Today In The Culture, September 18, 2023: Newell Era to End at Court | Schiff Era Begins at UChicago Creative Writing | Chicago (Not) Tonight?

Candace Hunter/Photo: Tony Smith

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ART

Hyde Park Art Center Exhibitions Include Candace Hunter Solo Show

Hyde Park Art Center, the nonprofit hub for contemporary art located on the South Side, announces three exhibitions and related free public programming for Fall 2023. The programs include free artist talks, public workshops, resident artist open studios, the eighty-fourth annual gala, with the centerpiece being the largest solo exhibition to date by Chicago-based artist Candace Hunter, “exploring themes of otherhood and alienation inspired by speculative fiction author Octavia E. Butler’s works.” More here.

Schieles Seized From U. S. Museums, Including Art Institute 

Works by the painter Egon Schiele were seized from museums, reports the New York Times: “The Manhattan district attorney’s office issued warrants to the Art Institute of Chicago, the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, and the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College in Ohio, for works by the 1900s Austrian Expressionist Egon Schiele… Prosecutors say the artworks rightly belong to three living heirs of Fritz Grünbaum, a prominent Jewish art collector and cabaret artist killed at the Dachau concentration camp in Germany in 1941.”

The Art Institute said in a statement, “We are confident in our legal acquisition and lawful possession of this work. The piece is the subject of civil litigation in federal court, where this dispute is being properly litigated and where we are also defending our legal ownership.”

Report: American Museum Workers Want To Quit

“Two-thirds of museum workers are thinking about leaving their jobs, if not the field altogether, according to a survey,” reports the Art Newspaper. “The top reasons? Burnout and low pay… The issue is most pronounced among those in the middle of their career trajectory, whether they are working in a curatorial department or building operations. A whopping seventy-six-percent of millennial workers say they are considering leaving the industry due to burnout, low pay and a lack of opportunities for growth. If even a portion of them follows through, the future of the museum sector looks considerably more meager.”

Former Art Basel Head Marc Spiegler Joins Superblue Board Of Directors

“Marc Spiegler, the former global director of Art Basel, has joined the board of directors for Superblue,” relays ARTnews. “The move comes after the experiential art center’s two highest profile backers, Laurene Powell Jobs’s Emerson Collective and Pace CEO Marc Glimcher, scaled back their involvement in the company… Spiegler stepped down from his position at Art Basel last October, after more than fifteen years at the company.” (Spiegler, who grew up in Chicago, was a staff writer and senior editor at Newcity in the nineties.)

DESIGN

CTA Says Ridership Returning To Pre-Pandemic Levels

CTA leaders say Chicagoans are returning to public transportation, reports CBS 2. There were “more than one million rides on four days in late August and early September. Thursday, September 7, was the highest, with 1,033,000 rides… the highest since 2020.”

Zoning Veteran Patrick Murphey To Run Chicago Planning Department

“Chicago Zoning Administrator Patrick Murphey, who has worked in city planning roles across four administrations,” is now DPD’s acting commissioner, reports Crain’s. “The move puts a Chicago planning veteran who knows the city’s zoning code and review process as well as anyone atop a key role in Mayor Johnson’s administration… Murphey’s appointment will likely be well received by real estate developers, many of whom have criticized the department for being slow to review and approve projects” under the previous administration’s Maurice Cox.

Maurice Cox’s Exit Interview

“The commissioner behind Chicago’s ambitious $2.2 billion INVEST South/West initiative” has stepped down from the department of planning and development, reports WBEZ. “The [INVEST] projects encompass housing, small businesses, transit and public space. Appointed by the former mayor, Cox is one of the last high-profile department heads to leave the previous administration.” He spoke with Natalie Moore in an interview at WBEZ published on his last day.

Two Frank Lloyd Wright Homes For Sale In Kalamazoo

Two Kalamazoo houses designed by Frank Lloyd Wright are up for sale together, restored in recent years by a Dutch couple, reports Dennis Rodkin at Crain’s. “It all started as a search for an interesting weekend house. In 2016, Marika Broere and Tony Hillebrandt, who live outside Toronto but hail from the Netherlands, happened to find the first of the two houses and took it on as a restoration project. They found the effort so fulfilling that a few years later they took on the house next door.”

David Adjaye London Office Firing Half Of Staff

“Allegations of sexual misconduct against David Adjaye… sent shockwaves through the profession and led clients to cancel a string of projects. Now, his practice is making redundancies while former employees allege that a toxic culture permeated what was once one of the world’s most revered architecture studios,” reports Architects’ Journal. “Almost half of Adjaye Associates’ 110-strong workforce in London are set to lose their jobs.”

Apple Sheds Leather (Or Shifts To Hermès)

Apple said it will “no longer use leather in any new products, including watch straps—part of efforts to reduce its environmental footprint,” reports Business Of Fashion. “It worked with Nike and Hermès, brands it’s partnered with to sell watch bands, to develop more environmentally friendly options. But Hermès said leather watch straps will still form part of the Apple Watch Hermès collection and be available for sale exclusively in its stores.”

DINING & DRINKING

Are The Last 809 Taverns Trickling Away?

“There used to be fifty bars between here and Oak Park Avenue,” the proprietor of The Question Mark, far west on Grand, tells Chicago magazine. “Now, there’s maybe four. There’s hardly any bars left on Western. There used to be 3,000 bars in the city of Chicago.” Sixty bars have closed since February 2020. “The figure is down to 809, according to Pat Doerr, director of the Hospitality Business Association… The decline began even before Royko recorded it. The first cause was television. The second was deindustrialization… Bars that can open at 8am and bars that close at 4am or 5am are… a holdover from when we were a three-shift town. As manufacturing moved out, that also led to the decline, because you weren’t serving people leaving work all around the clock.”

Late Night Bars Could Be Banned In Gold Coast, Old Town

“Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) is trying to put a full stop to new 4am liquor licenses in his ward, including banning all future liquor licenses along a popular stretch of Wells Street in Old Town,” reports Block Club. “We can’t handle any more liquor establishments,” says Hopkins, saying that we “are maxed out… The police commander himself said I can’t have one more bar closing at the same time… The streets get flooded, they just can’t handle it.”

Nisei Lounge Latest Dive Hit By Crime

A 7am burglary, reports the Tribune: “The beloved Wrigleyville tavern Nisei Lounge became the most recent target in… bar and restaurant break-ins after a person removed a window and ransacked the bar early on Friday morning, tavern management said. Pat Odon, Nisei Lounge’s director of beer and baseball operations, said someone removed a pane of glass, took cash and totally tossed the back area looking for money and valuables.”

Boka And One Off At Twenty

“In 2003, the owners of Blackbird took over the West Loop space next door to the casual fine dining pioneer to create Avec,” writes Samantha Nelson at Eater Chicago. “Inspired by a trip that executive chef and partner Paul Kahan had just taken to Spain, they imagined it as a space where diners waiting for one of the tables in Blackbird’s tight dining room could bide their time with wine and light bites. That same year, hospitality veterans Rob Katz and Kevin Boehm, introduced by mutual friends, met for coffee at Old Town diner Nookies. What was meant to be a thirty-minute conversation lasted hours… They recruited chef Giuseppe Scurato and opened Boka in Lincoln Park.”

“Twenty years later, both spots are among the most beloved restaurants in the city and have formed the backbone of two highly successful restaurant operators: Boka Restaurant Group and One Off Hospitality. As two of Chicago’s most influential restaurant groups, they became friendly rivals, and amid the ups and downs of the industry, are now celebrating two decades in the city.” More here.

2022 Michelin Guide Sommelier of the Year Joins Adorn Bar & Restaurant As General Manager

Adorn Restaurant, the New American dining destination at the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago, has appointed Colin Hofer general manager. The 2022 Michelin Guide Sommelier of the Year brings a “guest-driven perspective to the restaurant’s programming and operations, setting a new bar for contemporary cuisine in Chicago’s Gold Coast. We are delighted to welcome Colin Hofer to Four Seasons Hotel Chicago as Adorn Restaurant’s general manager,” says Four Seasons Hotel Chicago’s general manager, Stephen Wancha. “His distinguished journey in Chicago’s hospitality scene and being recognized as Michelin Guide’s Chicago Sommelier of the Year in 2022, sets an extraordinary precedent for our growing restaurant team.”

FILM & TELEVISION

”Chicago Tonight” Slashed To Two Nights A Week

”After nearly forty years as a four-day-a-week public TV news show, ‘Chicago Tonight’ will air just two days a week,” reports Axios Chicago. “‘I think it’s a serious civic mistake,’ former host Carol Marin [says]. ‘”Chicago Tonight” is a go-to place for newsmakers, a reliable place to hear more than one sentence on an issue. To lose it is to sell off a PBS jewel.’ … The nightly public affairs program is set to celebrate its fortieth anniversary next year.”

WTTW’s Heather Cherone has questions about the reportage: “It is the lowest of the low bar to ask that journalists reach out to all sides involved in a story before publication. Disappointing,” replying to producer Jared Rutecki, “There are a number of points in today’s Axios Chicago story about WTTW Chicago Tonight. I think attributing the cost of the show to unions seems indefensible at best, especially w/out union comment, because it serves to earn working class people a living wage. Bad take.”

Former Chicagoan Ken Griffin Disdains “Dumb Money”

“Ken Griffin, a character in ‘Dumb Money,’ slams movie’s ‘false implications and inaccuracies,'” headlines the Sun-Times of the irreverent docu-comedy. “A spokesman for the former Illinois billionaire, played on screen by Nick Offerman, says some errors in the film were corrected at his request, a claim denied by the screenwriters.” Puck first reported the conflict: “The hedge fund billionaire is locked in a nasty behind-the-scenes legal fight over his depiction in the new GameStop movie and has hired at least two separate law firms to send Sony Pictures threatening letters.”

The web is tangled: “Black Bear, the $30 million film’s financier and producer, is run by Teddy Schwarzman, son of Blackstone chief and Wall Street legend Steve Schwarzman… Teddy only got involved because MGM, which was developing the film, was bought by Amazon, which put it in turnaround… Griffin is friendly with Jeff Bezos and paid $8 million for two seats on Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket (he donated both).” (Our review is here.)

“The Bear” Went Over The Mountain: Writer Can’t Afford To Live In Los Angeles

“I’m on the verge of leaving LA,” posts “The Bear” writer Alex O’Keefe on Twitter. “Can’t afford it anymore. AMPTP refuses to pay up and save Hollywood. Young writers are sacrificing EVERYTHING for this strike. We are not going to accept any deal that concedes our survival. It’s do or die.” WGA East vice-president Lisa Takeuchi Cullen on Twitter: “Alex told me ‘The Bear’ barely left the restaurant in Season One bc they lacked the budget. Cool. Great show made for no $. But when it became a monster hit for FX, that success should’ve translated into paychecks for writers and actors. Instead, they’re going broke. WE NEED TO FIX THIS.”

LIT

Robyn Schiff Pencilled In As Director Of UChicago Creative Writing Program

Robyn Schiff, the author of the 2016 collection “A Woman of Property” and, most recently, “Information Desk: An Epic,” has been named director of the University of Chicago’s Creative Writing program. Since the University’s 2017 announcement of an undergraduate major in creative writing, the number of students in the program has increased nearly 400 percent. Courses range from traditional workshops to a class on literary publishing the students of which serve as initial readers for the Phoenix Poets Series. “As host to that series as well as the Chicago Review, UChicago has made itself not only a hub of high-caliber literary output, but also a key agent in curating the next generation of American poets.”

MUSIC

Female Rock Legends Not “Articulate,” Stumbles Former Owner Of Rolling Stone; Booted Off Board Of Rock Hall Of Fame

“Jann Wenner is a man whose taste, preferences and artistic consumption most certainly does have impact: he was the co-founder of Rolling Stone. And on Friday, the New York Times published an incredible interview with him,” writes Monica Hesse at the Washington Post. Wenner’s new book is comprised of extended interviews with elder white male musicians he admires. In the Times interview, Wenner says, “Insofar as the women… just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level.” The interviewer “pushed back hard on this, but Wenner refused to budge. He was looking for musicians who were ‘philosophers of rock,’ he explained…” That escalated quickly: within a day, the seventy-seven-year-old boomer tastemaker was ejected from the board of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, which he co-founded.

STAGE

Charles Newell To Move Out Of Court Theatre Artistic Director Role

After a thirty-year tenure at Court Theatre at the University of Chicago, Charles Newell will leave his role as artistic director in June 2024, the theater announces. Newell will program the 2024-25 season, in which he will direct the premiere of an original work, and he will then assume the role of senior artistic consultant through June 2025, in which he will “bolster fundraising initiatives, foster creative innovation, empower developing leaders and cultivate relationships across the University.”

Susan V. Booth’s Routines, Plus “Planking”

Goodman Theatre artistic director Susan V. Booth talks “planking” with Web Behrens at Chicago magazine: “When rehearsing a play I’m directing, during a break, I will plank. Everyone’s invited: the stage manager, anyone in the cast. Day one, we set a bar really low—thirty-second plank. Each day we add a little time. If there’s somebody up at the three-minute mark, I have to stay up, too. We’re all weird about our bodies and health. The beauty of planking with a bunch of people is it gets uncomfortable fast, which is very leveling.”

No More History Pageants From Lin-Manuel Miranda

“Hamilton” hove into Chicago again: “I’ll give you a scoop,” Lin-Manuel Miranda tells the Sun-Times. “I don’t think I’m writing another history musical ever fucking again. You think I can top this?” The show, “which ended a three-year run here in January 2020, opened Thursday night at the James M. Nederlander Theatre.”

Playwright Inda Craig-Galván On Black Theater In Chicago

“Most of my plays are set in Chicago because that’s where I’m from,” playwright Inda Craig-Galván said. “It just happened to be this confluence of events that I have two productions in Chicago about plays that take place in Chicago at the same time,” reports Darcel Rockett at the Trib. She thinks local, and she thinks about money: “This very specific thing of relocating residents from Cabrini-Green to the south suburbs is specific to us, but there is still the idea of this reverse gentrification and people holding on very tightly to what their ideas of home and ownership are, and with all of the people unionizing and all the strikes happening, people realizing that no matter how much control you think you have in your own situation, there are people who make way more money off your labor and off your situation. So much so everybody is waking up and realizing we have got to change things because we aren’t controlling things. A lot of it is about money.”

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

Masking Returns To UChicago Medicine

“UChicago Medicine is again requiring employees to wear masks when directly interacting with patients, hospital leadership told staff in a memo,” reports the Sun-Times. “The hospital strongly recommends patients and visitors also wear masks and are required to if they have symptoms of a respiratory infection, including COVID-19, the flu and RSV.”

U. S. Soccer Relocating From Chicago To Atlanta; Home Depot Co-Founder Footing Cost

“The Chicago-based U.S. Soccer Federation is moving its headquarters to the Atlanta area, where it is going to build a training center,” reports Crain’s. “Home Depot co-founder Arthur Blank, who owns soccer team Atlanta United, is contributing $50 million” for the move.

Half Of U.S. Antarctic Research Cancelled Or Cut

“This summer NSF decided to cancel or curtail sixty-seven—more than half—of the 131 projects and activities funded for the 2023-24 austral summer after concluding it couldn’t provide them with the necessary logistical support,” reports Science. A “housing shortage is part of a triad of factors generating a perfect storm that is battering the United States Antarctic Program, long regarded as the best in the world. One element, the pandemic, shut down most research for two years and then, when cases spiked, severely disrupted the 2022-23 season. The pandemic, in turn, has stretched out a $500 million renovation project at McMurdo, reducing the number of available beds for both scientists and those who provide them with essential logistical support.”

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