When STUDIO 659 had its grand opening July 16, organizers were expecting about 100 people to walk through the doors.
However, more than 500 showed up.
They came to the new art gallery in Whiting, Ind., from all around northwest Indiana as well as Chicago—and were entertained with the classical music from violist Dr. Robert Vodnoy and opera singer Sharon Quattrain.
"Our goal is to provide arts to the community in a variety of forms," said Kathleen Ulm, president of the new Whiting Arts Council ( WAC ) . "We will have both adult and children classes taught by skilled professionals. The classes will be a bit of everything from painting, drawing and stained glass to singing, improvisation, poetry, photography and more. Our ideas are endless on what this building can provide the community and surrounding communities.
"We also will have live performances in the space and are currently booking a Chicago Improv group, a book signing and a live band night for September. We are open to all ideas from poetry slams, monologue nights to small theater."
STUDIO 659 takes its name from the old prefix to the phone numbers in Whiting, and is located on 119th Street. Ulm is the owner of The Junkyard, a T-shirt shop in Whiting, and has one of two mayoral-appointed seats on the WAC. Ulm is also formerly associated with Chix Mix productions in Chicago, as co-founder of the women's party promotion company, and she is also former promotions director for Windy City Media Group.
STUDIO 659 was the brainchild of Whiting Mayor Joseph Stahura.
"The City of Whiting, along with Whiting's Redevelopment Commission, bought the building after the previous tenants moved out," Ulm said. "The city remodeled the inside and soon will do a façade update as well. The space was essentially donated to the Whiting Arts Council to put in a new Art Studio for the town. The mayor has been extremely instrumental in moving Whiting forward."
Whiting, located along Lake Michigan, is about a 20-minute drive from downtown Chicago.
"Stahura is redoing our lakefront to the tune of $45 million of RDA grant money and the city is in the middle of a creating a million dollar Historical Museum to open in 2012, also funded from outside sources, not from taxpayers," Ulm said. "The downtown historic district, where the Studio is located, is filled with quaint mom-and-pop shops and restaurants. It's really an ideal location if you want to buy a house and still just be a hop and a jump from [ Chicago ] .
"For a small town, Whiting has a thriving arts scene. We have an award-winning town theater, Marian Theatre Guild, one of the last standing and operating historical movie palaces, The Hoosier Theatre, which shows movies daily and a local art group, 119th St. Artists. We also have a non-profit group called Arts Alive!, and its main goal it is to continue to keep the arts thriving in Whiting through funding. They also do an annual Garden Tour and a winter Home Tour. Whiting also has a superb Lakefront Symphony that performs throughout the summer outside at the lakefront pavilion. Many of the individuals heading up those groups are the people on the Whiting Arts Council."
Despite the Indiana address, STUDIO 659 is very active in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. STUDIO 659 solicited artists from Rogers Park, Blue Island, Lincoln Park and elsewhere for its first show.
"Since Whiting is such a great town, we wanted people in Chicago to know it's only a short drive from the city and it's full of life for artists," Ulm said.
The LGBT community also is important to STUDIO 659, Ulm said. Very important.
"Some of our panel of council members and volunteers are from the LGBT community, including myself," she said. "Some of the artists as well who showed at the grand opening are openly gay, including Jackie Weinberg of Supergurl Images. Jackie is a great graphic designer in the Chicago area, as well as in the LGBT community. She takes these fantastic photographs with her iPhone so we wanted to get her cutting edge work into the show—and people loved it. We hope to bring down much more talent from the LGBT community to not only show their art, but perhaps do classes as well as LGBT-themed nights.
"We have been in talks with David Cerda from Hell in a Handbasket Productions who grew up [ in nearby ] Hammond, Ind., to return and perform something at the Studio and I have been wanting to set up a Poetry Slam night with a LGBT-slanted theme."
Ulm added: "Whiting is growing in a progressive direction because we are so close to Chicago. You can find wonderfully large historical houses, or newly built housing, on tree-lined streets for unreal prices. And the LGBT community is growing daily with many business owners in town being openly gay. It's a welcoming community where you walk down the street and people say 'Hello' as they are sitting on their porch. Sometimes it seems like a flash back in time. But then you see new condos coming up, surfers on the lake, gay couples holding hands and you realize it's moving forward in such a positive way. I have to say that a large part of all the positive energy is really due to Mayor Joe Stahura. Come check out [ Whiting, ] and who knows the chances are, you may get to meet him in person."
For more information on STUDIO 659, contact Ulm at Studio659@aol.com .
