild Foundation, in conjunction with Dorchester Industries. It is an extension of Gates’ Black Artists Retreat and will include events, program and artists residencies.
     Baredu Ahmed is the director of programming and operations at Retreat.
     Ahmed said that while Currency Exchange Café has been around, this is the latest iteration of the space. “It was created out of a need to create space for artists to be able to retreat,
for artists to be able to have an escape, a refuge [and] feel supported in their endeavors, but also, the need is particularly
compounded by this pandemic.”
     Ahmed said artists have lost access to critical space and it was almost immediate. She said the loss was particularly
great for performing artists, where an audience experiences the art in real-time. Ahmed said RETREAT is a response to that need.
     “We’re trying to find ways to give artists that space back and feel a sense of freedom in being able to come to that space,” she said.
     Ahmed said RETREAT still operates as a café, where people can get coffee, tea and cocktails, but there is also a
vinyl record shop, curated by Chantala Kommanivanh, who runs hospitality operations at Retreat.
     Artists are also able to sell their work on a consignment basis in the shop.
     Ahmed said they like to highlight artists who live in or who are from Chicago.
     The back area of the café is for live performances and a live DJ. Ahmed said the commercial kitchen inside the Currency Exchange Café is available to chefs and entrepreneurs who have lost their restaurants or spaces. Or, for those who want to try out new recipes and build a customer
base.
     Chefs may be able to do a residency and patrons are able to try different cuisines throughout the year. O, Black Cat Pizza is currently doing a residency this month on Fridays and Saturdays.
     Ahmed said since it opened, the feedback has been really great. There have been return patrons and a diverse group of patrons in the space.
     “It does seem like the community is excited about it. I think the community is excited to have the space open again. It seems like it’s very important to the people who live here or work here,” she said.
     Ahmed said the focus has been on resident DJs and performers. Yaw Agyeman was the most recent resident performer who just wrapped up his 4-week residency.
     There are some other things in the works that Ahmed described as “exciting.”
     She said the space was created with both intention and purpose.
       “Now, more than ever, artists and creative entrepreneurs in our communities need synergetic, intentional spaces curated for them and by them without a tremendous amount of overhead,” said Gates, artist and founder of Rebuild Foundation.
     “Given the lack of venues and lack of investment in Black cultural venues in our city, we want to demonstrate how our communities are enriched with the presence of artists. At RETREAT, we are able to offer workspace for the artists to realize their potential. Artists can make recordings, host small live music performances, and work with an intentionally intimate group of people right in their own community.”
     RETREAT at Currency Exchange Café is open from 8 am. To 3 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday. It is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

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