Fresh Lawsuit Says Landlords Had No Right To Darger Art
The legal goings-on, captured by ARTnews: “The legal battle over the lucrative legacy of outsider artist Henry Darger has taken a new turn. A distant relative of the artist and the Estate of Henry Joseph Darger have filed a legal action against Darger’s former landlords, who have been the longtime stewards of the artist’s work. They are accused of copyright infringement, among a slew of other wrongdoing.” For almost four decades, “the Lerners have claimed that Darger left the contents of his apartment to Nathan in a verbal agreement sometime in 1972; Nathan subsequently gave them to Kiyoko, they said. They also claimed that when Darger was preparing to move into the nursing home, they asked him if he would like to keep anything in his apartment. In their telling, Darger replied, ‘I have nothing I need in the room. It is all yours. You can throw everything away.’ … Darger never married, had no children, and died with no immediate surviving relatives and no will.”
“Roger Brown & Miesian Metropolitanism” Opens
“Roger Brown and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe were towering figures in their respective practices—beacons of pure intention and masterful execution,” relays the Edith Farnsworth House in a release. “Many of Brown’s paintings ruminate on buildings and contemporary cityscapes, and architecture was central to Brown and his life partner, George Veronda, an accomplished architect and designer. Not by accident, Mies’ restrained architectural compositions double as exceptional showcases for Modern art, in both residential and commercial contexts. This exhibition will put their work side-by-side to provide a fresh perspective on the aesthetic interplay and philosophical crosscurrents that informed the careers of two of the twentieth century’s most distinctive creative minds.” This includes Brown’s piece, “Me’s Modern City: View from the Veronda.” Edith Farnsworth House, Plano, August 7-November 27. More here.
Where Will The Rest Of The Thompson Center’s 150 Works Of Art Go?
DuBuffet’s “Monument With Standing Beast” is spoken for, but what happens to the rest of the public art housed at the Thompson Center? Former Public Art Chicago executive director Ed McDevitt writes at his public art blog about the intentions of the collection and the possible fates of its pieces.
Cleve Carney Museum Of Art Opens Season
The Cleve Carney Museum of Art (CCMA) on the College of DuPage campus will open its season with a solo exhibition titled “I Think We’re Alone Now,” by Chicago-based multimedia artist Erin Washington, opening September 10 and running until November 20. Washington’s “multilayered works consisting of ambiguous scientific diagrams, art historical references, Post-it notes, studio debris, mythological figures and self-deprecating jokes, call into question perception, vulnerability and permanence.” More here.
DESIGN
Previewing Bally’s’ Medinah Temple Casino
“STL Architects is heading the conversion” of the Medinah Temple to a stop-gap casino, reports YIMBY Chicago, “with plans to renovate the interior without any structural building changes to the landmarked exterior. The only external modifications will be new signs. The new Bally’s signage will match the configuration and scale of the existing Bloomingdale’s signs… With SOSH Architects working on the interior, the casino plan will involve removing the vast majority of interior partitions as a means to open the floors” for gambling. “Lighting plans will follow a similar flow to that of Bloomingdale’s to ensure the best impact and highlight intricate geometry of the original ceilings.”
Red Line Extension Could Draw Taxes From Far Afield
CTA funding for the proposed $3.6 billon Red Line extension uses almost $1 billion in property taxes, reports Channel 7. The CTA “wants to help fund a long-stalled extension of the Red Line by creating a new tax increment financing district sure to face an uphill battle in the City Council… The South Side transit TIF district, roughly eight blocks wide, starts at Madison Street in the Loop and runs south to Pershing Road, ending far from the project area. The net effect is to funnel $950 million in property taxes out of areas in and near Downtown to help a stretch of the Far South Side.”
Chicago Tenants Unions Follow High Rent Spikes
“Rental prices across the country have surged in recent months, along with inflation. Asking rent… has increased by 4.5 percent in Chicago in the past year,” reports Block Club Chicago, “but some tenants have seen their rent hiked as much as twenty percent. Landlords might be increasing rent as they face a possible increase in property taxes… The spike has led to tenants being forced from their homes—or forced to pay up. Some have said they’re forming tenants unions, organizing and pushing for rent control as a way to keep apartments affordable.”
National Housing Crisis Compounded By Opaque Ownership Laws
Reports The Hill, “Opaque ownership laws that make it easier for property owners to avoid paying taxes are compounding a national housing crisis fueled by inflation and a shortage of low- and moderate-income homes. Limited liability companies—or LLCs—are a common way for landlords to own the real estate” on which they collect rent. “But LLCs often hide the identities of the people that stand behind them, allowing property owners to be shielded from legal consequences when they fail to pay their property taxes. Properties can then go into tax foreclosure and be effectively taken off the market in cities where housing is in short supply, further driving up prices and forcing renters to live far away from where they work. Studies have ‘linked LLC ownership to property disinvestment, tax abandonment, even completely walking away from properties,’ Princeton sociology professor Matthew Desmond told the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee… ‘Tax foreclosure should not be part of a business strategy, but for some landlords who use LLCs, it is.'”
Ban On Mass At Shrine Of Christ The King Church Raises Concern For Landmark
“Woodlawn community organizers are questioning the Archdiocese of Chicago’s decision to ban public masses at Shrine of Christ the King Catholic Church and worry officials may be planning to shutter the historic landmark building,” reports the Sun-Times. “Mass and other sacraments at Shrine of Christ the King, 6401 South Woodlawn, were suspended indefinitely on Monday.” Jennifer Blackman, a member of the Coalition to Save the Shrine, “said the Archdiocese has banned Latin Mass citywide, marginalizing the Institute of Christ the King Church, which solely celebrates Latin Mass… The archdiocese could not be reached for comment.”
DINING & DRINKING
Food Network Highlights Pilot Light And Chef Jason Hammel
“Pilot Light, the Chicago nonprofit designed to educate school kids about food and nutrition co-founded by… Jason Hammel of Lula Cafe… snagged a special feature this week on the Food Network,” reports Eater Chicago, “as a part of its ‘Feed Your Passion’ video series.”
“Electrofishing” Planned For Copious Illinois “Copi”
“Asian carp, or copi, as the Illinois Department of Natural Resources recently rebranded, continue to be a growing problem in Illinois. The big fish are famous for damaging boats, breaking equipment and even injuring people,” reports WGN-TV. “A special technique called electrofishing pumps electricity into the water and creates a current in front of the boat. It temporarily stuns the fish, so they float to the surface and are quickly caught.”
Wisconsin Craft Beer Pillar Closing
“Ale Asylum, the brewery that led Madison into the craft beer era as we know it, is closing,” writes the State-Journal. “A deal that had been in the works (to sell the property) fell through for good, and last week Ale Asylum pulled the plug on the taproom, its last remaining operations.” Will the beer live on? Co-founder Otto Dilba says “there’s an outside chance that another inquiry could result in what he called an ‘in-place sale’ that would revive the business in its current location just off Packers Avenue… Dilba emphasized he and co-founder and brewmaster Dean Coffey are focused on finding not just a buyer for Ale Asylum’s intellectual property—the beer recipes and labels—but the right buyer.” The Ale Asylum site is here.
FILM & TELEVISION
Keeping The Faces Of “The Bear” Local
WBEZ features the local view of “The Bear”: Viewers might “recognize Second City alum and creator of ‘Chicago Party Aunt’ Chris Witaske, who plays Berzatto’s suburban brother-in-law; ‘The Chi’ actor Corey Hendrix, who plays kitchen staffer Gary; or Jose Cervantes, an ensemble member at Rogers Park theater company The Factory, who plays dishwasher Angel. ‘It was really important to [creator] Chris Storer who grew up around a restaurant like Mr. Beef that it be shot in Chicago,’ said casting director AJ Links. Links works at the Chicago-based Paskal Rudnicke Casting, which handled local casting for the speaking roles on the show. ‘All those local faces were important to fill in.’ … ‘The pandemic, it definitely put an immediate stop to all the theater stuff that had been going on,’ Cervantes said. ‘It’s cool to have another TV show being filmed here in Chicago and just bringing more work and more opportunities here.'”
“Rusty The Handyman” Was Sixty-Nine
“Robin Eurich, best known as Bozo’s sidekick Rusty the Handyman on WGN-TV’s ‘The Bozo Super Sunday Show,'” was sixty-nine, reports WGN-TV. “Eurich started in improv theater and both attended and taught at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College. He was also a founding member of the Comedy Store players with Robin Williams. In 1994, he moved to Chicago to join ‘The Bozo Super Sunday Show,'” shown locally and across the nation. “When Bozo went off air in 2001, he joined Circus Sarasota and helped form an education department for the Circus Arts Conservatory.”
States Going After Georgia Film Production
Extra support for film production in Illinois could be around the corner, as at least three states with Democratic governors offer incentives for producers to move out of Georgia. Posts California Governor Gavin Newsom: “Today, Hollywood will wake up to this ad. Time to choose. You can protect your workers, or continue to support anti-abortion states that rule with hatred. We’re here for you. We’re extending tax credits for those that come home to the Golden State. Choose freedom. Choose California.” The proposed California film and television tax credit is set at $1.65 billion, reports Variety.
LIT
Sixth Annual Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards Announced
Illinois Humanities, in partnership with the Poetry Foundation, Brooks Permissions and the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts has announced the winners of the 2022 Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards, an annual competition for Illinois poets in grades K–12. The twenty-five winners and twelve honorable mentions were chosen from a record 445 submissions representing seventy schools from across the state. Illinois Poet Laureate Angela Jackson will read a poem at the ceremony in honor of the winning students. The ceremony will be hosted by Emily Lansana, and award winners will recite their poems as part of the ceremony. The event is Saturday, August 20 at 1pm at a public ceremony at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts in Chicago. The list of twenty-five winners is here. More on the competition here. RSVP for reservations here.
MUSIC
Social Media And The Slayings Of Young Men And Boys
“Chicago rapper Londre ‘KTS Dre’ Sylvester’s life—and that of numerous young men and boys slain on the South and West sides—is largely invisible to the mainstream,” writes Will Lee in a Tribune column. “Sylvester is hardly the first young man to die in a public hail of gunfire,” writes Lee, “but his ambush outside the jail and courthouse inspired dozens of national and international headlines thanks to three terms that would burn the brightest online: ‘Chicago,’ ‘rapper’ and ’64 shots.’ It may be a surprise to many that glimpses of Chicago’s underworld, its violence and body count, its rogues, hit men and scammers, have become entertainment for millions of young people thanks to the social media age, no doubt aided by the city’s reigning status as a tough town. Zealous young fans eager for beef scan rap songs for obvious threats and cryptic messages that could signal conflict with another rapper or gang set.”
R. Kelly Prosecutor Used Burner Phone To Contact Journalist Jim DeRogatis
“The case against R. Kelly took yet another strange twist when it was revealed a prosecutor used a burner email account and a fake name to communicate with author Jim DeRogatis, who wrote a book on the singer,” reports the Tribune. DeRogatis tells the Trib, “he was the one who was fishing for information from the prosecutor—Assistant U.S. Attorney Angel Krull—and that he got nowhere.”
Discover Symphony Sets Final Performance Of Nearly Thirty-Year-History
Discover Symphony, the next generation of the Park Ridge Civic Orchestra, has announced that after twenty-eight years, it will perform its final concert, “Clarinet Times Two.” The performance features Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, the first known work written for clarinet and string quartet, followed by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Clarinet Quintet, a work that was written as a challenge to Brahms’ quintet, a piece that had become the gold standard for this combination of instruments. Background: “In October 2020, the award-winning Park Ridge Civic Orchestra (PRCO) wanted to expand its geographic reach and make classical music more accessible to a greater number of patrons and communities. After performing solely in Park Ridge for twenty-six years, the PRCO rebranded as Discover Symphony with a mission of accessibility, inclusion and education. Displaced in 2017 from its concert home, the Pickwick Theatre, and then sidelined by COVID and the sudden loss of its main donor, the organization was never able to find a suitable concert venue nor recoup major sponsors and donors. Therefore, the Discover Symphony board of directors have made the difficult decision to shutter the organization.” The concert is Sunday, August 28 at Schram Memorial Chapel in Glenview at 3pm. Tickets and details here.
ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.
Navy Pier LatiNxt Festival Celebrates Latinx Culture
Navy Pier has announced the lineup for the fifth annual LatiNxt music and arts festival, starting at 2pm on Saturday, August 6 and continuing Sunday, August 7. “Visitors can enjoy cutting edge music from the Latin American diaspora at this free, family-friendly festival. The festival features local, national and international artists exploring new ways of connecting traditional Latin music with modern sounds. Music performances will take place at Navy Pier’s Lake Stage, Beer Garden and Wave Wall with an array of artisan vendors.” Line-up and more here.
Flossmoor Cancels National Night Out Activity
“Flossmoor residents received an email from the village on Tuesday saying its National Night Out activities were canceled over what officials called safety issues,” reports WBBM Newsradio. “The nationwide event is meant to enhance the relationship between neighbors and law enforcement, but the village says there have been several conversations that caused concern among law enforcement. It’s unclear if those conversations are linked to tensions surrounding last month’s police shooting of sixty-four-year-old Madeline Miller.”
Shedd Aquarium House Music Event Returns
“Shedd After Hours: House Party” returns for after-hour music into September. “For the first three Thursdays in September, Shedd will host local DJs at this adults-only event to play exceptional sets while guests mingle, wander the aquarium and view exhibits with beverage in hand. Each night will offer incredible views of the city and lake and a unique music experience within this historic setting.” Thursdays, September 8, 15, 22, 6-10pm. Tickets are $39.95, $19.95 for Chicago residents and $14.95 for Shedd members. Tickets here.
Waits For Out-Of-State Patient Abortions As Long As Three Weeks
“Hundreds more out-of-state patients are having abortions at Planned Parenthood clinics in Illinois and wait times to schedule the procedure in the southern part of the state have spiked during the first month after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade,” reports the Trib.
Taste Of Andersonville Returns
The Andersonville Chamber of Commerce announces one of its most popular summer events: the annual Taste of Andersonville. The event will feature two routes, the Fork route and the Spoon route, allowing hungry eaters to travel up and down the Clark Street business corridor sampling more than twenty dinner, drink and dessert options from Andersonville’s restaurant district. Wednesday, August 10, 5–8pm. Tickets are $30, $45 after Sunday. Tickets and routes here.
