Evanston Art Center Gets Extension on Harley Clarke Lease

The Evanston Art Center got a smaller than hoped for reprieve from the Evanston City Council this week, which voted to give the organization a year to vacate its rented space in the Harley Clarke mansion. That's more than 240 days its lease requires, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Last week, the city’s Human Services Committee voted to terminate the center’s lease. At that meeting, executive director Nora Diedrich asked the city to waive the 240-day eviction clause and give the art center two years to transition out of the building. While strategic planning identified that the building could not accommodate the art center’s ambitious expansive plan, it would still take two years to locate and renovate a suitable space and move there.

Diedrich made her case again Monday night at the City Council meeting, the Daily Northwestern reports. The council granted the extension so that the center could complete its fall programming in the Harley Clarke space.

An online petition started earlier this month, which now has more than 2,500 signatures, urged the city to allow the art center to stay in place for two more years.

According to Evanston Now, many members of the public read supportive comments from the petition aloud at the meeting.

For more Evanston news, sign up for our free newsletter, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.