Stage 773 hosts immersive art exhibit WHIM

CHICAGO (CBS) -- There is a new immersive art experience open to visitors in Chicago. Tickets for the Whim exhibit are now available at Stage 773 in Lakeview.

It's an art display consisting of cocktails and various unique displays created by about 100 artists.

"It's essentially an artistic playground that combines all different art forms from found art to painting to graffiti to sculpture and more," said Stage 773 executive director Jill Valentine.

The exhibit features several different rooms, each under the overarching theme of "Time is our most precious gift."

"We've done this in phases. So we started with an immersive cocktail bar, which involves our lobby of second chances, which we say, 'One man's trash is another man's treasure.' Something that has been thrown away can be beautiful again," Valentine said.

The exhibit includes a "Graffiti Space" which mimics a Chicago alley. Some of the city's best graffiti artists were brought in to paint the walls, and visitors are given a chance to "Make Your Mark" by adding their own graffiti to the space.

"One of my favorite things is watching people walk through the space and inside the space for the first time. Sometimes they stop, and they kind of look around, and their eyes light up. I feel like every person has some creative in them, and some kind of some artsy-fartsy thing in them, and I think when people walk in, it kind of hits that tone with them," Valentine said.

Another space, called "Caves," focuses on self-reflection.

"We like people to come in, and relax, and self-reflect about some of the monsters we create in our own lives, and what a waste of time that is," Valentine said.

"One of the coolest things about the project is you give and you get all of these artists around you, and you start talking about the creative concept of the whole overall piece," Valentine added. "This is not one vision. There are so many people that are involved in this, and it's only better when you get all of the visions together and everyone's input on the table."

Whim is open to the public at Stage 773 every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. You can get tickets at stage773.com/whim.