Rainy Day, July 2005/Photo: Ray Pride
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ART
Wrightwood 659’s “The First Homosexuals” Will Show Alongside Art Basel
Kunstmuseum Basel will adapt Wrightwood 659’s “The First Homosexuals” for an exhibition next spring to coincide with Art Basel, the institution announces. “Founded in 1661, Kunstmuseum Basel houses the oldest public art collection in the world, encompassing more than 300,000 works from the late Middle Ages to the present. Rooted in such history, ‘The First Homosexuals’ will find powerful resonance within the museum’s storied halls, bringing long-overlooked queer histories into dialogue with centuries of art and ideas, and affirming the importance of LGBTQ+ narratives within one of Europe’s most respected public institutions.”
A Look At Robert Longo’s Renaissance, Recently Featured At Milwaukee Art Museum
The New York Times Style Magazine goes big on portraying artist Robert Longo. “Longo first became prominent in his twenties as one of the main artists of the Pictures Generation, a loose cohort—including Cindy Sherman, David Salle, Richard Prince, Jack Goldstein and Sherrie Levine—that emerged in the late 1970s and dominated in the eighties… Now, Longo is seventy-two and has spent the past year working on dueling retrospectives.
“One originated at the Albertina museum in Vienna last fall, and then traveled, in slightly modified form, to the Louisiana outside of Copenhagen. The second opened, also last fall, at the Milwaukee Art Museum, where he called it, somewhat portentously, ‘The Acceleration of History‘ (Longo never undersells his intentions).” Rafael Francisco Salas reviewed that show for Newcity in January.
Why Are New York Galleries Closing?
“It’s a mystery how things can be this difficult for an industry that works on such large margins—up to fifty percent for most galleries, for inventory that they don’t have to buy, invest in or manufacture,” writes the Observer. A recent wave of gallery closures prompted one observer to note that galleries, “especially those focused on primary market work, are essentially businesses running on razor-thin or nonexistent profit margins… ‘Many businesses run, profitably, on much lower margins—a supermarket, for instance, at two percent!’” But “many of the most dynamic galleries today, the ones doing the groundwork, are not built on capital injections or clear ROI models. They’re often driven instead by intuition, stubborn passion and the belief that they’re helping shape the future of art.”
Sharing Art Rejected By The Minnesota State Fair
“The Fine Arts Competition at the State Fair is one of the most competitive juried exhibitions in Minnesota. This year, artists submitted a total of 2,835 pieces; only 336 were accepted,” reports Minnesota Public Radio. The rejects are taking their work elsewhere, to “State Fair Rejects,” running August 9-September 27, at the Douglas Flanders & Associates gallery in Minneapolis. Says Flanders, “There was a lot of professional artists complaining about being rejected all the time, and I thought, well, maybe we should do a reject show.” Last year “was the gallery’s first reject show with fifty artist submissions. This year, there are almost eighty artworks, from sculpture and paintings to textiles and photography.”
DESIGN
A Historic Chicago Canal Will Be Renamed
“The Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal was dug to help change the flow of the Chicago River when it opened in 1900. Now the public is being asked for suggested [names] that better reflect the canal’s current and future uses,” reports the Sun-Times. “Renaming a geographic landmark isn’t too common. Of 1,400 name-change applications received by the board in the last ten years, thirteen requests were in Illinois, according to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names.”
The First Tower Rises At Site Of Never-To-Be Spire
“More than a year after work to fill the infamous Chicago Spire hole at 400 North Lake Shore, a curtain wall of windows is starting to cover what will become Chicago’s thirteenth-tallest building,” reports the Sun-Times. “The project is being developed in two phases. Phase one is the seventy-two-story tower at the waterfront, sitting on the site’s northern end. The phase will also include a plaza with retail space, public art and three levels of underground parking. The first tower will have 635 units, including 127 affordable apartments… Construction on the second tower—a shorter, 765-foot high-rise to the south—will start once the north tower is completed. It will have 500 units.”
DINING & DRINKING
Chicago Cheese Through The Eyes Of One Monger
“Shelf Life,” a documentary “that screened this summer at Maxwells Trading, where Alisha Norris Jones is a server, introduces viewers to… a Black woman operating in the mostly white world of cheese. She is among a wave of industry-changing cheesemongers demanding changes to make the industry more diverse and inclusive,” reports the Sun-Times. “Jones, who uses the moniker ‘Immortal Milk‘ in her work as a freelance cheesemonger, agreed to meet me at Beautiful Rind to tell me how she got into this industry and where newbies should begin when putting together a cheese board.”
Tariffs May Bust Lifetime Promise Of Ninety-Nine-Cent AriZona Iced Tea
“The ninety-nine-cent price of a tallboy of AriZona Iced Tea is so central to the company’s identity that the numbers are a part of the package design,” accounts the New York Times. “I hate even the thought of it,” Don Vultaggio, the founder and chairman of the AriZona Beverage Company, said. “It would be a hell of a shame after thirty-plus years.” AriZona “uses more than a hundred million pounds of aluminum a year for its cans, and about twenty percent of that comes from Canada.” If fifty-percent tariffs are enacted, “at some point the consumer is going to have to pay the price.”
South Korean Starbucks Asks Customers Not To Sublet Tables As Offices
“Starbucks South Korea is telling customers to leave their large office supplies at home,” reports Business Insider. “The chain urged patrons not to bring desktops, printers and desk partitions into its stores. The country is known for its strong café culture, and a trend of people working from coffee outlets.”
FILM & TELEVISION
DePaul Tabbed As Nation’s Ninth-Best Film School; Columbia College Thirteenth
DePaul’s film school is on an annual list of notable American institutions, tallies the Hollywood Reporter. “The school, which sits within the College of Computing and Digital Media, has long focused on a technical education. Now, it’s [expanding] its virtual production curriculum, adding two new minors in Virtual Production as well as an M.S. in Film/TV Virtual Production and an AI in Film Education Conference. Two alums—’The People’s Joker’ director-star Vera Drew and ‘Ghostlight’ [co-] director Alex Thompson, were nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the 2024 Independent Spirit Awards.” Columbia College is also represented on the list at number thirteen.
Chicago Film Archives Preserves Eleven Midwestern Films
Chicago Film Archives has completed two yearlong projects to photochemically preserve eleven films made by filmmakers from Chicago and the Midwest, the archive announces. Also, the National Film Preservation Foundation has awarded CFA a grant to preserve “The New World of Stainless Steel” (1960), “a jaunty, jazzy, and somewhat surreal Technicolor industrial film produced by Chicago’s Wilding Pictures Productions for Republic Steel.”
MEDIA
Oak Park’s Wednesday Journal Clears Out Offices
With a “goal to put every dollar into reporting local news rather than paying rent, the nonprofit Growing Community Media this week cleared out its longtime Wednesday Journal offices” in Oak Park, reports the publication. The group has been in the same building for forty-four of its forty-five years. “Last week our small staff cleaned out desks, found a few treasures, left chalked messages on walls and prepared to produce this issue remotely. We did it during COVID. Surely it will be more fun without a worldwide pandemic.”
Public Radio Could Start Selling Off Stations
“The loss of federal funding has led most public radio and television stations to take a fresh assessment of their spending and what it might take to survive the new financial reality. For some stations, one option they may need to consider is taking stock of which signals they want to keep and which may be better monetized through a sale,” reports Inside Radio. Meanwhile, the statewide Alabama Public Television is considering dropping NPR programming altogether.
MUSIC
Chicago’s Listening Bars Are Here To Stay (And Listen)
“For those looking to sit and really listen to an obscure single or underappreciated album—communally, maybe discuss it in real time—there’s been a gap” in Chicago’s music scene, spins the Trib. Enter the new “bars built for listening, including the new Charis Listening Bar in Bridgeport, A Listening Space in Washington Park… Both Charis Listening Bar and A Listening Space draw inspiration from… traditions of jazz ‘kissas,’ or cafés that rose to prominence in Japan after World War II as a way for folks to share and listen to imported jazz albums that would otherwise be… hard to come by; infusing global appreciation and the universal language of music with Midwestern charm.”
STAGE
Goodman’s Hundredth Season Begins
“When Goodman Theatre opened its doors in fall of 1925, its first audiences were treated to groundbreaking new plays,” the Goodman writes. “One hundred years later, Chicago audiences are first to experience two world-premiere productions that launch the theater’s Centennial Season.” The season opener, “Ashland Avenue,” is a new play by Lee Kirk, directed by artistic director Susan V. Booth and featuring Jenna Fischer, Francis Guinan, Will Allan, Cordelia Dewdney and Chiké Johnson in the 856-seat Albert Theatre.
The world-premiere punk-metal-hip-hop musical “Revolution(s)” by Zayd Ayers Dohrn with music by Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member Tom Morello will play in the 350-seat Owen Theatre, directed by Steve H. Broadnax III. Chicago holiday tradition Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” returns for its forty-eighth year, directed for the first time by Bold Artistic Producer Malkia Stampley, starring Christopher Donahue as Ebenezer Scrooge for his second season. Tickets and more here.
Jackalope Announces Plays And Casts For Living Newspaper Fest
Jackalope Theatre Company has announced the plays and casts for the sixteenth annual Living Newspaper Festival, inspired by the 1930s Living Newspapers of the Federal Theatre Project that created stories based on recent events. The Festival includes five one-act plays, with a running time of seventy-five minutes. The plays are by Ike Holter, Jesse Jae Hoon, Nora Leahy, Paloma Nozicka and Jasmine Sharma. The opening night performance is in partnership with the Goodman as part of the Goodman’s One Hundred Free Acts of Theater. Broadway Armory Park, August 21-25. Tickets ($15-$35) and more here.
What To See At Rhinoceros Theater Festival This Year
Tickets are on sale for the thirty-sixth annual Rhinoceros Theater Festival, Chicago’s longest-running theater fest, September 5-28 at Facility Theatre, Labyrinth Arts Club and Jarvis Square Theatre. The fest begins with a Full Moon Vaudeville Concert, Saturday, August 30 at Facility Theatre, headlined by cabaret act The Crooked Mouth. This year’s performers include longtime Rhino favorite BoyGirlBoyGirl; award-winning writer and storyteller Idris Goodwin; award-winning playwright and audio dramatist Jessica Wright-Buha; Chicago storefront founding set designer and theater-maker Rick Paul; filmmaker Wendy Jo Carlton and director-playwright-professor Cecilie Keenan; actor Charles Pike with playwright and digital artist David Hauptschein; poetry and movement artist Maya Odim; theater company Tellin Tales; theater company El Bear; and musician Keith Fort with a one-time country western band. Tickets (pay-what-you-can or $20) and more here.
Dado On Directing An Opera At The MCA
“Dado, visiting instructor at Purdue University Northwest in the Communication and Creative Arts department, will direct an opera from scratch at the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Prop Thtr in Chicago for the Storefront Project,” reports Valparaiso’s GreatNews.Life. “The Storefront Project is a performance from artists in the Chicago area who were asked to take a piece of a public-domain text that was not supposed to be made for theater and make it into a production. ‘These curators thought it would be interesting to show original work from artists in unconventional spaces at their venues,’ Dado said.”
She “went to her local library in search of texts that could be used for the production. She found a 1910 vacuum advertisement that inspired her to create the text into an opera. ‘I thought the ad was both hilarious and upsetting—the writing in the ad was subversively sexualized, but in a terribly theatrical way. Also, it takes a good hard look at the generational systems embedded in repetitious acts of questionable domestic capitalism.’”
Mamet Advises Billionaires On Escaping Apocalypse
Seventy-seven-year-old Chicago native, playwright and polemicist books a Wall Street Journal guest berth to offer his thoughts on billionaires who expect to escape to retreats like New Zealand upon apocalypse: “For what is the size of the group for which they foresee transportation, protection and perpetual care?” he asks, questioning how to control the rabble required to maintain a far-flung household. “The guards would realize themselves to be… the only ones capable of keeping order, and if money is now useless, they have no need of their employer. On the plane he would be dead weight—and in the New Zealand bunker, just a useless mouth to feed. The caretakers, builders, security guards, and so on, of the compound, would insist on being accommodated—if they hadn’t already barricaded themselves in and locked the plutocrats out.”
Married Magicians Materialize At The Den
Married magic duo Elizabeth Messick and Eric Thirstin, aka The Cosmic Romantics, bring “Magically Ever After,” their “intimate, vaudeville-inspired blend of illusion, comedy and storytelling” to The Den Theatre. “Magically Ever After” is “threaded with details of their own cosmic love story: meeting in the Los Angeles magic world, falling in love (after a rocky start), and the trials and tribulations of being professional entertainers in uncertain times. Along the way, Elizabeth shares snippets of her immigrant family’s unlikely journey from Honduras to the United States and Eric pokes fun at his alcohol-fueled family history in showbiz.” September 4-25. Tickets ($35) and more here.
ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.
Is There Any Money Left In Wisconsin For The Arts?
Wisconsin “spends about eighteen cents per capita on arts funding, placing it at forty-ninth in the country,” writes Milwaukee magazine. “It’s a big contrast from neighboring states Minnesota and Illinois, which spend $10.07 and $2.71. respectively… With more funding challenges than ever, some arts advocates look to the state of Wisconsin for help. Will it ever come?”
Longtime Uptown Activist Angela Turley Was Ninety-Seven
“Angela Turley was a longtime community organizer, social worker and activist in Uptown,” chronicles the Tribune. Turley helped to found or lead “organizations aimed at providing better housing, employment, education and safety for lower-income Chicagoans, including Tri-Faith, IVI/IPO, Jane Addams Hull House, the Council of International Programs and the Uptown People’s Federal Credit Union.”
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