Chicago Facility Provides a Haven for Women Artists : Institutions: The Three Arts Club is the sole survivor of five such clubs that gave those who came to the big city an inexpensive place to stay.

CHICAGO — The days of donning white gloves for formal high teas are long gone at the Three Arts Club women’s residence hall.

The teas were replaced by casual coffeehouse performances. Residents, once limited to those pursuing the original “three arts” of music, painting and drama, now may study architecture or art therapy, photography or graphic design, fashion or literature.

But women still come here with the same need that prompted the house to open 80 years ago: a cheap, safe place to live in an often forbidding city.

“When I came to the Three Arts Club, I was here for the first time in the United States,” said Bibiana Suarez, who came from Puerto Rico to the Three Arts Club in 1980. She stayed for two years.

“It was my first time in a huge city,” said Suarez, who now is an assistant art professor at DePaul University in Chicago. “It was my first winter, my first time seeing snow. It was an exciting and terrifying time for me, and the Three Arts Club is a very nurturing place, very safe.”

Chicago’s Three Arts Club is the sole survivor of five such clubs founded in London, Paris, New York and Cincinnati.

Much of the history of the clubs has been lost over time. But sketchy accounts indicate that the Chicago club was founded by a woman named Gwethalyn Jones, whose father--a Chicago zinc manufacturer--gave her the building as a birthday gift.

“We have a history chest with some documents and minutes of the residents’ meetings,” said Nancy Moore, club executive director. “It’s fascinating. For example, in 1921 there’s a notation that Robert Frost stopped by to read some of his poetry at one of the teas and Carl Sandburg just happened to be with him.”

Chicago’s Three Arts Club nearly suffered the same fate as the other clubs. In the early 1980s the residence housed only 40% of its capacity and the board of directors wanted to close it.

But the students launched a campaign, inviting the public and media to a showcase of their talents to show the importance of the club, says Caroline Ash, a board member since 1979.

“The artists displayed their work and the singers and dancers performed,” Ash said. “We brought the Three Arts Club to the attention of the community. It really kept the club open and the tradition alive.”

Today, the residence thrives and operates at its capacity of 110 women.

Residents of the Three Arts Club pay from $445 to $480 a month for room and board in a neighborhood where studio apartments alone often rent for twice as much. The club is listed in housing guides at many of the city’s art schools and receives most referrals from those institutions.

“For students who are coming from around the world or from less metropolitan areas, to come to Chicago, find an apartment that is affordable and in a good neighborhood is difficult,” Moore said.

The four-story brick building, constructed in 1914, features an elevated stage and sitting room with two grand pianos. First-floor areas often are hired out for performances. The residents live on floors above.

“Where else can you walk downstairs and listen to the Chicago Ensemble?”asked Sheri Workman of Joliet, a resident studying fine arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.