Upcoming Events | Fine Arts Building

Explore performances, exhibits, concerts, and more from creators at the vanguard of artistic expression in Chicago and beyond.

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Second Fridays Open Studios at the Fine Arts Building

Second Friday of every month, 5:00 - 9:00pm

Join us for our monthly Second Fridays open studios event! Explore all ten floors of creativity and history, and meet the participating tenants who make the Fine Arts Building a home for art in all forms.

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10th Floor Murals

Fine Arts Building Tour With the Chicago Architecture Center

2024 Dates

Discover the Fine Arts Building, a treasure trove on Michigan Avenue and learn how it went from a carriage showroom to a high-profile artists’ colony that housed tenants like Frank Lloyd Wright, Lorado Taft and Harriet Monroe.

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From NPR and WBEZ Chicago Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!

Select Thursday Evenings in the Studebaker Theater

Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! is NPR’s Peabody Award-winning quiz show. Host Peter Sagal leads a rotating panel of comedians, listener contestants, and celebrity guests through a rollicking review of the week’s news.

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Landscape Painting Class With Don Yang

January 5, 2025 – February 2, 2025

Learn landscape painting and improve your plein air painting indoors with Fine Arts Building artist Don Yang!

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Plexus Polaire Presents Dracula: Lucy’s Dream Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival 2025

January 15 – 19

From the makers of Moby Dick and Chambre Noire, Plexus Polaire returns flaunting its mastery of the form and serving up large-scale spectacle, human size bunraku puppets, hypnotic video projection and their signature style of imbuing the puppet with storytelling power.

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The Puppet Hub Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival 2025

January 17 – 26

Take a break between the many Puppet Hub shows and exhibits in this puppet-inspired pop-up cafe inside the Fine Arts Building. Meet fellow puppetry enthusiasts for coffee, tea, winter soups and baked treats.

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Baxter Theatre & Handspring Puppet Co. Life and Times of Michael K Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival 2025

January 22 – 26

With puppets by Handspring Puppet Company, known for building the War Horse and Little Amal, Cape Town’s Baxter Theatre brings us a new level of exquisite bunraku-style puppet theater.

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Vanessa

A work in development by Vanessa Valliere Look! Look! Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival 2025

Solo Performance

January 23 – 25

Created and performed by clown, nerd cheerleader, and Chicago favorite Vanessa Valliere with support from longtime collaborator Lindsey Noel Whiting, Look! Look! is a must-see celebration of the gross and beautiful, the sweet and creepy, the euphemistic and earnest and, most importantly, the weirdos. Performances of Look! Look! will take place in the Fine Arts Building's Little Studio, suite 732.

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Showcase 2024 (400 x 300 px)

The Chicago Academy for the Arts presents Showcase A Presentation of Top Work from Illinois' #1 Arts High School

January 31, 2025 7:30 pm

Join The Chicago Academy for the Arts for a presentation of top work form all six of their arts departments. Secure your tickets today!

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Exile in Bookville Presents Neko Case The Harder I Fight the More I Love You: A Memoir

February 4 7:00 pm

Neko Case will take the Studebaker Theater stage to discuss her new book, The Harder I Fight the More I Love You: A Memoir. An unforgettable portrait of an extraordinary life—one forged through a poverty-stricken childhood in “slummy, one-horse towns”; obsessive desire; bursts of comedy; and indispensable friendships, reflecting on the way art, music, and a deep connection to nature helped her on a singular journey to become a beloved, Grammy-nominated artist.

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Lee Page

Lee Newcomer Memorial Concert Featuring Rachel Barton Pine and friends

February 5, 2025 7:00 pm

Celebrate the life and legacy of Lee Newcomer with this special concert at the Studebaker Theater, featuring Rachel Barton Pine.

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02.07.2025 CCPA Symphony Orchestra 2

CCPA Symphony Orchestra

February 7 7:00 pm

Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts (CCPA) Symphony Orchestra presents a concert under the direction of CCPA Orchestra Director Stephen Squires. This performance also features CCPA Student Solo Competition Winner, Sava Velkoff, in Bartók’s Viola Concerto.

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Storytelling Productions Presents Emilio Lovera Ahora el Malandro si está asustado

February 8 8:00 pm

"Ahora el Malandro sí está Asustado" es el más reciente show de stand-up comedy del comediante venezolano Emilio Lovera, en el que combina su característico humor ácido y observador con una crítica social cargada de ingenio.

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Camerata Chicago Orchestra Presents Valentine’s Romance with Violinist Yi-Jia Susanne Hou

February 14 7:30 pm

Enjoy a romantic evening with the wonderful violinist Yi-Jia Susanne Hou on Valentines Day serenading you with romances for violin & orchestra by Beethoven, Dvorak and Svendsen and love inspired works by Kreisler. The Camerata Chicago Orchestra will complete the concert delighting you with the most celebrated romantic melody of all time: Romeo & Juliet Fantasy by Tchaikovsky.

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Seth’s Broadway Concert Series! Starring Jessie Mueller and Seth Rudetsky

February 15, 2025 7:30 pm

For one night only, this unique concert will be filled with intimate and funny behind-the scenes stories peppered with Rudetsky's encyclopedic knowledge of Broadway and mixed with incredible performances from Mueller's Broadway career and beyond!

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Andrés López 20th Anniversary of La Pelota de Letras

March 2 7:00 pm

Andrés López, pioneer of stand-up comedy in Colombia and winner of the “HOLA” Award in the category of “Outstanding Solo Performance”, comes to the Studebaker Theater with his renowned and award-winning monologue LA PELOTA DE LETRAS.

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Seven Thirty Theatre Presents Dreamgirls

March 29 – 30, 2025

Seven Thirty Theatre presents the iconic Tony Award-winning Broadway musical!

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Chicago Opera Theater Presents She Who Dared

June 3 – 8, 2025

A world premiere production, She Who Dared recenters the spotlight on the courageous women who helped desegregate the Montgomery bus system in the 1950s.

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