Business Incubation Residents

The Invisible Institute is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism production company. They work to enhance the capacity of citizens to hold public institutions accountable. Among the tactics they employ are investigative reporting, multimedia storytelling, human rights documentation, the curation of public information, and the orchestration of difficult public conversations. The work coheres around a central principle: we as citizens have co-responsibility with the government for maintaining respect for human rights and, when abuses occur, for demanding redress. The Invisible Institute is a former program of Experimental Station.

The South Side Weekly is a nonprofit newsprint magazine dedicated to supporting cultural and civic engagement on the South Side, and to providing educational opportunities for developing journalists, writers, and artists. They publish in-depth coverage of the arts and issues of public interest alongside oral histories, poetry, fiction, interviews, and artwork from local photographers and illustrators. The paper is produced by an all-volunteer editorial staff and seeks contributions from across the city. In 2022, South Side Weekly merged with the Hyde Park Herald, who are now sharing our space.

Build Coffee is a coffee shop in the Experimental Station. Surrounded by community-driven nonprofits and civic journalism projects, Build is designed as a hub of great coffee and radical collaboration. Build acts as a small venue for performances, workshops, gallery shows, book groups, game nights, and more. They also sell used books, local small press publications, journals, comics, art books, and zines.

Civic Projects, a woman and minority-owned firm, is a hybrid architecture practice in Chicago. Their work includes architecture as well as community and strategic planning, grant writing, and small-scale revitalization. They see their work as serving communities by expanding the role of design and architecture collectively. Their process of engagement, which interweaves closely with the process of design, prioritizes the involvement of those who the project will serve.