Evanston Art Center

Visited the art gallery today, the main exhibit was very interesting and I also enjoyed seeing some pieces made by the students at the center. The woman working was very friendly. Seems like a great part of the community.

I think Evanston Art Center is an important part of the community. Many of my friends and their kids have taken classes there, and really enjoy it. Now that they are in this new space, I might try taking something over the summer. I just went to one of their studio exhibitions last weekend to support a friend and it was so much fun! I found it to be a relaxing and open environment, especially with their whole second floor gallery. They have this nook on the second floor that feels so inviting as the light to comes in and you can see out to Central St. Thank you EAC for moving into this new space! I definitely want to be more involved now.
If you are a newcomer, I would suggest stopping by one of their gallery openings to get a feel for the space or maybe taking an evening class.

The Evanston Art Center is a true gem for the North Shore! The recent Winter Expo offered unique art, crafts and jewelry for holiday gifts in a wide range of prices. The current faculty exhibit shows the range of talent that the teaching artists offer students of all ages and skill levels. I’ve stopped in several times as I walk down Central Street just to see what art work is on display — and they’ve even enticed me to sign up for a 5 week flower design class.

The Director promised my artist friend that he could have a show at the Evanston Art Center. He is a very popular and well respected Chicago art professor and artist. He had a special compilation disc made of his work (medium to large sized oil paintings) which he took to the Center to give to the Director in person. After that, he never heard a word. His emails and calls have been ignored and he feels hurt and embarrassed about the number of times he’s had to ask for his disc to be returned. It’s hard to understand why the Center wouldn’t want to encourage and support artists and why they would purposely damage their own reputation.
Artists, beware!

We enrolled our child for camp there this summer, and it was such an unacceptable experience, we pulled her out after the first day. I was treated rudely from start to finish, and we have sent our child to camps run by teenage staff that is more professional than the individuals we encountered at Evanston Art Center. The teacher was unfriendly and unnecessarily confrontational, and there was a fundamental lack of communication in general that should take place when it involves the care of young children. We wrote a letter expressing our brief (and terrible) experience to the director of the center… and received no response. Everything we took away from EAC is that they just do not care. The building itself may be shiny and new, but I’m saddened that this is what Evanston has to show for its art community. Very, very, very disappointing.

Oh yes I did have the pleasure of attending the very first opening exhibit at this beautiful new Art Center! Bravo!
What a fabulous addition to the Central Street community, and what a change in architecture and surroundings from the last building. This place is as urban as can be.
The two-​story space is clean with lots of natural light, and the classrooms are spacious and ready for eager students. Open and contemporary, everything new and fresh, the staff seems legitimately excited and proud. The class offerings and programs here are very enticing. The have cool camps and workshops for kids… build a robot, make a movie, learn how to code and edit photos in Photoshop. I really want to take their adult screenprinting class and would be willing to travel from the north to participate.
I had the opportunity to take a tour of the jewelry-​making studio with one of the instructors. It’s well-​organized with lots of attention paid to venting in the welding room. I don’t know much about metalworking, but they seem to have all the tools one could need or want.
Though I didn’t visit all the rooms, the most memorable one is the 2^nd floor front facing art studio. It’s filled with a large collection of tall paint-​splattered free-​standing wooden easels, just waiting for great talent and blank canvases to take over.
The gallery space is well defined, and the hallways upstairs boast a lovely collection of prints. From what I could tell, the Center seems equally divided between instruction and gallery space.
For those who may have been used to the historic character of the old building, coming here will be a change. Regardless, the possibilities to create and display art seem endless. Way to go Evanston, and congrats on the new community that you will no doubt attract with your easier to get to location.