WBEZ | All Things Considered

Week of Art coming to Chicago in Fall 2013

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 14:14:00 -0600

Expo Chicago, the city's latest effort at an international art fair, took place over a few days last September.

But for their second go-round, organizers are thinking more is more.

They've announced plans to wrap their fall art fair into a week-long festival of art and culture: Expo Art Week.

Expo Art Week will take place September 16-22 in 2013. Expo Chicago will host its vernissage at Navy Pier on September 19 and run through the 22.

Tony Karman is the Director of Expo Chicago. He says a week-long art festival will meet the expectations of art patrons everywhere.

"They're coming for the art fairs," Kalman said. "But they're also coming to experience our great theatre, our great dance, our restaurants. That's really the takeaway for the international art collector or art enthusiasts."

Also on board for Expo Art Week is Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Choose Chicago, which is the tourism and marketing wing of the city.

Kalman says he hasn't asked city officials for outright financial support, but does say it is a "huge facilitator" in terms of "organizational and messaging" support.

Karman has also snagged some of Chicago's blue ribbon cultural institutions as collaborators.

Participants include: The Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Goodman Theatre, and Joffrey Ballet.

Karman promises there will be many more institutions on the list come September.

In far shorter supply, at least so far, are details about how the art week would actually work.

Organizers did say that ACRE, a local art collective and residency, will lead tours of "alternative and apartment based galleries" in neighborhoods like Garfield Park.

And some participants are cooking up other ideas.

Gail Kalver is Executive Director of River North Chicago Dance Company. She hopes her troupe will put on performances at the Expo, or she may just send dancers in some of the company's costumes.

"There’s a particular piece that has a huge red train," Kalver said. "We have some beautiful costumes and I think they would go well at some of the public events."

Spectacle is a draw, but so is the prospect of money.

Northern Trust, which helped fund the Expo last year, has now signed on as the event’s leading sponsor.

"Frankly arts and culture is something for our clients are very interested in," said Steve "Mac" MacLellan, Executive VP of Wealth Management. "It’s a way for us to give back and is recognized by our clients as well."

Launching a new art week right as Chicago's fall art season gets underway means an even busier cultural calendar for many locals.

But Gail Kalver of River North Dance Chicago isn't worried. "I'm the Pollyanna. I think it is a really extraordinary opportunity to be able to highlight your group before you open your season. So I think any arts organization would welcome being part of it."

New art exhibit explores the century-long connection between Picasso and Chicago

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 14:20:00 -0600

Pablo Picasso never came to Chicago - never even set foot in the United States. But in 1967 Picasso gave Chicago an incredible gift: that fifty foot, 162 ton sculpture (or giant slide, depending on your age and point of view) in the heart of Daley Plaza.

The architects developing the plaza (then known as the Chicago Civic Center) sought Picasso out for the job. After all, by that point he was firmly established as the great artist of the 20th century. Picasso accepted, though apparently he rarely did commissions and he wouldn't take any money for the work.

Of course not all Chicagoans considered it a gift, disagreeing then (and now) over what the work actually represents, and whether it's more eyesore than work of art.

As big an event as that unveiling was, it wasn't Chicago's introduction to Picasso. A century ago he was busy helping to create another art controvery here, when the 1913 Armory Show came to town.

The show, a landmark in modern art history, essentially introduced Americans to European avant garde art. It was exhibited in New York and Boston, but Chicago was the only place that put it in an actual museum, rather than a temporary space.

By doing so, the Art Institute of Chicago became the first museum to ever show Picasso – and other modern artists – in America.

That historic milestone, as well as the ensuing relationship between Picasso and Chicago, is the subject of the Art Institute's new show Picasso and Chicago, which opens February 20 and runs through May 12.

The Armory Show was controversial wherever it went. Art enthusiasts expecting the usual true-to-life landscapes or still lives were a bit taken aback by the angled planes and other experiments in works by Marcel Duchamp, Henri Matisse and Picasso.

Douglas Druick, the President of the Art Institute of Chicago, says Chicagoans had a range of reactions: enthusiasm, excitement and outrage.

"I mean I think there was a bit of theatre about it," Druick said. "They knew it was going to be controversial. There was big attendance, some 200,000 people in 1913, that’s still a big audience. It’s interesting because students at the School of the Art Institute were more conservative than the collectors and indeed some of the trustees. And there’s a moment in time when they burn Matisse in effigy on the steps of the Art Institute. So it’s an exhibition that really got people riled up."

The Picasso in Chicago show includes a handful of works from the 1913 Armory show – some still in their original frames.

But the bulk of the show is a vast survey of Picasso's output, spanning his earliest to latest periods. On exhibit you'll find paintings from most of his periods, drawings, etchings, sculptures and ceramics. The show's a testament to his incredible artistic output, but also to the Art Institute's significant holdings. There are over 250 works on display, most of which come from their 400-plus collection of Picasso.

Curator Stephanie D'Alessandro said viewing disparate works side by side was revealing.

"You have the chance to see a truly remarkable mind, grappling with, challenging the ideas in his head and pushing beyond them," D'Alessandro said, "In a way that still today, you know a hundred years after some of these works were made, is completely thrilling."

If the show is revealing of Picasso, it also helps lay bare a fascinating story about Chicago and the city's early connection to modern art.

The Armory Show may have shocked some but it also activated a number of collectors, including some who were already collecting Picasso.

D'Alessandro told me the story of attorney Arthur Jerome Eddy. He helped bring the Armory Show to Chicago and wrote the first book on modern art published in the United States: Cubism and Post Impressionism.

D'Alessandro says Picasso's early period - the so-called Blue Period - was especially appealing to Chicagoans, with its "exaggerated forms, evocative mood and beautiful palate."

Many of the works Chicagoans collected eventually made their way to the Art Institute.

But D'Alessandro also thinks thinks there is a natural affinity between Picasso and Chicagoans that has to do with our shared modern sensibilities.

"I think there’s a modern spirit that Picasso has, that sort of boldness of his work, I think must have appealed to Chicagoans who had a grander vision for their city, as they began to move into the 20th century," D'Alessandro said. "Our architect is a good example of that same bold vision that Picasso had for his work."

See for yourself if that affinity between artist and city still exists: Picasso and Chicago opens February 20 and runs through May 12th.

You can follow Alison on Twitter @wbezacuddy or Facebook.

Abraham Lincoln gets an app!

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 16:26:00 -0600

In the 21st century there's only one appropriate way to celebrate Lincoln’s birthday - with a smart-phone app of course.

Carla Knorowski is CEO of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield. She was at the AT&T store on Michigan Avenue in Chicago today to introduce the museum's new "Abe App".

Watched over by a Lincoln impersonator, she demonstrated some of the app's features, including a Lincoln quiz and a virtual tour of his home.

Sample questions in the quiz included:

"Booker T. Washington thought Lincoln’s personal battles helped him what?"

Out of three possible answers, Knorowski deliberately chose the wrong answer: A) Get in shape. The right one was C) relate to other people.

As you play the quiz, a clock's tick tock winds down the time. The sound comes from an actual clock in the Lincoln and Herndon law office in Springfield, Illinois.

The app is free, and was developed in partnership with AT&T, which has already apparently donated one hundred thousands dollars to the museum to help with their Lincoln "digitization project".

Chicagoans are also finding other reasons to celebrate Abe.

Eric Washington chalked it up to local pride. "I’ll be honest it’s really, really cool to have someone from Illinois to have made such great strides in American history."

Outside on Michigan Avenue, Pete Stacker says we don’t celebrate Lincoln enough.

"He gets some credit but not as much credit in history for what he accomplished in really such a short period of time," Stacker said.

Many mentioned Steven Spielberg's recent film for having ramped up the "Lincoln effect." Carla Knorowski said she thinks Lincoln is actually "the nation's number one export."

Theater Oobleck turns 25

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 09:00:00 -0600

Theater Oobleck has been creating strange plays about strange people for 25 years now.

At this stage of the game, the troupe and their productions generally get a good critical reception, whether they open in Chicago or elsewhere (their plays have been produced in places as far-flung as Houston, Los Angeles, London and Helsinki).

But founding member and playwright Mickle Maher says it wasn't always all hearts and roses. Back in the day, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, getting started was rough going. Maher likens it to a boxer with his teeth knocked down his throat – a defeat on the verge of disaster.

Still, the company figured it out. Their first play did succeed. And Oobleck found its identity.

"It was the first time I really thought we can do this, we can pull this off," Maher said. "We are a gang, we’re a group, we’re ready to go."

Core members of the Chicago-based troupe (13 in all) create plays that mainly take their cues from other artists and/or their works of art: The hunchback of Victor Hugo's novel, the music of Beethoven, famed lover Casanova.

But each one gets the Oobleck treatment.

Maher describes it as "making fun of great works or tearing them apart or having people talk about them in ways that are insane or wrong or putting them through the filter of a plot that sort of abuses them in some way is interesting and fun for people who are interested in those works."

But beyond just fun, Oobleck creates works that feel emotionally true, and take on universal themes.

Mahler and Mark Messing's opera, The Hunchback Variations, features said bell ringer and Ludwig Van Beethoven arguing over an elusive sound in a Chekhov play. Obscure to be sure, but it's also a revealing and fascinating take on creativity and collaboration. And despite the pedantic setup, it's a work I found frequently moving.

Oobleck has also made fresh fare out of 19th-century poetry in their ongoing series Baudelaire in a Box, the work of members Dave Buchen and Chris Schoen, along with other performers.

Oobleck's current show There Is A Happiness That Morning Is explores middle age, and middle marriage, and death.

The play debuted in Chicago in 2011. It centers on Ellen and Bernard, a long-married pair of academics. After a night of public passion, they find themselves in the midst of a professional and personal crisis.

To make sense of it all, they turn to their muse: poet William Blake.

And at first, the play moves along as you might expect. They both recite poetry. They both also analyze poetry. But then another character enters the classroom - and along comes a fight scene.

Maher said after writing a play about "very repressed" characters (George W. Bush, John Kerry and Jim Lehrer, who star in his play The Strangerer, sort of a mash-up of the Camus novel and our own existential format, the presidential debate), he wanted to write about wilder emotional fare, like love and sex.

"It was important to me that the characters be passionate about their subject matter. And anybody who's ever had a Blake instructor or professor, those guys - and they’re almost always guys (laughs) they’re always weird old guys – are always very passionate, very strange people."

But to take the strange and make it achingly familiar requires work. And that’s where Oobleck’s unconventional though rigorous approach comes in.

Oobleck plays have no director. And actors have the final say on line-reads.

"The playwright is definitely the chief lobbyist for his or her own work," Maher said. "But they have to lobby and petition directly to the actors, and the actors have to directly try to engage the playwright. And so those two fundamental artistic forces in the theater are hooking horns and working things out in a face-to-face manner."

Oobleck also benefits by facing off with its audience – long before the curtain rises on opening night. During rehearsals, the cast invites so-called “outside eyes” – friends and strangers – to come watch them perform and give feedback.

Maher acknowledged the process can be trying. But as he said, "It is in fact what every theater maker and theater artist has to eventually grapple with. Because you are addressing your work not to a single person or reviewer or critic. You are addressing your piece to this mysterious group mind, this audience monster."

'There Is A Happiness that Morning Is' runs through March 10th at Victory Gardens Theater.

Classical musician Anthony McGill brings his 'Inaugural' chops back home to Chicago

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 11:39:00 -0600

Chicago native and classical clarinetist Anthony McGill comes home this weekend to perform with the Chicago Sinfonietta, at their 25th annual tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

This year, the concert coincides with the second Inauguration of President Barack Obama. So it's fitting that McGill is part of the Sinfonietta line-up: After all, he got the gig of a lifetime when he performed at the previous Inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009.

McGill played with an all-star line-up of classical musicians that day: Violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist Yo Yo Ma, and pianist Gabriela Montero. Together they performed John Williams' "Air and Simple Gifts," live on the Capitol steps.

Well, sort of. That January day in Washington was so cold the performers didn't dare risk a live performance - it would have been impossible to stay in tune. So the musicians actually played along to a track they'd recorded earlier.

Still, McGill says the experience was profound. "There was such emotion. I mean Yo Yo plays with more emotion than any player I’ve ever, ever met. To be next to that sort of emotion you feel it. You can actually feel it, like it’s something touching you inside, coming from the sound of an instrument. And this is what you want to do, every time you are performing."

To play at the highest level is something Anthony McGill achieved long before his presidential gig. In classical music circles he’s considered one of the finest clarinetists playing today – as a solo, chamber and symphonic performer. He’s currently the principal clarinet with the Met in New York.

But his ambitions started much earlier, on his home turf: Chatham, on Chicago’s South Side.

McGill grew up in in a tight-knit, highly creative family. There he developed a strong case of not so much sibling rivalry, as sibling reverence, for his older brother Demarre.

"I definitely wanted to be like my brother," Anthony McGill said. "I did everything he did. And if he liked it, I liked it. And he loved music, he loved the flute."

Demarre McGill is now principal flute with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.

That one family gave rise to two classical talents is unusual. Anthony McGill credits a wide network of support. It began with his parents, who appreciated and performed music (Demarre's first flute belonged to his father).

"They were like: 'If you love it, and you want to work hard at it, go for it.' This was not just with music but anything we did," Anthony McGill said.

He also benefited from what he calls "the finest instruction I could have received in Chicago – or maybe anywhere," including David Tuttle at Chicago's Merit School of Music, Stanley Davis (then with the Chicago Lyric Opera, now at the Music Institute of Chicago, and Larry Combs and Julie Deroche (both now at DePaul University).

Even then, McGill's accomplishments are hard won. Only a small percentage of orchestra musicians are African-American – and only a handful hold principal positions like Anthony and Demarre do.

McGill says he thinks things are changing, slowly but surely. It might not always be evident in the orchestra pit. But you can spot it in music schools.

"You have lots of minorities of different types – Hispanics, blacks, Asians – you name it, going through those conservatories," he said. "So what I see is that there is a change happening, of diversity."

Meanwhile, McGill is doing everything he can to step up the pace – mainly by exposing young people to music, through lessons, performances – even how-to videos and musical apps.

But he isn’t just interested in developing an appreciation for classical repertoire. McGill hopes to support younger musicians in a more profound way, the way his parents supported him.

"It has to come from a deeper place which is a place of connection, and humanity and love. And I think if we focus on that that things will take care of themselves, hopefully. And music will continue."

Anthony McGill performs Aaron Copland's 'Clarinet Concerto' with the Chicago Sinfonietta Sunday in Naperville and Monday in Chicago.

Prentice is preserved, for now

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 13:00:00 -0600

Preservationists seeking to prevent the demolition of the former Prentice Women's Hospital were dealt a severe if not final blow today.

Cook County Judge Neil Cohen dismissed a lawsuit brought by two plaintiffs: the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois (LPCI).

Judge Cohen said a previous ruling by the Illinois Supreme Court does not grant him the power to overturn a decision by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks, even if, as the Judge appears to believe, the Commission violated its own rules in making that decision.

The Judge also dismissed the Landmarks Preservation Council as a plaintiff in the case, but gave the National Trust 30 days to file an amended complaint.

Michael Rachlis is one of the legal representatives for the preservationists. He said "the court articulated there was a problem in that process and it still allowed us to come back and deal with those issues."

Rachlis added "The stay is in place. If the case does not proceed forward in this capacity, in this building, there are appellate processes and other processes to be reviewed, down the road. This is not over, the court has indicated that."

Last November, the Commission of Chicago Landmarks granted preliminary landmark status for the building designed by famed architect Bertrand Goldberg but then revoked it in the same meeting.

In rescinding landmark status, the Commission cited a report from the city's Department of Housing and Economic Development that concluded "the civic and economic impact of Northwestern's proposed research program outweighs the relative importance of maintinaing the former Prenctice building as an architectural landmark."

Judge Cohen's ruling today means Northwestern University's hands are tied for another month. The university wants to tear down the building in order to construct a new research facility.

Alan Cubbage, a spokesperson for Northwestern, said the university would "abide by the stay" but is "very pleased with the ruling today."

Roving eye services for Chicago Public School students

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 11:26:00 -0600

Chicago’s Department of Public Health wants to bring mobile eye examinations to students in the city's public school system.

Illinois state law requires annual vision screenings for many students in public, private and parochial schools, including Pre-K, kindergarten, second, eighth grade, and all special education students.

According to Bechara Choucair, the Commissioner of Chicago’s Department of Public Health, CPS screens some 200,000 students each year. Almost 30,000 fail the exam, meaning they require additional testing and maybe even glasses.

But until now, students who don't pass the test have had to travel to Princeton School for a follow-up exam. Some students don't always get there.

Choucair says bringing eye examinations to individual schools will help ensure all students have access to eye care, especially in the early grades.

"Not all of the kindergarten students are receiving this important exam," he said. "And that's why we're going to be targeting those students."

He also thinks a mobile service works better.

"The fact that we could minimize the disruption to the school day, make it easier for students and honestly make it less costly than having to move students back and forth, it makes sense," Choucair said.

The mobile eye care program is modeled on an existing oral care program at CPS. Choucair thinks the focus on eyesight is critical to overall education.

"Whether what you write, what you see on the computer, what you see on a chalkboard, all of that, vision is so important to it," he said.

The Health Department has $1 million dollars to fund the new service. Proposals to implement this program are due January 17.

Commissioner Choucair says he expects the mobile service to be in place early February.

Not feeling Christmas Eve? How about a movie?

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 15:35:00 -0600

Christmas celebrations are already in full swing at homes in and around Chicago. But not everybody marks the holiday. If you’re Jewish or Muslim or just prefer to skip it – there is another, time-honored way to enjoy the night before Christmas: head out to see a movie.

The two big, brand new releases are "Les Misérables," the film version of Victor Hugo's epic historic novel (which has undergone epic adaptations, for film, television and most famously Broadway), and "Django Unchained," the latest ultra-violence from Quentin Tarantino.

Christmas-time viewing is also a good opportunity to catch up any of the big films that might end up in the "best picture" category at the Academy Awards (which will be announced January 10th).

Adam Kempenaar co-hosts WBEZ’s Filmspotting. He called Stephen Spielberg's "Lincoln" "essential viewing, especially for the performance of Daniel Day Lewis." But he also recommends "Skyfall."

"I’m not a big Bond guy," Kempenaar said. "But that was one of my favorite Bond films, well, frankly ever."

Just don’t expect to see Kempenaar in the seat next to you. When I asked if he ever goes to the movies at Christmas he laughed and exclaimed "Never!" For Kempnaar the Christmas holiday is "not about watching movies, it’s about finally taking a break."

Happy holidays to you, wherever you end up this year!

Chicago jazz pianist Ken Chaney remembered as one of 'the best'

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 13:25:00 -0600

Ken Chaney, a long-standing Chicago jazz musician and educator, died last Wednesday at the age of 73.

Chaney's reputation among his fellow musicians is stellar: Everyone praises his musicianship and attitude.

"Ken Chaney was one of the best musicians I ever worked with. And Chaney was cool," said drummer Isaac "Red" Holt.

Holt hired Chaney to play in his group Young-Holt Unlimited in the late 1960s. They had a hit with the song "Soulful Strut."

Chaney was born in Edmonton, Alberta and came to Chicago in the mid-1950s. After leaving Holt’s group in the 1970s, he went on to form and lead his own ensembles, including The Awakening.

Holt said Chaney's musical talents were all over the map.

"Later on he was known as a bebop player because he had the bebop brass around him. But Ken Chaney was a versatile piano player. He could play whatever you wanted to play," Holt said.

Pianist Miguel de la Cerna took Chaney's chair when he left Young-Holt Unlimited. He said Chaney’s other great legacy is as a teacher of musicians ranging from countless Chicago music students to vocalist Dee Alexander and current Rolling Stones bassist Darryl Jones.

"For our town, he’s sort of like what Art Blakely became which is almost a school, you know you had to come through Ken Chaney school," de la Cerna said.

Chaney also had a rare view of the jazz profession.

"Ken taught me this was a business. We had to act like businessmen, instead of the traditional musician stereotypes. There was a way you had to dress, a way you had to act. And those lessons were invaluable to me. I don't know who I'm going to call now to know how to act," de la Cerna said.

Family, friends, and fellow musicians will remember Chaney at a memorial in Hyde Park this Saturday.

Cuts at the Field Museum could 'diminish' its international reputation

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 15:41:00 -0600

Updated: 5 p.m.

Chicago’s Field Museum is proposing a significant reduction in its re-operating budget, citing a hefty debt load. That could mean higher prices for patrons.

The museum hopes to reduce costs by $5 million and organize its scientific research wing, from academic departments like anthropology and zoology to more generic fields of study such as "museum exhibitions."

Field President and Chief Executive Officer Richard Lariviere said the museum is feeling the effects of the recession just like any other business or institution. He said administrators will talk with scientists and curators about how to balance the budget.

"The Field Museum is in really reasonably good shape," he said. "What we're trying to do is protect the future of this place by right-sizing ourselves at this moment to balance our budget, get things under control, so that we can ensure that the future includes the same kind of high quality, world-shaping research and discovery that it has in the past."

Lariviere said the museum's current structure is a "vestige" of university organization dating back to the 1930s and 1940s. For instance, the department of geology contains paleontologists, but no geologists.

"It's really not a rational structure," he said. "It certainly doesn't reflect the interdisciplinary nature and the creativity of the science that goes on here."

He said that makes it harder to explain to the public about the science and research going on behind the scenes.

More than 1 million people visit the museum every year, to see blockbuster shows and the Field's prized possession, a Tyrannosaurus rex named Sue. But the Field's global reputation comes from its cutting-edge scientific research and conservation effects.

"Behind the scenes, there is essentially a non-degree granting university that has scientists of all different stripes who travel around the world and make collections and study species and cultures and artifacts," said Neil Shubin, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago and the former provost of the Field.

Shubin says the budget cuts and proposed reorganization mean staff cuts. And those will diminish the museum’s reputation.

"Anytime you see a reorganization like this, it means large staff reductions. I see no way that they can continue the breadth of the research profile that has been one of their, you know, one of the legs of their eminence," Shubin said.

The Field says it will develop a new operating plan over the next six months.

An earlier version of this story referred to Sue as a "life-sized model" of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. But Sue's the real deal!