By Tess Kenny / Naperville Sun
Ahead of an anticipated fall 2025 launch, Naperville’s Illinois Conservatory for the Arts has offered a glimpse into what its programming and amenities could entail in a year’s time.
Last week, the private performing and visual arts school previewed its vision for community members, potential students and possible donors at an intimate — and interactive — open house event.
An evening of singing, dancing and live performances, the open house served as an introduction to the long-anticipated school, which has been in the works for more than three years but is inching closer to becoming a reality, conservatory officials say.
“It’s about bringing people into our dream space,” Dylan Ladd, co-founder and executive director of Illinois Conservatory for the Arts, said at the event. “(We’re) showcasing what we really hope to build out when we … open the school.”
First broached in 2021, the conservatory was born out of a desire to make it more accessible for young artists to pursue an advanced arts education in Illinois outside of Chicago, according to Ladd. When complete, the idea is that it will offer both high-level arts training and a rigorous academic program to students all in one place.
Over the past few years, those behind the venture — a team of more than a dozen artists and educators — have been in the throes of planning and fundraising to bring the idea to fruition.
To date, the school’s still a work in progress. It needs to secure more funding before it can set an official opening date. But while it figures out financing, the founders have their sights set on what exactly they want it to look like and where they want to operate once fully fledged.
The reception took place where the conservatory tentatively intends to open: a 20,000-square-foot facility just off Route 59 at 1323 Bond St. Though not officially leased, the Bond Street location is ICA’s hopeful home should the organization accrue adequate funds to make it happen, Ladd says.
“Where we are as an organization is that if we can raise enough money so it makes sense to move forward with a lease, this is where we want to be,” he said. “This is where we want to call home. I think we’re past the shopping phase now.”
To that end, attendees were brought into a blueprint version of the school.
Throughout the building, which used to house a call center, an outline of where various classrooms and amenities would go was laid out on the ground in blue painter’s tape. Renderings of the school were also scattered around the space, including designs for a dance studio, music rooms, a media lab and a black box theater.
To really drum up imagination, ICA’s open house supplied attendees the opportunity to try their hand at what students would be doing when doors open. There were three “classrooms” — essentially interactive stations — where open house goers could try painting a canvas, displaying their vocal chops in karaoke or learning a line dance.
In making the night interactive, they wanted to “really bring people down to the roots of being an artist” and reconnect them with “the joy of just singing (and dancing) and not caring what’s happening around you,” Ladd said.
Even before they passed through classrooms, attendees Joshua Sanchez and his mom Christina were all smiles as they took in the space.
From the Naperville area, the Sanchezes have been aware of — and involved in — ICA since its inception, they said. They are one of many families who have taken part in alternative community programming the school started offering a few years ago as it waited to find a permanent home for its operations. Supplemental programming has ranged from week-long intensive camps to after-school classes using rented space around Naperville.
Joshua Sanchez, 15, took his first intensive program three years ago. It was a “life-changing moment,” he said. Aspiring to be an actor when he’s older, Joshua reveled in the opportunity and has returned to subsequent programs.
He and his mom attended last week’s open house to show their backing and gratitude for ICA’s mission, they said.
“We’re here to support everyone because they’ve done so much for us,” Christina Sanchez said. “This is where (Joshua’s) heart is at … and I pray and hope this goes well and the school gets finished and filled.”
Other young artists were also in attendance last week. As an added peek into its work, organizers arranged for several students from its after-school and intensive programs to give a handful of live performances. The students sang snippets from musicals, performed monologues and even played improv acting games with attendees.
They were glad to help with the event, they said, knowing it was one step closer to seeing school aspirations come to life.
“We’ve all just thought of it as a dream, right? But now seeing the space and everyone come together, it really shows that they’ve done it,” performer Addie Troupis said.
Troupis, 12, has attended two intensive camps. Her forte is acting and singing, she said. Though she describes herself as relatively new to ICA, she’s excited to keep doing more, she said, especially since she and other conservatory students have started to build a rapport after seeing each other time and time again.
“We’re built a family here, and it’s really cool to be able to go somewhere and be with that family again,” 15-year-old Alexandria Danley said.
Conservatory founders are aiming to decide by next February or March whether the Bond Street facility “really is home,” Ladd said. That decision will come down to fundraising.
“Fingers crossed that between now and February, we can raise some good money and make it happen,” he said.
Should plans go through, ICA would be positioned to open with an inaugural class of students next fall.
