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Yes, you heard right. The fire arts center of chicago is moving again. We are, as always, on the lookout for locations that best fit our requirements and the needs of our students. And we were able to find a space that better fills those needs and also provides room for growth. It is simply a better space for us all around.
Our new address is:

1907 N Mendell Street
Chicago, IL 60622
(click to view map)

We are still moving equipment and artwork over, little by little, so if you are unsure of where to meet please contact us to verify at 773.329.9908. Our classes are still meeting while we move things over so current students will be able to keep up their work in the meantime.

As always the decision to move is difficult, but we know we can better utilize this new space to continue offering some of the most unique art classes in the city of Chicago. We look forward to greeting you all at the new fire arts center of chicago.

Once again we are opening the doors at the fire arts center of chicago to show you all the great opportunities that are available at our facility. Please stop by Saturday, October 28, 12:30pm-7pm, and see what we have to offer.

The fire arts center is dedicated to the preservation of traditional sculpture technique in clay, metal, and stone. We offer classes to the community, kids programs, membership/employment opportunities to qualified artists.

You are invited to come out, see some great art, and learn about the basics of mold making and investment casting processes. Demos will be given in bronze casting, stone working, and forging.

12-2pm | stone carving demo
2-4pm | forging demo
4-5pm | bronze casting demo
5-7pm | gallery reception

The Fire Arts Center of Chicago
1934 N Campbell, Chicago IL

As mentioned in the last post, the fire arts center of chicago is pulling up the stakes and moving to a new location.

Our new address is

1934 North Campbell Avenue
Chicago Illinois 60647

After long deliberation and much debate, we chose an incredible new space which will offer us room to grow over the next several years. It is always difficult to leave an area where you have developed connections and friends, but, as our students began to notice, our space there just wasn’t big enough to work in.

So with great excitement we are planning the unveiling of the *new* fire arts center of chicago. To see maps and images of the new building go to the new location webpage. We are looking forward to be in and around the exciting arts communities of Bucktown and Wicker Park and hope to add something new to the area.

Over the next week we will be slowly moving equipment and art to our new space. We don’t anticipate too much interruption in classes and studio time, but please be patient as we shift things over. Be sure to contact your instructor or Vince if you have any questions about class times or where to go and when. Our goal is to be up and running by July 8th, 2006, but ideally much sooner. Many of the classes will not be impacted by this transition, but others will require more time to set up because of the equipment needs. We will keep you posted on the details.

Again thanks to everyone in the Ravenswood area for all their support and kindness. We will truly miss the great people and exciting neighborhood.

The South Suburban College show is up and running. Be sure to stop by the Lee Dulgar Gallery on the South Suburban College Campus in South Holland, Illinois and check out the fire arts center of chicago artists and their works. SSC’s website offers this directional note on the location of the gallery:

This corporate sponsored gallery is located in the college Atrium on the 1st floor.

Also there will be a closing reception on April 24 between 11:00am and 1:00pm so be sure to stop by if you have time.

We would like to thank Jack Kirkpatrick at the South Suburban College for all his help with the show. Hope you all get a chance to go see it.

The fire arts center of chicago artists are getting ready to bare all and show the fruits of their labor. A lot of hard work and dedication have gone into producing some amazing works, several of which will be displayed at the Fire Arts: Heavy Metal Art Exhibit which is taking place at the South Suburban College. The address for the college is:

15800 South State Street
South Suburban College
South Holland, Illinois 60473

The show is not listed on their website yet, but is scheduled to be set up for the opening on April 3rd, 2006. The gallery hours are Monday through Friday 9:00am to 4:00pm (the gallery is closed on weekends). It will be up until April 25, 2006, so mark your calendars and plan to visit.

The updates page has been rather quiet lately, but we have just been saving up for some more exciting news. We are as always, busy working in the studio, but you know that (and if you don’t then you need to stop by and see for yourself). Tonight was an even more active night for us. The fire arts center was a packed house as we hosted some Chicago explorers from the show 190 North. We got the pleasure of a visit from Doug Banks who checked out the inner-workings of fire arts. You will have to just tune in and watch to see all that happened during his visit. All I will say is, we kept him busy!

190 North is a show that basically highlights some of the great spots in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. They highlight restaurants, shows, and more. Previous episodes have included highlights of the Butler Street Foundry, the Around the Coyote festival, the Chicago Center for Green Technology, and the Windy City Rollers (to name only a few of the countless highlights they’ve shown).

As for the episode which includes fire arts, we have a tentative air date of April 23. 190 North airs at 10:35pm on Sundays on ABC7. Don’t have a television…no problem. 190 North also Podcasts their show and it is available through the iTunes store for FREE. You can find out more on the 190 North website.

So mark your calendars and set your TiVos, because you will not want to miss this.

Thanks for stopping by, Doug!

Well the gallery walls have been repainted, so to speak. Okay so I am talking about the digital gallery for the fire arts center of chicago, but regardless it got a much needed facelift. As promised I spent time cleaning up the online fire arts gallery so be sure to go visit: fire arts center of chicago gallery. Of course the gallery has plenty of new pictures from the various members and instructors. Some of our newest images include those of Bryce de Reynier’s series entitled Small Heavy Objects. In the artist’s own words:

While design is commonly preoccupied with Utility, and art with Meaning, my work attempts to create only Beauty without these common burdens. I work to make my artwork non-representational; it is not abstract because I don’t wish for it to be an abstraction of any specific object, being or emotion.

We also have some great pics from one of our newest instructors, Jon Gruber, who will be teaching a class on armor forging. Be sure to check out his incredible creations.

And if you are reading this on our site, you can also plainly see that the updates/blog page has been cleaned up a bit as well. So there you have it.

Of course all this is fine and good, but what about the actual studio and classes, you ask? Very good question. We are still going strong. If you are interested in visiting us please stop by the fire arts center studio and say hi. The classes are on-going so if you are at all curious about what the classes entail, please come check them out. We’d love to show you around. Until then…