62 S. Grove Ave, Elgin Il 60120
After ten years at its current location at 15 Ziegler Court, including several expansions, Side Street Studio Arts have outgrown its old building and will be moving to 62 S. Grove Ave. The nonprofit which focuses on art exhibition, education, performance, and advocacy is currently in the early stages of a capital campaign. The building dates back to the early 1900s and is 18,000-square-foot. It is spread out over two main floors with a mezzanine and a full basement, which is more than triple the space of Side Street’s current location.
Side Street plans to keep the floor plan open for flexibility. The first and second floors are mostly wide open already, extending from the front on Grove Avenue to Riverside Drive on the rear. A bank of windows on the second floor provides a wide view of downtown Elgin, and the back windows on the mezzanine look straight out on the Fox River. They’ll redo the hardwood floors upstairs and use it primarily for performance space like an old school dance hall. The space also has a rooftop area that they plan to renovate. A downstairs basement area will be for education and lab space and they hope to transform an old boiler into a forge for glassblowing and metalwork.
