Since 2006, Experimental Station has provided discounted long-term rental space and resources to mission-aligned local businesses and journalism institutions.

Resident Businesses and Fiscal Sponsees

  • Invisible Institute

    The Invisible Institute is a journalism production company, a former program of Experimental Station. 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.

    WWW.INVISIBLE.INSTITUTE

  • South Side Weekly/ Hyde Park Herald

    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. In 2022, South Side Weekly merged with the Hyde Park Herald. The South Side Weekly is a fiscal sponsee of the Experimental Station.

    WWW.SOUTHSIDEWEEKLY.COM

  • Civic Projects

    Civic Projects 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.

    WWW.CIVIC-PROJECTS.COM

  • Build Coffee

    Build Coffee is a coffee shop in the Experimental Station. Surrounded by community-driven non-profits 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.

    WWW.BUILDCOFFEE.ORG

Past Organizations Housed at Experimental Station

  • Theaster Gates Yamaguchi Institute (2007-2008)

  • Roots & Shoots (a Jane Goodall Institute program, 2007-2008)

  • Backstory Café (2008-2010)

  • B’Gabs Raw Vegan Deli (2011-2014)

  • City Bureau (2015-2019)

  • Carla Stilwell Institute for Contemporary Black Art (2019)