Collecting art with heart

A Chicago art incubator works hard to bring original art to your walls

On a dark Friday night in November, in a Roscoe Village warehouse next to the Metra tracks, more than 40 artists are opening their studios to the public. It’s something the Cornelia Arts Building has been doing four or so times a year for the past half a decade, and traffic is picking up.

There’s a TamaleSpaceship outside—the food truck that is—and a live band serenades guests as they walk in the door. You’d never know it from the quiet, dimly lit residential neighborhood, but inside fledgling art patrons are milling about, sipping wine and beer and looking at the art.

“I think for a lot of people, young and old and me sometimes it’s intimidating to walk into a gallery,” says Scott Simons, one of the artists showing tonight. But intimidation is not on the menu for this evening’s Pre-Holiday Open House and Studio Sale. Instead, visitors can meet the artists in person, tour their paint-splattered studios, and walk out with an original piece of art, often for a surprisingly affordable sum.

“I think there’s a lot of people out there that just don’t know where to go to get [art] so they just go to the retail stores…[when they] could buy something one of a kind for half the price,” says Simons.

Fellow artist Kevin Swallow points out that mass-produced art may be cheap, but it’s also disposable. “You can come to buildings like Cornelia and buy directly from artists,” says Swallow. How many people will hang on to a piece of Ikea art over the years, through multiple moves?

Organizations have been using events like Cornelia’s open studio and special museum event nights with live music and cash bars to foster art appreciation among a younger set of museum and gallery patrons. Artist Lauren Harlowe and Cornelia’s other artists use advertising and Facebook marketing to bring more people in.

Five years ago about 90 percent of visitors to Cornelia’s open houses were friends of the artists, says Richard Lange, director of Friends of the Arts, a non-profit arts support group run out of Cornelia. Now that number is down to 70 percent.

According to Lange, the building itself is a draw for visitors, who enjoy the raw studio space. Built in 1910, the warehouse was originally home to a manufacturer of ice blocks. Stables on the back of the building held horses that pulled the carriages used to deliver the ice. It was converted into an arts incubator space in 1986. And today its industrial lighting, exposed brick walls and visible ductwork serve as inspiration for the artists, says Lange[1].

Some of the pieces tonight, like Swallow’s, are priced as low as $15 dollars. Others are more expensive. Harlowe’s pieces go for a couple thousand dollars, but at Cornelia there’s something for everyone. “I don’t want to price it so that it doesn’t sell. I mean I like to do the artwork, I like to make it, but I also like to sell it,” says Simons.

Harlowe, 32, admits that she bought more work in her 20s than she does now that she has a young family. “You know the artwork I’ve bought over the years, I treasure. I tend to know the artist or talk to the artist so it’s meaningful…it’s nice to live with those sort of special things.”

Cornelia’s next open house is on March 21 at 1800 W. Cornelia Ave.