Artists facing eviction from their Carnegie Hall studio space are taking their fight to court, asking a judge to block the music venue from forcing them to move out.

The tenants filed a lawsuit yesterday against the Carnegie Hall Corporation and the city of New York in State Supreme Court in Manhattan in which they ask the court to declare that their leases should be renewed.

The conflict began May 21, when the corporation announced that the leases of the tenants, who live in the Studio Towers above Carnegie Hall, would not be renewed, allowing the venue to renovate the space to use for education programs.

Carnegie Hall began eviction proceedings last month, prompting tenants to meet with local politicians, as The New York Sun reported on Wednesday.

The tenants’ lawsuit appears to hinge on a rent-control law that says a landlord cannot evict a tenant in a rent-controlled apartment unless the landlord is seeking to demolish the tenant’s building. The artists contend in their suit that Carnegie Hall’s renovation plans constitute a gut rehabilitation rather than a full-scale demolition. Only an “actual razing of the structure” would qualify as a demolition, the suit says.

Spokesmen for Carnegie Hall did not return a call for comment. The city’s law department has not yet received the legal papers, a spokeswoman, Laura Postiglione, said.