Artspace 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. Based on the results of the survey, Artspace will be able to determine the best mix of residential, studio and retail space for the Elgin project.
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. The meeting is open to anyone interested in participating in the survey or finding out more about the project. In total, Artspace will send out notices to over 5,600 surveys to artists from the Chicago area, inviting them to take the on-line survey.
Participation in this survey will help Artspace understand living and working space needs, determine if there is enough interest to justify funding for a project, decide what size project would best serve the community, and to ultimately design a better facility.
Interested artists can sign up for the market survey by sending your name and address to reedus_j@cityofelgin.org before July 3, 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