Twelve Ballads for the Huguenot House is an opportunity to explore the relationship between social enterprise, contemporary art practices, and cultural redevelopment. For one year, Theaster Gates will train a team of unemployed, under-skilled laborers to assist him in dismantling the interior of an existing Chicago building and use those salvaged materials and newly trained labor team to restore (or mend) a historically significant hotel known as the Huguenot House in Kassel, Germany. The team will participate in the restoration process in Germany, then will assist again as the works are shipped back to the United States for reinstallation at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, for a major solo exhibition. During the year of training, the workforce team will assist Gates in the creation of objects for his participation in this significant European exhibition.

Theaster Gates's practice covers a range of disciplines including performance, installation, urban planning, and design. For the past several years, he has attempted to make bodies of work that move between formal and informal institutions, leveraging the resources of a major institution or city to do more significant cultural work in unexpected, less likely-to-be-funded places. He hopes to assist in the development of models which would empower artists and designers to develop new cultural spaces and engagement strategies.