Catalyst Ranch’s
Creative Juice Blog
We love witnessing new ideas and new stories. It’s here at Catalyst Ranch, in the midst of objects and décor rich in history, that your imagination is stoked and something new is created. We’ve treasured the communities that have come here to make new ideas, stories and art. In honor of this year’s Women’s [...]
Any meeting is more enticing if you know someone’s bringing donuts. Fact. And that’s only the bare minimum application of the fact we all know: Food makes a gathering better. Food (and drink, if we're lucky!) accomplishes a lot: Food adds value for folks to physically arrive; Food gives you energy to keep up [...]
One of the best parts of being in the hospitality industry is personalizing that hospitality. It’s a great feeling to make folks feel welcomed and entertained; it's fulfilling on a whole other level to do it in a way that’s uniquely ours. You can’t get the Catalyst Ranch experience anywhere else. More than [...]
It’s no surprise we at Catalyst Ranch relish the announcement of Pantone’s Color of the Year. Vibrant color is, after all, a foundational design element for our spaces. This year, however, the Color of the Year hits a little different. Pantone has declared 2023 the year of ‘Viva Magenta,’ and since magenta is [...]
With the expansion of our footprint at 656 West Randolph Street to include not just Suite 4E but now also Suite 5E, we have effectively doubled our available meeting and event space in our beloved Haymarket Square building!. On the occasion of our 20th Anniversary Party earlier this month, guests were the first explorers [...]
Thanksgiving is days away. Chances are you’re in the middle of something you're responsible for on Thursday. If you’re attending "Friendsgiving", maybe you’ve baked the crust for a pie you’ll bring. If you’re heading to your cousin’s, you have ingredients bought and ready for your traditional green bean casserole. If you’re the one hosting festivities, [...]
This year we were fortunate to come into contact with Guitars Over Guns, a nonprofit organization empowering young people in Chicago—as well as Miami and Los Angeles—with music education and mentorship from music industry professionals. Naturally, we’re inspired by their mission of nurturing creative and artistic expression in this city's young minds. And with [...]
This Saturday, October 8, the spectacular Fiesta de Frida returns to our space, organized by the Women’s Justice League, whose mission is to combat domestic abuse and support abuse survivors. Since 2019 when the Fiesta de Frida was brought to Catalyst Ranch, we’ve been wowed by the positivity and community created by this cohort [...]
Photo by Michael Abramson Who throws the best parties? Who knows how to run a great meeting? Perhaps it’s you. Scratch that – It’s likely you. Go with us here… In previous Creative Juice posts, we’ve highlighted ideas from the book, Sticky Wisdom: How to Start a Creative Revolution at Work. While that [...]
There’s a cohort of music makers and event producers who are a monthly fixture at Catalyst Ranch, but you may be in the dark about them even if you keep tabs on our public events calendar. And that stealthy existence is one of the methodical puzzle pieces that Sofar Sounds has orchestrated to create [...]
