G-CADD: Granite City Art + Design District

Granite City, IL

Granite City Art + Design District (G-CADD) is an artist-led organization in the St. Louis metropolitan region that transforms former industrial spaces in Granite City, Illinois, into vibrant studios, exhibition venues, and creative community hubs. Operating at the intersection of place-based development and arts practice, G-CADD provides affordable studio space and programming that fosters creative community in a historically working-class, postindustrial landscape. The organization's work is rooted in the belief that artists and arts organizations can be engines of equitable community revitalization.A 2026 FCI Catalyst Grant, awarded as part of the 2026 St. Louis Counterpublic triennial cohort, will support the transition of G-CADD's exhibition and studio space utilities from gas to electric, replacing gas appliances with high-efficiency electric units. The project is expected to eliminate the organization's gas-related emissions entirely, establishing G-CADD as a model for sustainable creative reuse in post-industrial communities.