WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

Cultural heroes help solidify one’s work and purpose. It is not that they provide vocal assurance. Rather, it is their pursuit of their own endeavors that gives rise to one’s own sense of security.

Culture Catalysts is a monthly series that celebrates and provides a platform for Chicagoans at the epicenter of the cultural scene. Listen to Beth Kligerman, Director of Talent & Talent Development at Second City, and Dylan Rice, Program Director of Creative Industries-Music at the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events in a conversation about the mechanics of cultivating talent and building infrastructures that allow and encourage artists to remain in Chicago.

Daisey is currently in Chicago for his piece American Utopias, which opens at the MCA Thursday, co-presented by the Chicago Humanities Festival.

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago announced Wednesday that Helen Zell and her husband Sam Zell, the real estate mogul, of the Zell Family Foundation are donating $10 million to the museum, which will go to the creation of the new Zell Fund for Artistic Excellence. 

 The artists Jeanne-Claude and Christo are best known for The Gates, the billowing, bright orange arches they installed by the thousands in New York’s Central Park in 2005. But in 1969 they were still struggling to make their mark. Their artistic quest led them to Chicago, where they clashed with officials, stunned the public and made art history.

Historically the still life has been considered a “debased genre” – less important, say, than the portrait or the landscape.

Editor's Note: Body and soul unite in two upcoming dance performances. Each encourages audiences to re-imagine the body in motion. Lucia Mauro shared her take with Eight Forty-Eight:In dance, the body is a given.