Lorado Taft Midway Studios, Historical artist studio complex at University of Chicago, United States.
Lorado Taft Midway Studios is an art complex on the University of Chicago campus, made up of a Victorian house and former barns that were converted into studios and workshops. The complex is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and recognized as a National Historic Landmark.
Lorado Taft established the studios on campus in 1906, combining his own artistic practice with teaching. After he died in 1936, the university took over the site, and it was later designated a National Historic Landmark.
The name honors Lorado Taft, one of the most recognized American sculptors of his time, who both worked and taught here. Visitors today can still walk around the same buildings where he and his students produced large-scale works together.
The complex sits within the University of Chicago campus and is easiest to reach on foot from the surrounding neighborhood. Some areas are reserved for university use, so it is worth checking in advance which parts are open to the public.
Taft called the group of artists and students who worked alongside him here the "Fraternity of American Sculptors," an informal community with no fixed rules. This open way of working attracted women at a time when many art schools still denied them entry.
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