establishing a creative anchor >

Downtown Gary Creative Center.

CONCEPT >

Steel Studio Foundation is developing a 10,000-square-foot creative incubator in the historic Gary State Bank building. Situated in Downtown Gary, the sixth-floor creative center will be a platform supporting arts-based practices, cross-disciplinary research, and community engagement.

Our ambitious multidisciplinary cultural and civic programming is intentionally focused on being responsive, conscious, entrepreneurial, experimental, and collaborative. The project approach will maximize public/private sector involvement and create new or strengthened regional initiatives and connections amongst various industries and disciplines, including architecture, technology, manufacturing, academia, public space interventions, policy and governance, social justice, organizing, art, and design.

This transformational physical space project will contribute to our city's revitalization and sustainability by stimulating economic, cultural, and social growth, investments, and opportunities. Further, this creative hub will re-connect adjacent neighborhoods and the wider Northwest Indiana region to Downtown Gary.

The Downtown Gary Creative Center activities include exhibitions, performances, studios, workspaces, classrooms, flexible convening environments, creative economies……..

THE SITE >

building HISTORY >

In 1906, the first cast-stone building, the Gary State Bank, was constructed on 5th Street and Broadway Avenue. In 1929 the building was demolished and replaced by the current Gary State Bank building. The architectural firm that originally designed the Gary State Bank Building was the Ivar Viehe Naess & Company of Chicago. A towering Corinthian colonnade and a grand arched entry welcome patrons inside. Under Wilbert W. Gasser's leadership, the bank was the only financial institution in the City to not collapse during the Great Depression.

Gary City Center Historic District is a national historic district located in Gary, Indiana. The area encompasses 60 contributing buildings and two contributing sites in Downtown Gary. It developed between 1906 and 1944, including notable examples of Tudor Revival, Late Gothic Revival, and Classical Revival style architecture.