Frankie Knuckles’ record collection to be archived at new African American art centre in Chicago

Originally posted on FACT.

A former bank on Chicago’s South Side will house Frankie Knuckles’ vinyl archive when it reopens as a centre for African-American culture.

Stony Island Bank Arts Bank, which Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates will open to the public on October 3, will host site-specific art installations, performances, artist residencies, and several archives – including the godfather of house’s record collection.

The archives also include the libraries of the Johnson Publishing Archive, featuring magazines like Jet and Ebony, and Edward J. Williams’ collection of “negrobilia”, Gates’ term for the racist objects the couple collected in order to take them off the market.

The bank had lain derelict since 1978 and was bought by Gates for just $1 in 2012.

“This is a new kind of cultural amenity, a new kind of institution — a hybrid gallery, media archive and library, and community center,” Gates said in a statement. “It is an institution of and for the South Side — a repository for African American culture and history, a laboratory for the next generation of black artists and culture-interested people; a platform to showcase future leaders—be they painters, educators, scholars, or curators.”

Knuckles’ collection is the latest to be archived, following Cornell University’s acquisition of Afrika Bambaataa’s 40,000-strong record collection for their Hip Hop archive. [via Electronic Beats; Art News]