The building where celebrated sculptor Richard Hunt once stored his collection and ran a satellite studio is about to reopen its doors to the public. The Richard Hunt Studio Center at 258 Territorial Road in Benton Harbor will hold its grand opening on Saturday, November 7, with art, music and food filling the space Hunt first opened in 1995.
Hunt, a renowned Chicago artist, opened the satellite studio in 1995 and used it for several galleries as well as storage for his collection, according to wsjm.com. When Hunt died in 2023, he left the 20,000-square-foot building to the Krasl Art Center, the same outlet reports. The nonprofit now describes the property as the former satellite studio of the American sculptor, per Krasl Art Center.
Krasl officially received the Benton Harbor studio at a special event and open house on August 9, 2023, according to a press release from the organization. At the time, Krasl said it would engage in a master planning process to determine the building's highest and best use and that no immediate changes would occur at the Territorial Road address while Hunt's operations were consolidated in Chicago over the following two years, the release states.
Gallery Space, Exhibits and a Garage Turned Event Hall
The wsjm.com report, first covered locally by Moody on the Market, notes that Krasl has so far updated about one-quarter of the sprawling building for the new studio center. The finished portion will include gallery space, an exhibition about Richard Hunt, the Benton Harbor community and the arts, plus a garage space repurposed as a workshop, concert hall and event venue. Krasl's Tami Fauver described that mix of uses, the station reports.
The center's own site lays out a phased approach to programming. The first phase will focus on community programming and exhibitions, according to richardhuntstudiocenter.org, with a later phase envisioned to bring courses in welding and woodworking as pathways to the arts and trades. That trajectory already has a head start: the center launched its first multi-week youth program, Fashion as Sculpture, on September 22, 2025, a 12-week after-school program for students ages 13 to 17 from Benton Harbor and St. Joseph, according to wmta.org.
What's Planned for Opening Day
Festivities on November 7 will include free family photos from 4 to 6 p.m., with a backdrop set up and the photos shared with participating families afterward, the station's report notes. From 6 to 8 p.m., organizers are holding a public reception, rounding out a day built around art, music and food for the whole family.
Krasl Art Center says it aims to raise $250,000 to fully open the studio center to the public in 2026 and reports it has raised $50,000 toward that goal so far, per the organization's own project page. The broader push comes as Krasl's Art Fair and related activities were credited in a 2022 economic impact study with generating $4.9 million in annual activity in Berrien County and supporting 45 jobs, according to the prnewswire.com release.
A Street Name and a Local Honor
Local officials have also moved to mark Hunt's connection to the city. The wsjm.com report states that the Benton Harbor City Commission approved designating the area of Territorial Road as Richard Hunt Way this past week. That followed an earlier report from the same outlet indicating the full commission had not yet acted on the proposed name change and could take it up at its next meeting. Separately, a city proclamation previously declared Richard Hunt an honorary resident and designated April 24 as Richard Hunt Day in Benton Harbor, according to a document from the City of Benton Harbor.
