The Reva and David Logan Foundation has granted $25,000 to the Chicago Artists Coalition, with a $5,000 matching gift. CAC is a leading art nonprofit concentrating on Chicago emerging artists and curators, and the funding will help the group’s mission to serve residents “through connection, community, exhibitions and grant opportunities,” the group relays. More on CAC here.
Detroit Institute Of Arts Thriving
The New York Times looks at the good fortune of the Detroit Institute Of Arts, “A Rare Gem in a City That Has Struggled.” “The Detroit Institute of Arts came close to selling some of its treasures when the city went bankrupt in 2013. But now, it’s thriving.”
Programmatic Leader Of Archival Efforts Named By Rebuild Foundation
Dr. Sampada Aranke has been named 2022–2023 Director of Mellon Archives Innovation Program after a $3.5 million grant to the Rebuild Foundation–a platform for art, cultural development, and neighborhood transformation founded by artist and social innovator Theaster Gates. The new role will expand artistic, academic and public engagement with archival collections held at Chicago’s Stony Island Arts Bank. “The Mellon Archives Innovation Program is a multifaceted initiative supporting the creation of new research, scholarship, and artistic production through engagement with Rebuild Foundation’s archival collections held at the Bank.” With artistic direction from Gates, Dr. Aranke will work with artists and academics to devise strategies. Among the materials: The personal vinyl collection of Frankie Knuckles.
Wicker Park Renovation Does Not Include TriTriangle Or No Nation
The building at 1550 North Milwaukee “has incubated unconventional arts spaces since the 1980s, including Cinema Borealis, Buddy, and Heaven Gallery, founded by David Dobie in the nearby Flat Iron building in 1997 and moved to the second floor of the Lubinski building in 2000. Dobie’s wife, Alma Wieser, is the current director of Heaven Gallery and the founder of Equity Arts, which hopes to buy the building—her long-term plan is to transform it into a community-centric arts hub that supports BIPOC artists and enterprises,” reports Leor Galil at the Reader. Two spaces in the proposed $20 million renovation, TriTriangle and No Nation, do not have a place in the plan, he writes. (Kerry Cardoza wrote for Newcity about the space’s plans here.)
DESIGN
Renovations Overtake New Builds
“For the first time in twenty years, renovations have overtaken new construction in architectural billings in the U.S.,” reports Bloomberg.“It’s about time that we see this trend, after decades and decades of thinking we save neighborhoods by demolishing buildings,” says Maurice Cox, who leads Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development. “Now I think we realize we save them by reusing them.” “The wave of retrofits goes far beyond Chicago: The popularity of fixing up older buildings in U.S. cities… hit a record high. As of spring 2022, the majority of architecture firm billings come from renovation work, not new construction, according to the American Institute of Architects. It’s the first time in the twenty years the AIA has collected this data that renovations have breached fifty-percent.”
Society Of Architectural Historians Honors Stewards Of Charnley-Persky House
The Society of Architectural Historians will recognize the owners and architects of the Charnley-Persky House for their stewardship of the National Historic Landmark building, designed by Louis Sullivan with assistance from Frank Lloyd Wright. The event also celebrates the 130th anniversary of the Charnley-Persky House (1891-1892) and the fiftieth anniversary of its designation as a Chicago Landmark in 1972. The event, SAH Celebrates, will take place on Thursday, November 10, 6pm-9pm, at the Arts Club of Chicago. More on the house here. Tickets here.
Council Members Spending More Discretionary Funds On Surveillance
“Aldermen are spending a growing amount of their discretionary Aldermanic Menu funding on surveillance cameras and license plate readers,” posts Erin Hegarty of the Daily Line. Ald. Reilly “notes he was the first to use menu money on cameras and proposes a separate menu program for public safety.”
Chicago Says Crime Can Be Curbed By Speeding Up Sale Of Vacant Lots
Bloomberg CityLab reports that Chicago has 4,000 lots that are clean and ready for sale, and that planned sales could also boost the amount of “affordable homes.” “Chicago is seeking to streamline sales of thousands of vacant lots owned by the city in an effort to fight crime, increase the number of affordable homes and revitalize neglected neighborhoods… The city of Chicago owns some 10,000 vacant lots, with a large concentration in economically-challenged neighborhoods that have experienced decades of underinvestment. Selling them could help reduce overall crime, which surged thirty-eight-percent this year despite a drop in murders.”
Internet Giants Throttle American Neighborhoods
The Markup finds disparities in pricing and internet speeds from giant corporations: “AT&T is one of four internet providers The Markup found in thirty-eight cities across America offering slower speeds for the same price as faster speeds… AT&T, Verizon, EarthLink and CenturyLink disproportionately offered lower-income and least-white neighborhoods slow internet service for the same price as speedy connections they offered in other parts of town.”
Where Has Chicago’s White Population Grown?
“The Near South Side went from .5 to 51.5 percent white as the South Loop was redeveloped,” reports Chicago magazine. “Call it gentrification or reverse white flight, the profile of incoming whites differs from those who left.”
Do Billionaires Like Starbucks’ Howard Schultz Just Want To Be Loved?
“At age sixty-nine, with a net worth… between [$3-$4 billion] and an array of homes in Hawaii and the Hamptons, and a new $40 million penthouse in Manhattan’s West Village, Starbucks coffee trailblazer Howard Schultz never needed to work another day in his life—and that was the plan, for a while,” writes Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch. So when he came back as interim CEO of the brand, Schultz “made sure everybody knew it wasn’t about the Benjamins. ‘There are two words that I have often used to describe my relationship with Starbucks,’ Schultz wrote on his first day back as new-boss-same-as-the-old-boss. ‘The first word is Love.’ He quickly added that the second word is ‘responsibility… The world today needs Starbucks to be the best version of ourselves… an ever improving, ever evolving version.’ … In little more than a half a year, Schultz’s much-ballyhooed comeback featuring a coast-to-coast ‘listening tour’—aimed at understanding louder employee grievances in the (almost) post-COVID age, as baristas in a growing number of stores vote to unionize—has devolved into what labor leaders claim is a red wedding of revenge… That’s because the very notion that his struggling-to-stay-in-the-middle-class workers would need any other advocate for their wellbeing other than the benevolent father that is the Starbucks corporation is shattering to the worldview that allowed Schultz to build up not just the coffee brand but also his own fantastic wealth.”
A Washington Post profile depicts Schultz “as befuddled by so many workers’ inability to see what the love of compassionate capitalism can do for them. Schultz bluntly described labor unions as ‘an adversary that’s threatening the very essence of what [we] believe to be true.'” “But 2022’s public agony for the Starbucks entrepreneur truly stands out, because arguably no global brand has invested more than Starbucks in the myth of the socially responsible corporation—able to make the world a better place for everyone, including its workers as well as its customers, while making billions… for its investors and its top executives.”
Circle K Will Sell Weed
Hard-charging Chicago convenience store new arrival Circle K will be selling marijuana at its gas stations. The “deal with Green Thumb Industries will begin with ten stores in Florida. This could help marijuana go more mainstream,” suggests Bloomberg.
Will Chicago Winter Wreck UIC Food Robots?
“The Starship delivery robots currently traversing the University of Illinois Chicago campus are made by an Estonia-based company and are currently operating in six countries and, in the United States, on twenty-five college campuses,” reports the Sun-Times. Can they stand Chicago temperatures? “Absolutely!” a company spokeswoman emailed the paper. “They were created in the tiny Baltic country of Estonia where the winters are similar to Chicago and have also been operating for several years in other Midwest campuses including the University of Wisconsin.”
FILM & TELEVISION
Compendium Of Film, Literary And Jazz Criticism Forthcoming From Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago-based film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum announces a new volume on Facebook: “Now that I have a contract from Hat &Beard Press, or at least a reasonable facsimile of one, I can announce the happy news that they plan to publish ‘In Dreams Begin Responsibilities: A Jonathan Rosenbaum Reader,’ collecting my uncollected film, literary, and jazz criticism in more or less chronological order, which will entail mixing all three, meanwhile theorizing about some of the ways in which movies, literature, and music can be regarded interactively.”
Teamsters Boss Who Took Money From Cinespace Chicago Asks For Probation
“Former Teamsters boss John T. Coli Sr. is asking a federal judge to give him home confinement and probation instead of prison time… when he is set to be sentenced for illegally collecting $325,000 from Cinespace Chicago Film Studios,” reports the Sun-Times. “Coli admitted in 2019 that he’d taken $325,000 in cash payments from Cinespace between 2014 and 2017. Worried at one point the money would stop, Coli told Cinespace [then]-president Alex Pissios, ‘We’ll shut it down tomorrow. We’ll shut it down within an hour… I will fucking have a picket line up here, and everything will stop.'”
MEDIA
Michael Ferro Publishes Book
A local reporter commented on Twitter on a new volume signed by Michael Ferro with a since-deleted tweet: “‘Memoir Of A Cretin: How I did enormous damage to two Chicago newspapers.” Not exactly: The title of the book is “How AI Can Democratize Healthcare,” by Ferro and described in a press release on PR Newswire as a dive “into the cutting-edge of technology moving care from the clinic to where the patient is located, including their home, office, or even traveling. Predictive software, AI voice technology, and digital therapeutics are just some of the innovations detailed in this provocative new title that will shape tomorrow’s future today.”
MUSIC
The Daily Ye
Was Ye taken advantage of by the sellers of Parler’s owners? “Looks very much like a failed company taking advantage of troubled rich guy,” writes Mike Masnick at Techdirt: “Parlement Technology, the parent company of Parler, announced that Ye was now ‘buying’ Parler. He’s not buying Parlement, which was formed when Parler tried to expand beyond its flailing social network…, claiming that it was… building ‘uncancellable’ cloud services… The deal with Ye is not to buy the company, but to unload the flop of a social media platform that has very few users left as the market for ‘Twitter-but-for-assholes-removed-from-Twitter’ was already pretty small, and is now divided between way too many platforms: Parler, Gab, Gettr, Truth Social and some other wannabes. Over at the Verge, they’re reporting that Parlement has been trying to offload Parler for a few weeks… at astronomical prices, while noting that… no one uses the site [that has only] around 50,000 daily active users.”
Rolling Stone editor Noah Shachtman: “It’s a good summation of Kanye’s biggest problem for the past decade of his career. He loves the sound of his own voice more than anything, no matter who it hurts.” CNN media critic Brian Lowry: “The other problem is there’s no shortage of interviewers willing to listen.”
STAGE
Impresario Garth Drabinsky Sues Actors’ Equity For $50 Million
Attorneys representing Canadian impresario Garth Drabinsky, whose theatrical productions include “Ragtime,” “Fosse,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” “Paradise Square” and the Hal Prince restoration “Show Boat,” has filed suit against Actors’ Equity Association for defamation. The fifty-seven-page complaint was filed in the Southern District of New York. (Complaint here.)“The lawsuit alleges that Actors’ Equity wrongfully placed Drabinsky on its ‘Black List,’” Drabinsky’s representation relays, “which was done without any basis whatsoever. It goes on to allege a series of inappropriate actions and statements by Actors’ Equity, including the claim that Actors’ Equity wrongfully accused Drabinsky of being a racist, creating a hostile and unsafe work environment,and insisted on his removal as creative producer of the Broadway musical ’Paradise Square.’” Says the release, “Actors’ Equity went one step further by publicly branding Drabinsky with its Scarlet Letter and placing Drabinsky on its self-proclaimed ‘blacklist.’ Actors’ Equity’s conduct is… reckless, callous, outrageous and deplorable.”
ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.
High Concept Laboratories Names Managing Director
High Concept Laboratories (HCL), a Chicago-based arts service organization and artist incubator, has named Angee Lennard its managing director. She joins HCL artistic director Yolanda Cesta Cursach Montilla in a co-leadership position. In partnership with the artistic director and board of directors, Lennard will steer the organization through its next phase of growth. Kevin Simmons, HCL founder and co-chair says, “She embodies the passion and commitment required to build a creative community, while understanding the inherent challenges in sustaining and growing a non-profit arts organization.”
Lennard is an arts administrator and printmaker; “her deep involvement in the arts has spanned organizational leadership, operational management, program development, studio maintenance, and print production. She was the founder and executive director of Spudknik Press Cooperative, a community-based printmaking studio for fifteen years. She has been a lecturer at School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Arts Administration and Policy department, and served as a Marwen Foundation Teaching Fellow and Treasurer for the Chicago Printers Guild.” “I am deeply invested in HCLs’ mission to provide artists with the space, time, resources, and community that is required for sustained artistic experimentation,” Lennard said. “I look forward to collaborating with Yolanda to advance HCL programs through an artist-first approach.”
NASCAR Hires Veteran Lollapalooza Producer For Chicago
NASCAR has made a key hire for its summer 2023 race, reports Crain’s: the man who brought Lollapalooza to Chicago. “NASCAR said it has entered a partnership with Four Leaf Productions for the July 2023 event. Four Leaf is headed by Charlie Jones, one of the founders of C3 Presents, which produces Lolla and helped organize the NFL draft in 2015-2016.” In a statement, NASCAR says: NASCAR and Four Leaf “will work closely… with the City of Chicago, Chicago Park District and other entities in building and producing a successful sports and entertainment event weekend… FLP’s creativity, coupled with their success and expertise producing major events in the city, is the perfect combination.” Still to be addressed: “Which streets will be closed and for how long; How much, if anything, the City of Chicago will be compensated for use of its thoroughfares; And how long portions of Grant Park will be shut to the public during the busy summer months.”
State Street Holiday Market Is Coming
“The holiday season is the most magical time of the year downtown in the Loop, and being immersed in so many of the wonderful traditions that take place right in the heart of the city is thrilling,” Michael Edwards, president and CEO of Chicago Loop Alliance says in a release. “We are adding to the traditions with a State Street Holiday Market that brings the fun of Sundays on State indoors while supporting local Chicago artists and small business owners. There are ample activities for families, workers, visitors and anyone who loves the stunning winter wonderland that is Chicago.” More here.
Third COVID Winter Coming?
“Our third American COVID winter is at hand. In the months ahead—with students back in school, temperatures dropping, social life moving indoors, and holiday travel commencing—not to mention the emergence of new and increasingly immune-evasive variants… The administration and its allies should be fighting hard for the funding that would make [COVID health measures] possible—not glossing over the truth of what lies ahead,” write Martha Lincoln and Nate Holdren at TIME. “Overreliance on vaccination without sufficient use of other mitigation measures may speed up the emergence of variants that are less responsive to treatments and vaccination… Our approach to pandemic control must be better diversified.”
Mexican Independence Day Tickets Issued
“Mexican Independence Day revelers in Chicago slapped with tickets for waving Mexican flags,” headlines Block Club. “People who celebrated downtown last month also received tickets for passengers hanging out of their cars. Police said they were obstructing or interfering with traffic.”
CTA Proposes Budgets; Sees No Cuts
“The CTA released its ‘[slightly larger] proposed 2023 budget Thursday that keeps all services, avoids fare hikes and retains discounted prices on certain passes that were implemented in last year’s budget,” reports the Sun-Times. “CTA ridership reached its peak in ridership since the pandemic with 5.57 million riders for the week of October 1-8,” reports the Loyola Phoenix. Hiring and security are among the concerns of the budget, reports the Trib.
