Chicago’s Fine Arts Building (410 S. Michigan Avenue) launched its new look and a website with centralized ticketing and rental platforms that encompass all of the landmark building’s spaces: artists’ studios, offices, rehearsal halls and two theaters—the historic Studebaker Theater and Carriage Hall, a contemporary multidisciplinary performance and event space that is being built in the former Playhouse Theater space. For more information, visit fineartsbuilding.com.
Spring productions are now on sale for performances at the Studebaker Theater, which reopens in April 2022 with Cindy Williams’ one-woman show Me, Myself & Shirley and Chicago Opera Theater’s world premiere of Quamino’s Map, followed by the world premiere of new musical Skates in May 2022. Also returning to the Studebaker stage next year are performances from Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras and Chicago Jazz Orchestra.
For more information on upcoming productions at the Studebaker Theater at Fine Arts Building, and to purchase tickets, visit fineartsbuilding.com/events.
Property owner Berger Realty Group, led by Erica Berger, began major renovations of Studebaker Theater and Carriage Hall earlier this year, to enhance the experiences of theatergoers and producing companies at both venues. Renovations to the historic Studebaker will be completed in May 2022, including all-new seating, enhancements and modernization to the theater’s AV and grid systems, a state-of-the-art technical booth, updated lobbies and a newly designed VIP lounge on the third floor. The new Carriage Hall venue will open in late 2022, with more details to be announced in the coming months.
“This building has always been a landmark of Chicago’s downtown artistic community,” says Jacob Harvey, Managing Artistic Director of Fine Arts Building. “As we work to revitalize the arts in the wake of the pandemic, investing in our city’s arts and culture sector is more important now than ever. We’re considering not only the future of these historic theater venues, but also how to honor and preserve the legacy of the artists and businesses that have called Fine Arts Building home and ensure that this building can remain a vital creative hub for decades to come.”
Fine Arts Building’s new logo is inspired by the building’s windows overlooking Lake Michigan, where art in all forms is being created behind each pane. The building is more than the sum of its parts—an artistic hub and home to a variety of artists, practitioners, and businesses of all kinds.
The Fine Arts Building, Studebaker Theater and Carriage Hall logos and rebrand were done by Cantera Estudio (Samuel Alazraki & Eduardo Castro) in collaboration with Kris Berle. New Fine Arts Building website design by Gameflow Interactive.
Fine Arts Building property owner Berger Realty Group is a Chicago-based multigenerational family business focused on restoring iconic, historic properties in the city. The company received a Preservation Excellence Award for Wicker Park’s iconic Flat Iron Building in 2020 and is now leading major renovations of the Studebaker Theater and Carriage Hall at Fine Arts Building to enhance the experiences of theatergoers and producing companies at the venues, as well as updating the building’s prime ground-floor restaurant space, which was previously occupied for 59 years by the Artist’s Café.
About the Fine Arts Building and Studebaker Theater
In 1898, Fine Arts Building created the historic Studebaker Theater, originally built to house vaudevillian performances and later expanded into large productions in the 1920s. During subsequent years, performances by icons Bob Hope, Peter O’Toole and Vincent Price graced the stage, among many others. Studebaker Theater continued throughout the decades being known as one of the most important live theatrical venues in Chicago, receiving landmark status in 1978.
Today, the approximately 600-seat Studebaker Theater hosts nonprofit and touring productions and special events. Its phenomenal acoustics, new lighting and sound systems create a perfect mid-size venue for concerts, ballets, orchestras, operas and more. Located in the heart of Chicago’s Loop, it has been an ideal and accessible venue for some of the city’s most well-known performing arts institutions, as well as many smaller and growing organizations. Current renovations will be completed in May 2022.
Fine Arts Building embraces a commitment to Indigenous rights, racial justice, and cultural equity. As a home to some of Chicago’s most prominent artists, Fine Arts Building believes that art is for everyone and must be accessible to all. While the Studebaker and Playhouse are not a producing organization, the venues are committed to building an inclusive, accessible, diverse, equitable and anti-racist environment for artists to thrive. These core values are driving the decision-making shaping this new version of the organization.
