FAR Center for Contemporary Arts — Attraction in Bloomington

My wife and I recently got married at FAR in May 2019. The venue is wonderful, they’ve renovated an old building, giving it a clean, modern look, but they managed to retain a lot of the old brickwork and aesthetics that give it a charming and unique feel. We were married outside in the deck area, and then opened up the art gallery, atrium, and cleared the deck chairs for a nice cocktail hour. The art gallery up front gave folks a chance to cool off in the A/C and look at some really unique artwork and meet new people. We took most of our wedding photos outside the venue against the brick walls, and the bride and I snuck off to take a few pictures around Bloomington for some unique shots. We came back to the venue and kicked off the reception, we had 72 guests and a large dance floor with DJ, and there was still PLENTY of space, we could have fit 100 easily while still maintaining the same layout. The large glass garage doors allow in lots of natural light, and we didn’t have to turn on lights through the whole event, we danced into the night as it slowly got darker and it was lovely. This venue is amazing and if you are considering a wedding in Bloomington you need to check out FAR. The MVP of the evening though was FAR’s day of wedding planner, Valarie Gasparovic. Valarie worked with us in the weeks leading up to the event to talk through ideas, provide recommendations, and make sure all the details were taken care of. Valarie ensured all of the moving pieces of the wedding meshed, and made sure all of the vendors knew what was going on, when, and how. Valarie was fun, extremely responsive, helpful, and kept us sane throughout the experience. I can’t recommend Valarie’s services enough, she made the wedding so special and kept us all from losing our minds in those stressful pre-wedding moments. My wife and I truly believe our wedding was the best day of our lives, and for that we are grateful to FAR, Valarie, and our friends and family for celebrating with us. It was amazing experience, I cannot give high enough praise to Valarie and the FAR...

We celebrated the welcome reception of our wedding at FAR on October 5th, 2018.

The goal of our wedding was to feature Bloomington and make all the events walkable. We also wanted our guests to be able to enjoy Indiana’s incredible fall weather, but there really wasn’t a venue downtown with an outdoor space. A restaurant would have come with a pricey bill, and we also had to consider the chance of rain. It was two months before my wedding that I came across FAR on Instagram, and inquired about the Theater, their largest venue space.

We immediately liked FAR’s airy contemporary space, and the option to open the large garage-style doors. Our wedding was going to be very romantic, so we were looking for a minimalist space as a contrast. FAR reminded us of an art loft. We decorated in clean white, and made the vintage vinyl records, bar, and gorgeous food our main features. The catering was provided by Sazon Mexican Cuisine and our friends were the bartender and DJ; it worked out great.

By happy coincidence our event was scheduled on the same day as Bloomington’s monthly Gallery Walk. We did not have any issues whatsoever sharing the space with a simultaneous event, actually we embraced it, and our guests made the walk part of their evening. When our event ended, choosers strolled downtown to have drinks at the bars on the square.

Our experience with FAR was great from beginning to end. The entire staff was so helpful and proactive. They were able to anticipate and deliver on every one of our needs, which made the whole experience stress-free for us. The price for the space and service was very fair, and includes use of their tables and chairs, too. I highly recommend FAR to you for your special event; this space is very versatile and can be easily adapted to any type of event.

It’s very Bloomingon.

We hosted a big work conference at FAR and couldn't have asked for a more beautiful setting! The building looks wonderful and serves as a perfect backdrop for any type of event. Our conference had around 150 people in attendance and there was plenty of space. The room we held our presentations in (Theater) worked incredibly well. We could see everyone, the setup was perfect and allowed all of our guests to see the presentations while feeling included in the ongoing discussion. We used the entire space so we were lucky enough to have some of our meetings in the lovely, naturally-lit Library as well as the Gallery which had a current art installation that added a unique, artsy twist into our otherwise professional environment.

Not only was the space incredible, but the folks who run it are so sweet and helpful. They really made sure we had everything we needed and were readily available for any problems that may have come up. I'm sure there are plenty of people who make the management of that space possible but we had the pleasure of working with Abby and Chaz. They both aided me in anything I needed while setting up each day for our event, and Chaz even took some photos to send our way for the event newsletter.

I truly can't say enough how great everything was. FAR is a fantastic event space here in Bloomington and I look forward to working with them again...