Please tell us your experience with the Three Arts Club of Chicago. Did you stay there? When? What did you like about it? How has that experience affected you? Do you think it is important to have a place that houses women in the arts? Why are women important to the arts? What are your ideas and thoughts?
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Sue, My Mother-in-Law, Dorothy Mills, has talked about the wonderful place where she lived while she went to Goodman Theatre School all her life. I know that the Three Arts Club is a special place and should remain so, if it can be brought back. I like to think of all the continuing generations of women artists who share memories of The Three Arts Club.
ReplyDeleteBarbara
for me, moving from a state university campus
ReplyDeleteto the Three Arts Club, around 1971,
it was the safe haven i needed
in a city unlike any i knew...
it was a place where there were
just enough rules to protect me from myself...
a place where i could hang with other arty girls
with good upbringings, all of us ready to cut loose,
but still needing some gentle guidance...
it was a sorority without the snobs.
a dorm without the drunks.
a place to NOT get pregnant...
but rather to get exposed to the world of the arts
as others lived and strived it.
i cannot imagine how the city might have
bruised and damaged my sensibilities,
without the Three Arts Club as a buffer zone.
i have always remembered it so fondly.
and i will continue to embrace it as it was,
and hope it will be recreated someday.
aloha and light...
In June of 1963 I moved to the Three Arts Club. There I met my two suite-mates (Glenda Graves -now Hillard, and Marilyn Flo Ashmore), who became my life-long friends. I grew up just 4 blocks away, until my parents died in a fire in March of that year. My older siblings arranged through members of the TAC Board for me to be accepted as a resident. The Three Arts Club staff and residents became surogate members of my family helping me through my transition. During the next two years, I developed a love for classical music thanks to Anne Shumate, Leona Lauritas, and Molly Davie, modern art thanks to Edie Enthoff-Davis, and theater thanks to Shelly Shulman. I did not however ever develop a love for Miss Ethel's favored vegetable, Okra. We were blessed with Miss Maier (sic) as the Director, who referred to our group as "the Jet Set," but was a good sounding board. Dinners were served by some great male students at many of the Design schools, and each week 2-3 residents joined Miss Maier's table for dinner. Tea on Sunday was held in the Tea Room between the Reception Room and the Dining Room often in conjunction with a recital by one or more residents. While the TAC assured we practiced the gentle graces, we also partook of the local color on the "Street of Dreams" at Butch Maguire's, the Zoo, Catfish Row and Easy Street. I do hope that a way can be found to restore the Three Arts Club for new generations of those pursuing a career in the Arts.
ReplyDeleteI lived at the ThreeArts Club for 3 years between 1999 and 2003. I was heartbroken when I learned that the building was shut down only months after I moved out. The difference between my 3 years living here, versus my year living in a typical college dorm in Montana is night and day. The women of the ThreeArts were a community, and in spite of the varied ages, educations, chosen art forms, and backgrounds we each entered with, we spoke a similar language through our passion for the arts. I learned just as much from my fellow residents during college as I did from my professors. Although I'm not in any position to assist financially with any proposed renovation or re-opening of the building, I hope with my whole heart that someone (or a whole lot of someones) can make it happen so that this opportunity can be made available for future generations of artists.
ReplyDeleteJust finding this blog after a bit of research on what is going on with TAC!
ReplyDeleteI lived there while attending the Illinois Institute of Art for two semesters. I moved in October 1, 2000 and moved out June 1, 2001.
It was a wonderful experience. I believe I was on the third floor - on the SW corner - the end room. It was a double room, and we shared a bathroom with a single room, making it a suite. There was an old claw foot tub in our bathroom, and it really is quite the memory taking baths in there after long days in class and work.
We had a great cook - an older Hispanic gentleman - who would make us breakfast, and I always took a yogurt and banana to go to eat for lunch. Dinner was usually in the fridge for me when I returned because I worked most evenings nannying for a family.
It was only a 9-month period that I lived there with my roommate, Lianne, but it the entire time is a fond memory. It really was a wonderful experience and I am so happy I have photos of remember how neat it really was!
I do hope the building is eventually reopened for woman in the arts. What a WONDERFUL asset it is to the city of Chicago.
Twelve years after moving into the TAC, I am living in Grand Rapids, Michigan with my husband and son.
I lived there from 1980-1983. I studied art. I lived on the third floor which was the music floor. Every night we would fall asleep listening to the musicians playing & singing.The high ceiling were so beautiful.I loved meeting all the women from all over the world & how kind they were. It was close to Lincoln Park. We would walk in the park. It was a very lovely safe experience. Martha B Plava
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