Please join us for a very special Exile and Fine Arts Building event!
On Friday, June 13th at 7:00pm central in Curtiss Hall (10th floor) of the Fine Arts Building, Exile MVP Keir Graff will discuss his new book, Chicago’s Fine Arts Building: Music, Magic, and Murder. Keir will be in conversation with Ronnie Frey!
We are super excited to finally have a book out about our building, written by one of our dear friends and fellow tenant of the Fine Arts Building, Keir Graff! The event is presented in partnership with Trope Publishing and Newcity.
Watch this short commercial for the book, posted by Tropes Publishing Co. I’m playing in my studio right at the beginning—and my playing is used throughout the video!
About the Chicago’s Fine Arts Building: Music, Magic, and Murder
Let Keir Graff take you inside Chicago’s Fine Arts Building—a building that hides worlds behind its doors.
Exploring the Fine Arts Building’s warren of hallways is like stepping into a time machine. It’s not a museum—it’s a place of work. The walls reverberate with timeless music. Sopranos soar up to the high notes as violin bows draw tunes from strings. Someone plays a piano so busily they must have twelve fingers. Dancers’ feet thud against wooden floors. A tuba burps out “Ride of the Valkyries” as the doors of the manually operated elevators provide percussive slams. And more quietly, behind closed doors, painters paint, writers write, and luthiers shave soft ribbons from billets of spruce.
In Chicago’s Fine Arts Building, celebrated writer and Fine Arts Building tenant Keir Graff takes readers behind the scenes of this cultural hub. Initially conceived as a space for artists’ studios, a home for the city’s working artists, the building was an immediate success, but the Great Depression brought a long, slow decline to the building. Graff explores the building’s history, its revitalization, and its cultural place in the city of Chicago. Featuring interviews with current tenants and access to the building’s archives, including historical photos and artifacts, and a foreword by bestselling author Gillian Flynn, Chicago’s Fine Arts Building sheds a new light on this storied building and its long history.
Other Chicago landmarks have more stunning architecture or are more perfectly restored, but none of them has aged so well—because in the Fine Arts Building, it’s the work that has been preserved. Two centuries have turned and its purpose remains the same: to provide artists and artisans space to pursue their callings, and community with other creatives, too, offering a living demonstration that something good happens when so many work so closely to each other. Which is not to say it’s always been easy. Whatever comes easily in the arts?
Keir Graff is the author or coauthor of fourteen novels and the editor of two anthologies. With Linda Joffe Hull under the pen name Linda Keir, he writes mysteries and thrillers about marriages in trouble; with James Patterson, he writes the MK’s Detective Club series for middle-grade readers. The former executive editor of Booklist, he is also the cofounder of Publishing Cocktails Chicago and the cohost of the Filmographers Podcast. An in-demand speaker and teacher, he provides writing advice and book recommendations in his free monthly newsletter, Graff Paper. He does his best writing in his studio on the eighth floor of the Fine Arts Building.
About the authors
Ronnie Frey is the visionary behind the popular Instagram account @doorwaysofchicago. What began with a spontaneous photo of a bright blue door in the UK has grown into a passion for capturing Chicago’s architectural treasures—especially its historic facades, hidden details, and character-filled doorways. His feed mixes vintage architecture with planes, trains, automobiles, and snapshots from his travels, offering a fresh look at the beauty all around us. Now based in the Fine Arts Building, Ronnie is inspired daily by the rich history around him—and continues to share that inspiration through his photography, tours, and thoughtful social media content creation for various brands and travel partners.
About this event
This is a free, in person event and registration is required. Please click on the registration link below. Keir will be happy to sign and personalize copies of his book after the event! Can’t make it to the event? Signed copies will be available after the event and we ship nationally.
