“Mariane Ibrahim, who champions artists of the African diaspora, has spaces in Chicago and Paris. Her third gallery opens as Mexico City continues to raise its artistic profile,” writes the WSJ in a profile. “Ibrahim, one of the art world’s rising tastemakers, has an uncanny ability to sense where the global art scene will pivot next. Over the past decade, Ibrahim has championed artists primarily from Africa and its diaspora in her eponymous galleries, first in Seattle and now in Chicago and Paris. In each locale, Ibrahim has stoked and leveraged the curiosity of local curators and collectors to propel her artists onto the international art stage—particularly Ghana’s Amoako Boafo, whose finger-painted portraits in bright hues have sold for as much as $3.4 million at auction.”
European Museums Rethink Climate Controls That Protect Artifacts
“Tight climate controls [are] the norm to protect artworks and artifacts. But as heating and electricity prices soar, Europe’s museums administrators’ are reconsidering their standards,” writes the New York Times. “Most Western museums have also installed expensive and complex climate control systems to help preserve the works in their care. Those energy-guzzling technologies, including climate monitors, air conditioning units and dehumidifiers, normally whir away unnoticed, twenty-four hours a day… growing awareness of the impact of those systems on the climate has led a number of major institutions to rethink their most fundamental conservation orthodoxies.” However, “you don’t want to be the conservator who says it’s okay to flip the switch, and all of a sudden your Picassos are melting.”
DESIGN
What The Old Town Redevelopment Will Overhaul
Developer Fern Hill, partnered with architect David Adjaye, has presented possible plans for redeveloping Old Town, reports Block Club Chicago. “Fern Hill has divided Old Town into two sections: the Old Town Triangle Historical District, spanning west of Wells, and the ‘cultural triangle’ east of Wells.” The developer wants “to overhaul the ‘car-dominated environment’ by making the area more walkable and removing the two gas stations.” They also want a “world-class grocer,” that is part of a “much more world-class project that’s not just back-filling a once-closed grocery store.”
Buyers Like Knockoff Of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House Located In The Neighborhood Of A Million Bucks
“A copy of Frank Lloyd Wright’s celebrated Robie House in Hyde Park, built seventeen miles away and eighty-two years later, quickly attracted potential buyers after hitting the market,” reports Dennis Rodkin at Crain’s. “‘It’s been crazy,’ said Nicole Flores, the Dream Town Realty agent representing the house on Navajo Avenue in Chicago’s Edgebrook neighborhood. Six potential buyers made appointments to walk through the four-bedroom, 3,600-square-foot house on… its first full day on the market. The asking price is $924,900.”
Time To Protect And Preserve McKinley Park Central Manufacturing District
“The Central Manufacturing District has been largely uninhabited in recent decades, leaving many of these important buildings unused—and unprotected,” writes Lee Bey in his essential monthly Sun-Times architecture column. “The early twentieth century brick, limestone and terra cotta buildings formed a hard-working, well-designed mile-long backbone down Pershing Road between Ashland and Western,” active from 1905 through the 1960s. “Players there included Goodyear Tire, Westinghouse and an assortment of others, including food processors, drug makers, oil refiners and furniture makers who made use of the shared costs of services provided by the CMD.”
Chicago Tool Library Reopens In West Side Warehouse
“Wilson Wallace’s wish list of tools and household items cost far more than the twenty-four-year-old could afford, but that didn’t stop him from getting everything he wanted,” reports the Sun-Times. At a warehouse on the West Side, “Wallace picked out a saw, clamps, a straight edge and two sawhorses… That’s how it works at the Chicago Tool Library… Wallace hasn’t done much woodworking before, since ‘I don’t have the stuff, and I’m not a rich man.'”
“Local Real Estate Titan” To Level “Graceful” 150-Year-Old Lincoln Park Home
“Judy Blatherwick and her family put in decades of work restoring their graceful, Italianate wood-frame home in Lincoln Park, but after selling the nearly 150-year-old building to a local real estate titan, it now faces demolition,” reports the Tribune. “One of the few remaining wood-frame homes built in the aftermath of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871,” the orange-rated property, which requires a ninety-day waiting period before a teardown, is owned by Thaddeus Wong, “co-CEO of @properties | Christie’s International Real Estate, one of the nation’s largest residential real estate firms… ‘Being an orange-rated building doesn’t offer any protection, other than the delay… Ultimately, it usually doesn’t prevent demolition from taking place.’”
Seven Snowplows Styled
The winners of the Great Chicago Snowplow Naming of 2023 are: Mrs. O’Leary’s Plow; Da Plow; Salter Payton; Sears Plower; Sleet Home Chicago; Holy Plow! and Jean Baptiste Point du Shovel. “Nearly 7,000 potential names were submitted in 17,000 suggestions from Chicago residents,” reports the Tribune. “Initially, the city planned to name six snowplows—one for each snow district—in its fleet of almost 300 baby-blue [trucks], (During a major snowfall, a pool of up to 675 motor-truck drivers can be dispatched.) Another was added due to a close vote.”
Madison Square Garden-Style Facial Recognition Not Going Away
“Madison Square Garden is under fire for using the technology. Other venues are exploring their own uses of face algorithms, raising privacy concerns,” reports WIRED. “The venue’s use of face recognition underscores the recent spread of the technology at sporting events. The trend is driven by a desire to quickly authenticate ticket holders’ identity and get them into stadiums and concert venues. But civil rights groups warn that face recognition installed with seemingly benign intent can be adapted to other, more concerning uses… Once an entity gains the ability to track nearly anyone, the technology can also be used to control and monitor movement, powers ripe for abuse. ‘Facial recognition is giving the wealthy and powerful tools to potentially wield against all of us, and I’m very concerned about the full range of applications we’ll see.'”
DINING & DRINKING
Malört Gets Drunk On Daytime TV
Eater Chicago has to ask after the local liqueur was featured on “The Kelly Clarkson Show.” “Jeppson’s Malört, a drink once only seen in the dingiest of dive bars across Chicago, made it to the set of ‘The Kelly Clarkson Show.'” Clarkson liked it. “’You don’t need a chaser,’ Clarkson said during the episode’s taping, after enjoying it with an Old Style. ‘That’s good—I don’t think I needed a chaser.’ A second later, the aftertaste kicked in: ‘Oh, it’s still hot going down!'”
Kenta Ikehata Brings Jiro-Style Ramen To Schaumburg
Chef Kenta Ikehata has opened his third ramen-ya, Chicago Ramen Annex, in Schaumburg, reports Eater Chicago. Jiro ramen is an aggressive style “with a cult following that isn’t offered anywhere else in town.” Jiro-style ramen, also known as “Jirolian style,” “draws on Chinese culinary influences for its porky, garlicky, and rich profile” and has “firm, udon-like noodles and a sumptuous, fatty shoyu-tonkotsu broth, all topped with a tall pile of shredded cabbage, bean sprouts and lots of raw chopped garlic.”
Austin-Based Omakase Comes To Chicago
The ten-seat Sushi|Bar “will bring a splashy and spendy seventeen-course menu to a 375-square-foot space that’s tucked inside another forthcoming River North spot, Lady May,” reports Eater Chicago. Attractions will include “aged bluefin akami with dehydrated miso and everything-bagel spice… kanpachi with pineapple, passionfruit and shaved coconut” and “a smoked sawara with three types of preserved wasabi.”
Shamrock Shake Surfaces
Local restaurant concern McDonald’s brings back its green time on February 20, reports NBC 5. “Consisting of vanilla soft-serve, Shamrock Shake syrup and whipped topping, the shake has been a springtime staple” in anticipation of Saint Patrick’s Day each year.
FILM & TELEVISION
“The Year Between,” A Full Spectrum Feature, Gets March Release
Distributor Gravitas Ventures has taken on “The Year Between,” a film from the current slate of Chicago’s Full Spectrum Features, writes the Hollywood Reporter. The theatrical and VOD release begins March 3. Writer-director Alex Heller is a lead in the film, alongside J. Smith-Cameron, Wyatt Oleff, Emily Robinson, Kyanna Simone and Steve Buscemi. A Tribeca premiere, “The Year Between” follows a college sophomore who returns home to suburban Illinois after a mental breakdown. “The filmmakers are partnering with the National Alliance on Mental Illness Chicago to create resources and dialogue about the use of storytelling as a tool for healing, with NAMI Chicago steering the film’s education and impact distribution… Eugene Sun Park of Full Spectrum Features produced the film, along with Heller, Amanda Phillips, Sonya Lunsford, and Rachel Gould and Caterin Camargo-Alvarez for Level Forward. Executive producers are Adrienne Becker, Roger Clark, and HaJ for Level Forward; and Smith-Cameron, Susanna Fogel, and Kelly Aisthorpe Waller, Ted Reilly and Markie Glassgow for Chicago Media Angels. Talia Koylass served as associate producer for Full Spectrum Features.” (“The Year Between” was the audience favorite at the 2022 Chicago International Film Festival.)
LIT
Algren’s “Golden” Novel With “Strange Midnight Dignity” Reissued
Seven Stories Press has a new paperback of Nelson Algren’s “The Man With The Golden Arm,” which the publisher classes as “a novel of rare genius,” citing Carl Sandburg’s admiration of its “strange midnight dignity.” Algren scholar Colin Asher’s 2,300-word foreword begins: “The Chicago contained within these pages both is and is not the city Nelson Algren was raised in, helped to document while working for the Federal Writers Project during the Great Depression, and then returned to after the conclusion of World War II when his service in Europe ended—thirty-six years old, single, his career stalled. The world of ‘The Man with the Golden Arm’ shares geography, vernacular, and some history with that corporeal city, but every detail has been refracted through Algren’s aesthetic and moral sensibility. In here, the city’s cold beauty has been distilled to poetry, its shortcomings clarified and brought into relief, and its occupants feel more worthy of empathy than any of their equivalents you’re likely to encounter outside of these confines.”
Bullying Librarians Is “For Know-Nothings”
“The GOP’s war on books is ripe for cancellation,” writes Katrina vanden Heuvel at the Nation. “Right-wing activists have taken over school boards across the country, banning books on topics from slavery to the Holocaust, rejecting courses like AP African American Studies, and prohibiting teachers from discussing gender identity in the classroom. Now, in a comically transparent escalation of this anti-intellectual crusade, they are targeting libraries. Worse, they’ve embraced a characteristically cruel approach to doing so: bullying librarians.”
Florida Book Bans Charted And Pictured
The Florida Freedom To Read advocacy group pictures the results of the state’s crackdown on books, with an image of a filled book cart. “Yesterday we logged almost 200 challenges. About 150 of those resulted in immediate removals. This is a picture of all the books removed from one high school library, in one day, in one District, due to the objections of one man… He is in a Facebook group where banners from around the U.S share the books they have hunted down by combing certain awards, book lists, and keyword searches to find their targets.” After Book Riot’s editor covered his attacks at that publication, the group claims, “he added three of hers to his list.” Writes the group, “There are parents and educators in Florida in every district fighting back, but it isn’t easy under the GOP machine. We are demanding education leaders put our students first, and stop with fear-based decisions.” Their list of Florida book banning is here.
STAGE
Meet Oak Park Festival Theatre’s New Artistic Director
Oak Park Festival Theatre, founded in 1975, welcomes artistic director Peter G. Andersen, writes Wednesday Journal. After graduating from Emerson College, Andersen worked in the Chicago theater community, “including at Steppenwolf Theatre Company as the multicultural fellow and at Writers Theatre in Glencoe as the education manager. In December, he earned his Master of Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University” before assuming the mantel at Oak Park Festival Theatre. “I’m really interested in the history of Oak Park and in how integrated it is, which is unique not just to Chicago but to the country as a whole. It gives us an opportunity to create a diverse and integrated audience,” Andersen tells the paper. “I’m excited to lead a company that is striving for that diversity while telling classical stories, especially because that’s my background. I spent most of my twenties working with Shakespeare festivals. This job is the perfect match between my background and a desire for a more diverse experience. It was really serendipitous.”
Second City Veteran Melinda Dillon Was Eighty-Three
“Oscar and Tony-nominated actor Melinda Dillon, who played Mother Parker in ‘A Christmas Story’ and appeared in ‘Magnolia’ and ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind,'” died last month, reports Variety. Her supporting actress nominations came for “CE3K” and “Absence of Malice.” She graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago’s Goodman School of Drama (which is now at DePaul University). “Dillon’s career began as a stage actor and improvisational comedian in ‘The Second City.’ In Edward Albee’s 1962 original ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf,’ the actor played Honey and received a Tony nomination for featured actress in a play. She also acted in ‘Paul Sill’s Story Theater.'”
“Indoor Cats” World-Premieres At Red Theater
Red Theater presents the second show of its season, Mora V. Harris’ “Indoor Cats (a play for humans),” directed by co-artistic director Wyatt Kent. The world-premiere production runs February 17-March 12 at The Edge Off Broadway. “Recently dumped filmmaker Jules is holed up with her cat at her parents’ cabin in central Pennsylvania, watching her career dreams dry up in the face of the pandemic and screening her infuriatingly competent sister’s calls. When she flirtatiously encounters her naturalist neighbor Pete, she begins a foray into the bizarre world of making films for feline viewing.” The production features Karylin Veres, Julia Rowley, Ian Maryfield and Sarah Wisterman. Tickets here.
ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.
Shawnee National Forest Could Become National Park
“A grassroots proposal fueled by opponents of logging and other concerns is gaining traction to transform the 289,000-acre Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois into a national park and the nation’s first climate preserve,” reports Illinois Times. “Proponents argue the designation would protect a valuable, incredibly diverse major ecosystem from destruction by logging and mining interests.” Timber harvesting “occurs on a few hundred acres each year in the Shawnee. Backers of national park and climate preserve status want that permanently reduced to zero.”
Twenty Republican State Attorneys General Will Come After Walgreens, CVS, For Selling Abortion Pills
“The pharmacy giants’ plans to sell abortion pills through the mail violate federal and state laws,” Crain’s reports of the claims of twenty Republican state AGs. The states are led by Missouri, with Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.
Laurence Msall, Sixty-One, President Of Civic Federation
Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation of Chicago for twenty-one- years, has died, reports the Sun-Times. “Msall joined the Civic Federation in 2002 after serving as an adviser on economic development for former Governor George Ryan, where he was responsible for the oversight of eleven state agencies, including the departments of Commerce and Community Affairs, Revenue and Transportation.” Msall was a “good-government advocate who drew respect from across the state’s political divides for his sharp eye on government budgeting and pension issues.”
Homelessness Grant Of $60 Million From Federal Funding
The Department of Housing and Urban Development will address “the number of people living on the streets with a $60 million grant,” reports the Tribune, “part of $315 million in federal funding to forty-six communities across the U.S.”
Florida Clampdown On Drag Extends To Liquor Sales
The state government of presumptive GOP presidential aspirant Ron DeSantis is revoking the liquor license of an Orlando venue following a drag show, reports the Orlando Sentinel. “DeSantis’ press secretary Bryan Griffin said the venue ‘violated Florida statutes,’ and therefore ‘the Department is revoking the venue’s license for the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages.’ The Plaza Live, an Orlando event venue” overseen by The Orlando Philharmonic Plaza Foundation, “had a responsibility to make sure no minors were in attendance at the December 28 show,” the state charges.
