Artists interested in the possibility of a new arts development (residential / studio / retail) in Elgin Illinois are asked to participate in a community meeting and online survey this summer. You will help determine the market for artist space in Elgin

The City of Elgin is exploring the possibility of creating affordable rental space for artists to both live and work in the Center City area.   Artspace and the City of Elgin will be kicking off a market survey that will be taking place from July 24 through September 18. The response of the survey will determine the feasibility of the project and number of units.

Sign up after July 3 by going to this website to take the survey: http://www.artspaceelgin.org/

 
Artspace Projects, Inc., a Minneapolis not-for-profit arts organization, is the nation’s leading nonprofit
real estate developer for the arts, with more than a dozen completed projects from coast to coast.   They will be in Elgin on July 24th to launch the Elgin Market Survey at a public meeting to be held at 7 p.m. at the Heritage Ballroom at the Center, 100 Symphony Way.

The meeting and survey will help Artspace determine the best mix of residential, studio and retail space for an Elgin project, with the goal of providing affordable live/work space for people in the arts.

Funding for the market survey was approved by the Elgin City Council earlier this year, based on the overwhelming response to the original community input meeting held in March, 2008. At that time, Artspace and the City conducted a two-day prefeasibility visit and evaluated the potential for such a project to succeed. The positive findings of that report prompted the city to move forward to engage Artspace in conducting the marketing study.

Over 1,000 area artists have indicated interest in the project and are being invited to attend the public meeting, along with anyone who is interested in participating in the survey or finding out more about the project.

Interested artists can sign up for the market survey by sending name and address to reedus_j@cityofelgin.org before July 3, or after July 3 go to http://www.artspaceelgin.org/ .

The survey will be conducted during the summer of 2008. Please refer your artist friends and colleagues to sign up for the survey. Also please sign up at http://www.cityofelgin.org/list.asp to receive updated information on the progress of the project. Any questions please call Jan Reedus at 847-931-5592.

More information about Artspace can be found at www.artspaceusa.org