Luchtman’s feature documentary follows artists’ struggle to regain affordable work/live space

Repeatedly displaced by rising costs in communities they’ve helped popularize, Wicker Park artists, led by the Near NorthWest Arts Council, took a stand.

After years of development, they settled on a permanent site on Western Avenue, converting an ancient warehouse into affordable artists’ space. Then the flooding started.

In her in-progress documentary “Art House,” Kelly Luchtman follows NNWAC’s Acme Artists’ Community from its utopian early days through its ongoing troubles.

“It shows how there’s no such thing as paradise, and human nature often gets in the way of achieving your dreams,” Luchtman said.

Luchtman focuses on three of the 21 families occupying live/work units at Acme: married writers Batya and David Hernandez; musician Miriam Solon and her daughter, filmmaker Sarah Solon; and married couple, photographer Roberto Lopez and writer/performer Virginia Boyle.