UPDATE: Wow! Due to overwhelming response, this event is now sold out! You can still celebrate Record Store Day with our Arts District neighbors. Hearth and Hammer is releasing a Tortured Poet custom candle and serving up Swiftie inspired drinks by Viator Coffee (8 am - 11 am). Or join Kiss the Sky for live music by Noah Gabriel at 8:30 am and the School of Rock at 6 pm. 

Water Street Studios invites all Swifties to celebrate National Record Store Day with a listening party for the debut of Taylor Swift’s new album, The Tortured Poets Department, releasing just the day before! Please join us for bracelet making, cookie decorating, arts & crafts, photo station and of course listening to Taylor’s new album. This is an all-ages event.

Date: Saturday, April 20, 2024, 2-4pm.

Cost: $20 in advance, $25 at the door. SOLD OUT

In April we welcome Richard Deveau and Javier Chavira to the Dempsey Family Gallery and Joe Milosevich to the Kane County Magazine Gallery. This event is open to all and free to attend! Donations are greatly appreciated and go to support or mission.

Exhibition runs April 12th-May 5th.

Now hanging on the second floor! We are pleased to announce 90+ artists  from Batavia and the surrounding communities are represented in this exhibition. Participating artists submitted work themed around a woman or women they find inspiring, whether it be a family member or friend, person from history or even Mother Nature. Included is a collaborative mirror wall and a new Emerging Artist feature. Come meet many of the artists at the Opening Celebration on April 6th!

Exhibition runs March 16th-June 16th

This event is FREE to attend. Cash bar will be in the first floor gallery. While you’re here, make sure you stop by the Dempsey Gallery on the first floor for meet and great with exhibiting artists Jaime and Michael Foster.

Grab a mimosa from our cash bar and meet the artists behind the current exhibition “Fragile Tension”, Jaime & Michael Foster. This will be a casual, meet and greet style event, perfect to peruse the art and learn more about it from the artists themselves.

This event is FREE to attend. Cash bar for drinks and snacks. While you’re here, make sure you stop by the second floor for the Opening Celebration of the Community Gallery show “Telling Her Story”.

We are closed to the public today. Enjoy the holiday with those that mean the most to you!

Join The Batavia Public Art Initiative at the reception for our latest pop-up show, Rebirth, Saturday, March 16th from 4 – 6 pm at Bar Evolution Batavia! Appetizers provided, cash bar.

Can't make the party? The works of 14 talented artists will be on display March 5th - May 5th. 

"Rebirth" explores the concept of new beginnings and starting afresh; a theme often associated with growth, transformation, and renewal. This is your opportunity to showcase the beauty and power of rebirth and its significance in our lives.

Bar Evolution Batavia
27 North River Street
Batavia, IL 60510

Announcing Second Fridays in the Arts District

Water Street Studios has teamed up with our neighbors Kiss the Sky and Hearth & Hammer to create the Batavia Arts District! Come see us the Second Friday of each month for an immersive experience for the senses.

Water Street Studios

• Gallery Opening Reception, 6-9pm

  • Jaime & Michael Foster: Fragile Tension

  • Barry Messer: Xenomorphs

• Cash Bar

• Resident Artist and Clay Lab open to shop and talk

• FREE to attend. Donations greatly appreciated to support this and future events like it.

Kiss the Sky

• Shoop Dogs band performance 6:30-8:30pm

  • A female lead 4-piece band performing classic rock, blues, and modern rock with a powerful combo of soulful vocals and energetic guitar solos.

• Addie Cakes providing free mini cupcakes to show attendees (while supplies last!)

• Connecting doors to Water Street Studios will be open!

Hearth & Hammer

• Extended hours, open until 7pm

• Barry Sweets pop-up, a women-owned small business offering baked goods made from spent brewery grains to reduce waste.

• Annie Hex Tarot Readings

• Fernando’s Street Kitchen food truck out front from 6-9pm

In February we welcome Eric Rippert and Joseph Mayernik to the Dempsey Family Gallery and Randal Stringer to the Kane County Magazine Gallery. This event is open to all and free to attend! Donations are greatly appreciated and go to support or mission.

Exhibition runs Feb 9th-March 3rd.

Water Street Writers is a curated reading series featuring local authors from the suburbs of Chicago. Events are held quarterly in the Dempsey Family gallery. Doors open at 5pm, event begins at 5:30pm. Suggested donations of $5. All proceeds go to the featured authors, your support is much appreciated!

February’s featured authors are Heather Zenaty, Chris Gerrib, Vince Vieceli, and John Grenier! 

Want to be a reader? Learn how here. Submissions are open to any genre and all kinds of performance.

Sponsored by the Republic of Letters,

The main gallery is reserved for the Batavia City Council Retreat. School of Art classes will still run. Clay lab will remain open for subscribers and open studio hours.

Reserve the gallery for your next event here.

January Second Friday has been postponed to the fourth Friday, January 26th due to inclement weather. Mark your calendars and come out to see the Water Street Studio’s Artists’ Collective Exhibition! This event is open to all and free to attend! Donations are greatly appreciated and go to support or mission.

Exhibition runs Jan 12th-Feb4th.

Join us for live music as a part of our Sounds of the Studio Series! On Thursday, December 28th from 7-10pm we welcome The Luis Alcantar Trio to Water Street Studios. Tickets are $30 each and include one drink from the bar. Fancy Nancy's delicious charcuterie cups will be available for purchase and the Water Street bar will be selling drinks. All proceeds go to support our mission of making the arts accessible to the Fox Valley area and beyond.

Click HERE to get your tickets.

This month we celebrate our Resident Artist and Instructor community in addition to welcoming the Chicagoland 4x5 show.

Kick off your holiday shopping at this three day market, featuring hand crafted art and goods created by local artists and makers.

This year the event will span the entire northwest corner of the building, including the Dock at 150 1st Street, Hearth & Hammer, Kiss the Sky, an outpost location at Sturdy Shelter Brewing, and of course, Water Street Studios! Music, food, and interactive activities will all be available.

Live music schedule, brought to you by Kiss the Sky.

12pm- The Luxure Trio an accomplished, sophisticated Jazz ensemble whose influences run the gamut from Amad Jamal to Vince Guaraldi and Wayne Shorter

Kick off your holiday shopping at this three day market, featuring hand crafted art and goods created by local artists and makers.

This year the event will span the entire northwest corner of the building, including the Dock at 150 1st Street, Hearth & Hammer, Kiss the Sky, an outpost location at Sturdy Shelter Brewing, and of course, Water Street Studios! Music, food, and interactive activities will all be available.

Live music schedule, brought to you by Kiss the Sky

1pm- Noah Gabriel playing mostly original material influenced by Chris Whitley, Ben Harper, and Lucinda Williams

3pm- Roxy & Olivia Acoustic playing and interpreting a variety of artists including Fleetwood Mac and Dolly Parton, as well as more current artists like Modest Mouse and Paramore

Kick off your holiday shopping at this three day market, featuring hand crafted art and goods created by local artists and makers.

This year the event will span the entire northwest corner of the building, including the Dock at 150 1st Street, Hearth & Hammer, Kiss the Sky, an outpost location at Sturdy Shelter Brewing, and of course, Water Street Studios! Music, food, and interactive activities will all be available.

7pm- Chase Flanagan playing current indie and post punk music covers. Brought to you by Kiss the Sky

Learn more about the art and the artist! Michael Glascott will speak first in the Kane County Magazine gallery at 1pm followed by John Stanicek in the Dempsey Family gallery at 2pm.

This event is FREE to attend but donations are appreciated and go towards supporting our mission. Snacks and drinks available for purchase, complimentary coffee.

Stop by between 10 am - 12 pm during Batavia MainStreet's Batfest! We'll be hosting a FREE paper bag monster craft, handing out candies, and having a self-guided pumpkin seek-and-find activity throughout 160 S. Water Street.

Parents - this is the perfect stop if you want to have your kiddos enjoy the fun of downtown trick-or-treating but would like a little more play than candy.

Help us expand our clay lab by joining us for our first Clay Day! Shop ceramics made by our clay lab subscribers, watch demos in wheel throwing and hand building or join an interactive session. Grab a drink from the bar and a raffle ticket while you explore the gallery. Sign up for a class during Clay Day and get 10% off your registration. 

$10 entry fee. Additional fee for interactive sessions.

This month Resident Artists and Instructors Emy Krauspe and Carly Palmer will lead you through process based art projects inspired by the Pop Art movement! The art projects are appropriate for all ages, bring your friends and family!

This event has a suggested donation of $5 to help support this and future similar programming.

RSVP not required but appreciated! RSVP here.

Have you been to Community Drop-in Day yet? This month Resident Artists and Instructors Emy Krauspe and Carly Palmer will lead you through process based art projects inspired by the work of Andy Warhol! The art projects are appropriate for all ages, bring your friends and family!

This event has a suggested donation of $5 to help support this and future similar programming.

RSVP not required but appreciated! RSVP here.

Andy Warhol - The American Dream

Diana Martinez will share the background of Andy Warhol and his journey as a first-generation immigrant from Carpatho-Rusyn roots, to living in industrial tenements in the outskirts of Pittsburgh, to an Iconic Superstar in NYC. Martinez will explain his prolific journey and how he manifested into the American Dream. In addition, she will give you an inside sneak peek into the blockbuster Warhol exhibition coming this summer to the McAninch Arts Center and Cleve Carney Museum of Art. Bio

Diana Martinez is the Executive Director of Warhol: Portfolios in Pop, and Director of the McAninch Arts Center. Diana has over 25 years in entertainment industry and has directed over 40 musical theatre productions and has been at the helm of iconic Chicago Area Entertainment organizations like Pheasant Run Theatre, the Paramount Theatre in Aurora and The Second City in Chicago. Diana served on the board for the Chicago Cultural Council for two terms and has her BFA from the University of Illinois. Currently she serves on the Board of the DuPage Convention and Visitors Bureau, is Chair of Arts DuPage, serve on the board of the DuPage Foundation, and life-long resident of Glen Ellyn.

This event is FREE to attend! Let us know you’re coming here.

Meet Jeff Stevenson. With more than 30 years of experience as a practicing artist, writer, professor, and curator, Stevenson is currently the Director and Curator for the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park and the Visual Arts Gallery at Governors State University. His current exhibition Manhood: Hard to earn, easy to lose is made up of oil portraits combined with other objects, and explores the cultural constructs around masculinity and the limitations placed on the human experience by societal demands and rules.

Come by for further insights into Stevenson and his representational works!

Coffee and cookies will be served. This event has a suggested donation of $5 to help support this and future similar programming.

RSVP not required but appreciated! RSVP here.

Have you been to Community Drop-in Day yet? This month Resident Artists and Instructors Emy Krauspe and Carly Palmer will lead you through process based art projects inspired by the work of Keith Haring. The art projects are appropriate for all ages, bring your friends and family!

This event has a suggested donation of $5 to help support this and future similar programming.

RSVP not required but appreciated! RSVP here.