Okay, so regular readers will know by now that this weekend I made a field trip to th.e Lillstreet Center for applied arts, a multifunctional facility at the corner of Montrose and Ravenswood. And why was I make a field trip to Lillstreet, considering that I'm not an applied artist myself? Well, because I'm actually in the middle of trying to open a multifunctional arts center here in Chicago myself, mine for literature and photography. And among other things, I have a group called SCORE helping me out these days, basically a non-profit group of retired executives who give free advice to startup wannabes such as myself. And it turns out that my SCORE liason, *Ernie, was actually a consultant for Lillstreet as well, when they first started out (or, he's a friend of the founder, something like that), so he suggested that I go check the place out before our next meeting (which is today, actually), to see if I can't maybe describe my own center to him next time more in relative terms to what I saw at Lillstreet.

So anyway, it turned out that Lillstreet was having a giant open house for the general public this weekend, so I went and had a really great time, and walked away from it all incredibly impressed by what they're doing down there. And I've got a ton of photos to share about my experience as well (27, in fact); so I better get right to them!

Top photo: Okay, so to start out with, here's a photo of the entire complex...which, yeah, it's huge, much bigger than what I had in mind for my own place. And this is kinda of what Ernie wanted me to see, I think, was how this center sort of organically grew into its space over time, instead of it simply starting with the full bang of everything you see there now. (Basically, Ernie thinks I'm trying to do too much, too fast, with my own center, and is urging me to cut my plans at least in half for the firsts year.)

Second photo: Main front door of the center.

Third photo: Hey, they even had the barbeque going during their open house, and everything! There were a ton of people, in fact, out supporting the center this Saturday, with it being pretty obvious just how much they love the place.

Bottom two photos: Shots from the first-floor lobby of the building, as you first walk into the facility.

Once you walk in the first-floor lobby, the first thing you see is their main retail center, shown here in a panoramic shot. I know it's difficult to understand what you're looking at here; basically, it's a 300-degree shot, showing their commercial gallery on the left, and their under-construction cafe on the right. And then below are some "flat" photos of the same.

Top: A better shot of their commercial gallery, covering one half of their first-floor retail area.

Second photo: Main registration and check-in desk at the center.

Bottom two photos: A retail cafe the center has recently decided to take on, currently under construction.

Top two photos: Okay, so, once you get done with the retail wing of Lillstreet's operations, the rest of the first floor is dedicated to resources for pottery and ceramics. This top photo, for example, shows a private spinning space members can check/rent out, and the second photo shows one of their classrooms, with a bunch of spinning wheels put together.

Third photo: Further back on the first floor, they also have all these awe-inspiring baking and glazing equipment, including three more kilns the same size as the one you're seeing here. Impressive! And these items, like the rest of the facilities, can be either rented or checked out by members, although it was a little confusing how exactly that all works.

Bottom photo: And then rounding out the first floor is also a children's pottery classroom, which is what you're seeing here.

Top three photos: Okay, on to the second floor! The top two floors of Lillstreet Center, in fact, consist of related yet mixed-use rooms, grouped by artistic medium: rentable studio spaces, rentable galleries, actual equipment rooms and classrooms. The rooms you're seeing above, for example, are for metalmaking - the middle shot is of the "blowtorch" room (as I called it), while the bottom one is one of the metalmaking classrooms. And dude, what is it with the most seriously hardcore nerdy of the beautiful nerdy girls always being into applied arts? Man, if I had a dime for every serious, pale, overall-wearing girl with plastic-frame glasses I saw at Lillstreet this weekend...well, I wouldn't need to find an investor for my own arts center, would I?

Above photos: And then, of course, the third floor is much the same as the second, except concentrating this time on a different medium (fibers, beads and papercraft mostly). The middle photo above gives you a better idea of the different things artists do with private rentable spaces there; this studio in particular has a pretty professional-looking display area along one wall for the general public (which is what you're looking at here), with an actual work space right around the corner. And then the bottom photo above is a shot of yet another classroom, this one for bead-making.

Above photos: Yet more shots of the third-floor classroom areas, this time for fibers and printmaking.

Of course, the building Lillstreet Center is in is an old industrial one, so certain liberties have been taken into making it a more inviting, more artist-friendly space. These two photos, for example, show merely the stairways for a couple of the different floors, and how such handmade touches as painted walls and Christmas lights have transformed the space into something much different than it was before.

Above: Like I said, along with the retail areas and resources for local artists, Lillstreet also rents out spaces on the second and third floors to individual artists, to use as double studio/work spaces. There's one actually up for rent right now, in fact (a photo of the ad seen above), which pretty much lays it out in black and white for you - around $270 a month, including heat and air conditioning, for an eight-foot by twelve-foot space upstairs, accessible 24 hours a day. Fair deal? Unfair? Hey, you applied artists tell me, man!

And finally, yet another example of just how popular bikes are here in Chicago. Yeah, like this website needs another excuse to mention this.

So that's it! Thanks, Lillstreet, for putting together such a fun and informative event, and for answering all the stupid questions this non-applied-artist had about it all. I'm beginning to see what Ernie's point was about wanting me to go down and see this place; because the fact of the matter is that it didn't just start out with all these facilities at once when it first opened, but rather just organically added them over the last 30 years as revenue and customer support allowed. This is what Ernie wants me to do with my own arts center; and after seeing how Lillstreet has done it, I have to admit, his idea is starting to make a lot more sense.

Okay, so like I said, I have my second meeting with SCORE today; in fact, I'm sitting in the Loop as we speak, and actually need to get going in about five minutes, so should really finish this up. And then tonight, of course, is the second monthly live literary event from Bookslut.com, which I've been planning on attending and am actually really looking forward to. Going yourself? Drop me a line! Maybe all the local FOJs (Friends of Jason) can sit at a big table together, and pool our money for pitchers of cheap beer or something. And then tomorrow, my second field report of the weekend, which was the "City of Destiny" reading event at Quimby's last Saturday night (including yet another 25 or so photos to share). And then Thursday, a report on how today's SCORE meeting went! Yeehaw - more things to talk about than I have free days to talk about them! Now that's what I call a happy turn of events this year.