Dear Friends,

With your support over the past eight seasons, TimeLine has experienced tremendous growth both onstage and behind the scenes. Today, we're thrilled to share with you some very exciting news about yet another initiative in the future growth of our company - a move into a brand-new theatre space.

In two years, TimeLine will launch our 2007-2008 season at the soon-to-be restored and transformed Three Arts Club of Chicago (3Arts) building, located in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood, at 1300 North Dearborn Parkway (at Goethe Street).

	Facade of the 3 Arts building at 1300 North Dearborn Parkway (at Goethe Street).

As the company-in-residence at 3Arts, TimeLine will perform in a completely new, flexible, state-of-the-art theater which will seat up to 108 audience members. The new facility will offer patrons some new amenities and conveniences, including accessibility for people with disabilities, air conditioning, convenient parking garages and public transportation, and access to the other beautiful areas of the 3Arts facility, including a glass-canopied courtyard that will serve as the building’s main lobby and winter garden. The performance space at 3Arts will also enable us to expand our theatrical innovation, while maintaining the intimacy and flexibility that TimeLine audiences have grown to love.

We also have an opportunity to accomodate our growing audiences and expose our work to even more people. Located in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood just 2.5 miles south of our current home, TimeLine’s new venue will be an ideal place to see a play, and it’s close to an array of restaurants, bars and cultural landmarks in the Gold Coast and Old Town neighborhoods.

While our future home at 3Arts will become TimeLine’s primary performance venue, we have no intentions of abandoning our current home on Wellington Avenue, which has served us so well over the past six years. In the future, TimeLine’s Wellington space will continue to play an integral role in our operations, and it will be used to support our expanding programming both behind-the-scenes and as an additional performance space.

Partnering with 3 Arts
As a company that has built its reputation by exploring history, TimeLine is thrilled to play a role in the historic transformation of 3Arts as they enter a new era and build on their legacy of nurturing the next generation of Chicago artists.

"Our vision is about far more than restoring and renovating our Chicago Landmark building for posterity, it's about building on our organization's original charter and honoring the progressive ideas of Jane Addams and the other civic leaders whose own vision shaped our first 93 years of service. Today, we are mirroring the work of our founders by conscientiously addressing the contemporary needs of artists and audiences with a unique mission that combines long-term, affordable artist housing with a public art center enriched by anchor partnerships with Sherwood Conservatory of Music and TimeLine Theatre Company. We believe this combination of affordable artist housing and public art center is the first in the country." Esther Grimm, Executive Director of 3Arts

3Arts is fulfilling its founding mission to support the study of music, theatre and visual arts and TimeLine is honored to be invited by 3Arts, along with the Sherwood Conservatory of Music, to serve as anchor partners in the restored facility and provide on-site programming and education along with 3Arts.

This artistic collaboration is part of 3Arts’ planned $23 million restoration and renovation of the 3Arts building, which is scheduled to open in Fall 2007. The completed facility will become a unique combination of a public art center and affordable artist housing.

The Restoration and Renovation
For the first time in its 93-year-history, the not-for-profit 3Arts will embark on a major restoration and renovation of its building. Originally designed by John Holabird of noted Chicago firm, Holabird & Roche, 3Arts was designated a Chicago Landmark in 1981 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places – Gold Coast Historic District. The National Trust for Historic Preservation designated it one of America’s Treasures in 2000.

With the renovation, 3Arts programming will return to the original three art forms that defined the organization’s name in 1912: music, theater, and visual arts. In addition to managing the entire facility and its functions, 3Arts will oversee visual arts programs that are designed to reach children, teens, adults, and seniors, as well as developing and operating music education and incubator theater programs. They will oversee three studios—Ceramics, Photography, and Mixed Media (painting, drawing, fiber, etc.)—and a gallery and performance hall will provide the settings for the core programs.

The third anchor partner, Sherwood Conservatory of Music, is a 110-year-old community music school, committed to meeting the diverse music education needs of Chicago’s urban population. Based in the South Loop, Sherwood Conservatory will establish a satellite school at 3Arts and will offer classes ranging from an extensive early childhood program to individual music lessons for children and adults, with plans to expand into group instruction, music appreciation, history and theory, and a no-experience-required community chorus.

Comprehensive physical upgrades of the 64,000-square-foot building will include a renovation of its three upper floors to convert early dormitory-style housing into 36 distinctive artist apartments with private kitchen and bath facilities. The main floor will retain much of its traditional countenance, augmented to incorporate a versatile exhibition space and a flexible performance hall for group lessons, recitals, and early childhood programming as well as a mixed media studio. Additionally on the main level, the courtyard will be fitted with a glass canopy to serve as the main lobby and winter garden, and an entrance for the public will be added on Goethe Street. The lower level, now chiefly used to house mechanical systems and storage, will feature five soundproof music practice rooms for private instruction, a photography studio and darkroom, a ceramics studio and kiln, and TimeLine’s black box theater.

3Arts History
In 1912, 35 women from Chicago’s cultural and educational scene—including matriarchs from such leading Chicago families as the Armours, Bordens, Goodmans, Laflins, McCormicks, Ryersons, and Winterbothams, as well as social reformer and educational activist Jane Addams—formed the first 3Arts Board of Directors and established its charter to be a secure and nurturing place for young women art students to live while pursuing their studies in music, drama, and the visual arts. Modeled after similar clubs in Europe and the United States, including sites in Paris, London, Los Angeles, and New York, only Chicago’s 3Arts remains.

TimeLine’s Future
We are thrilled to share this exciting news with you, and we will continue to share information about this expansion over the next two years. In the meantime, we are so appreciative to have your continued support and patronage of TimeLine’s work. We hope you are proud of the organization that we are building together, and we are delighted to have you play an integral role in TimeLine’s future.

Sincerely,

PJ Powers
Artistic Director