The Lincoln Association for Traditional Arts, Third Chair Chamber Players and Angels Theatre Company will stay together as a nonprofit organization, but will stage events in different locations for the 2009-10 performing arts season.

The three performing arts organizations - members of the nonprofit Loft Project - were in search of a new home after electing not to renew their lease at The Loft at The Mill for financial reasons. The lease expired Tuesday.

The Loft at The Mill is a 10,000-square foot space on the third floor of the building on Eighth and P streets owned by Stacy Partners. It has been home to Loft Project members for five years.

The Lincoln Association for Traditional Arts will present a seven-concert series at the 7th Street Loft on the third floor of Cornhusker Place at Seventh and K streets. It was the former home of Loft Project members before they moved to the space above The Mill. Its season begins Sept. 11.

Third Chair Chamber Players will present its eight-day, four-concert season Sept. 11 and 13 in studios at Nebraska Educational Telecommunications, 1800 N. 33rd St.

The Angels Theatre Company will begin its season with Sam Shepard's "True West," Aug. 12-22, at The Outback at Barry's Bar and Grill at Ninth and Q streets The groups were unable to find one location that met all their needs, said David Buntain, Loft Project board member and treasurer.

They wanted to stay together, "but because of a need for people to get seasons announced we had to go this route," he said.

The groups will continue to share resources, including equipment now in storage. He said they will keep looking for an affordable space to suit their needs.

"We need to encourage performing arts to collaborate," he said. "We plan to have some meetings later on this to see if we can do that and to find a space that we can occupy."

The Loft at The Mill became too expensive for Loft Project after it lost TADA Productions in 2008 as one of its members.

TADA, which had used The Loft at The Mill more than any other group, broke away to open its own theater in the Haymarket.

TADA's departure, coupled with a recession that has limited charitable donations the Loft Project used for operating costs, made signing a new lease impractical, Buntain said.

The Stacy Partners will not seek a new tenant for the space and instead will expand Modern Arts Midwest, which shared the third floor with The Loft at The Mill, according to Larry Roots, a visual artist who is one of the building's owners and has a studio on the second floor.

The partnership is painting The Loft's black walls white. Roots said he hopes to have the space back open by the end of July.

"It's a bit of a harried time for us," he said.

Reach Jeff Korbelik at 473-7213 or jkorbelik@journalstar.com.