Italian fashion house Prada has tapped Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates to co-chair the new Prada Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Council. The Milan-based label announced the appointment today. Gates, a Chicago-based artist, activist and philanthropist, will chair the council with Ava DuVernay, director of "13th," "A Wrinkle in Time," "Selma" and other films. She is the highest-grossing African-American female director in Hollywood history.
In addition to being a working artist, Gates is executive director of Chicago-based Rebuild Foundation, an arts, education and cultural development organization intent on transforming urban communities. Rebuild opened the Stony Island Arts Bank, an art gallery, library and community center in Woodlawn. He is also a professor at the University of Chicago and was tapped to envision the interior for the university's new Keller Center.