A frame from a destroyed scene of “The Magnificent Ambersons,” fabricated by AI/Image: Showrunner
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ART
Cautious Optimism For Galleries At Armory Show Opening
This year’s edition of the Armory Show opened late last week to cautious optimism and substantial turnout, relays ARTnews. “The turnout was a welcome sign for the art market, after a shaky spring gave way to a summer of gallery closures, lawsuits and fair cancellations. On Thursday, however, the mood was cautiously upbeat. No dealer claimed that they had the best VIP day of their career, but many told ARTnews that the slower pace was matched by serious interest.”
Symposium On Design And Social Practice Features Edra Soto
Deem Journal’s third symposium, “The Place of Dwelling,” is a “daylong gathering [that] considers challenging and topical subjects through the intersecting lenses of design and social practice.” This year’s symposium features Edra Soto as keynote speaker, who will speak on “how she strives to empower unheard voices and celebrate fellow creatives in order to build spaces for reflection, convening and collaboration.” Saturday, October 25. See the full program lineup here.
What to See At This Weekend’s Ravenswood ArtWalk
The twenty-third annual Ravenswood ArtWalk is this weekend. The event features an outdoor arts market with over eighty local artists, a pop-up beer garden and an open house at Lillstreet Art Center, currently celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. September 13-14, 11am-6pm, along Ravenswood from Lawrence to Irving Park. More here.
Lincoln Park Art Night Returns For Fourth Edition
DePaul Art Museum, gallery 1871, Madron Gallery, Art on Sedgwick, and Leslie Wolfe Gallery are participating in the fourth annual free Lincoln Park Art Night, bringing together art destinations in the neighborhood for an open house evening. Sprinter vans will circulate the neighborhood offering hop-on/hop-off service for three hours on Thursday, November 6, 5:30pm-8:30pm. More details are forthcoming.
Fine Arts Find AI
“Talented artists are using the technology to do what talented artists always will: ask human questions and express human ideas,” asserts the New York Times. “Where are the chill winds that blow through so many conversations about AI—the enormity of its potential social disruptions, the troubling opacity of machine reasoning? One job of contemporary art, after all, is to register not just society’s aspirations but its dismay… Think of it as a new playing board for what is still very much a game between humans.”
DESIGN
Hines Unveils KPF-Designed Office Proposal At 301 South Wacker
Despite neighboring 311 South Wacker’s fire sale earlier this year—another tower designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, albeit one completed in 1990—developer Hines has updated its site with renderings for a new office tower designed by the firm. While the commercial real estate industry has been plagued by vacancies since the pandemic, Class A office space has been in demand. This proposed project would “rise approximately forty-five stories and reach a height of over 700 feet,” containing 800,000 of new office space. Chicago YIMBY has renderings and more details here.
Century-Old Buildings By Dwight Perkins Teach Lessons On School Design
“Chicago Public Schools are among the city’s most architecturally distinctive buildings. And the best of these are the forty buildings designed by Dwight Perkins during his five-year term as the system’s chief architect,” writes Sun-Times architecture critic Lee Bey. “Perkins’ school work represents an extraordinary break from the neo-Gothic and Greek Revival templates that gripped educational building architecture at the time.”
JDL’s Foundry Park Plans Shown In Three Dimensions
“Preliminary renderings have been revealed for the new Foundry Park proposal set to take over the northern portion of Lincoln Yards,” reports Urbanize Chicago. These renderings “are the first 3D look at the new proposal for the site by JDL Development and Kayne Anderson Real Estate. Designed by Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture, the new site plan will include fifteen new mixed-use mid-rise and high-rise buildings in addition to townhomes, single-family homes, and extensive green space designed by Nudge Design.”
CTA Hosts Town Halls On Potential Service Cuts
Chicago Transit Authority “is hosting three town halls in September on next year’s budget as the agency anticipates potential drastic service cuts if lawmakers in Springfield fail to pass a funding bill,” records the Sun-Times. “The CTA also says it will share a vision of its future in the town halls if, on the other hand, lawmakers pass a funding bill that instead raises funding for Chicago-area transit by $1.5 billion a year.”
Cortland Street Bridge Closed For Two Years
Bridge reconstruction will close an artery between Lincoln Park and Bucktown for up to two years, reports Block Club. “The Cortland Street bridge will close to car traffic September 22 as construction gets underway. The bridge’s sidewalk will remain open for a few extra months before also closing… Work on the bridge will include new concrete-filled grating, timber sidewalks, railing, lighting and paint as well as structural work.” The plans also include a rehabilitation of the bridge house.
Prosper, Southwest Side Skate Shop, Closes After Fourteen Years
“Prosper is the only store of its kind for miles and has become a refuge for young skaters in the area, but financial woes forced the closure,” reports Block Club. “The store opened in Little Village fourteen years ago and moved to West Lawn in 2022. It sells boards, gear and clothing. Owners and employees approached the business with an anti-corporate mentality, billing the shop as a community space for local skaters.”
DINING & DRINKING
Vatican On Rush: Restaurant Announced By Pope, Phil Stefani, Art Smith
Phil Stefani, majordomo of Stefani Restaurant Group, and Art Smith, Oprah’s former personal chef, will “open a restaurant at a new public-facing Vatican property on the grounds of a longtime papal retreat south of Rome,” reports WTTW. “Although Pope Leo XIV was born in Chicago and grew up in south suburban Dolton, the selection of Stefani and Smith took place under the first American pope’s predecessor, Pope Francis.”
All You Can Eataly Returns For Autumn Bacchanalia
Eataly Chicago’s All You Can Eataly SeptemberFest brings four hours of unlimited food, drink and entertainment to guests, who will have access to more than forty Italian bites and over thirty pours of wine, beer and spirits while exploring events throughout the store. The menu includes fresh seafood, Roman-style pizza, a variety of housemade pasta dishes, a wagyu carving station, fall favorites like butternut squash ravioli and apple cinnamon focaccia, artisanal salumi and formaggi and classic Italian sweets. Friday, September 26, 7pm-11pm. Tickets ($130) and details here.
Bar Inspired By Late-Nineties London Opens Upstairs At Hawksmoor
Beef & Liberty Bar will open this month upstairs at Hawksmoor in River North. “It’s a Chicago cocktail bar inspired by the late-night basements of Soho, London [with] a cocktail list inspired by London’s legendary late-nineties bar scene.” Opening September 19, “moody music, bold drinks, and plenty of trouble (the good kind) are on the menu.” Photos and more details here.
FILM & TELEVISION
WGN-TV Owner Calls Local Media “The Least Sexy, Most Sticky Part Of The Media Ecosystem”
WGN-TV parent Nexstar Media Group, the “giant broadcaster that’s angling to get even bigger, said it’s made a home in local media because that’s a lucrative place to be,” reports Deadline. “Everybody’s focused on networks and streaming and top down and national media. The local media space, which has been ignored, is one we’ve chosen to build a dominant position in, and it’s that last mile connection with both the viewer and the advertiser that I say is the least sexy, most sticky part of the media ecosystem.” The largest owner of TV stations intends to acquire rival Tegna “in a $6.2 billion deal that challenges long held limits on control of local media.”
PBS Cuts A Hundred Jobs, Fifteen-Percent Of Workforce
“PBS is cutting a hundred positions, or roughly fifteen percent of its staff, as a result of the major federal funding cuts to public broadcasting,” reports the New York Times. “The organization had already frozen hiring, restricted travel and paused pay increases.” More from CBS News here.
Orson Welles’ “Magnificent Ambersons” Gets AI For Missing Forty-Three Minutes
Fable, an Amazon-backed startup, is using Orson Welles’ notoriously mutilated 1942 “The Magnificent Ambersons” “as a test case for how Hollywood can overhaul production. The results won’t be commercialized—the tech giant hasn’t obtained rights” from the film’s owners, writes the Hollywood Reporter. Fable intends “to reconstruct the destroyed forty-three minutes… The effort won’t be commercialized but if the legal owners see a marketplace for it and a path for it outside of an academic context, then of course they have ownership of it,” the CEO says.
Welles’ estate let Variety know that, among other issues, they retain the rights “to license a voice model of Welles for commercial enterprises.” While “the estate has embraced AI technology to create a voice model intended to be used for VO work with brands… this attempt to generate publicity on the back of Welles’ creative genius is disappointing, especially as we weren’t even given the courtesy of a heads up. While AI is inevitable, it still cannot replace the creative instincts resident in the human mind, which means this effort to make ‘Ambersons’ whole will be a purely mechanical exercise without any of the uniquely innovative thinking or a creative force like Welles.”
LIT
Comic Artist Art Spiegelman Joins Print Curator Mark Pascale In Conversation
SAIC will host a free virtual conversation between comic artist Art Spiegelman and curator Mark Pascale, followed by an audience Q&A. Spiegelman is renowned for his work in comic art across decades—in particular for “Maus” and acclaimed avant-garde comics magazine Raw—while Pascale “is the Janet and Craig Duchossois Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago and concurrently senior lecturer in print media at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.” Details here. Monday, September 29, 12:30pm-1:45pm.
STAGE
Shattered Globe Stages A Haunted Mansion For Halloween
“Step into a historic haunted mansion on the shores of Lake Michigan for Shattered After Dark, as Shattered Globe Theatre hosts an elegant night of frights, fun, and fundraising to keep award-winning Chicago theater alive. Or at least, undead.” October 30, 7pm-10pm. Charles Gates Dawes House, Evanston. Tickets ($75-$237) here.
Manual Cinema’s “Christmas Carol” Returns This Holiday Season
The Fine Arts Building’s Studebaker Theater has announced the return of “Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol” for a limited run this holiday season. “Featuring hundreds of handmade puppets, immersive sound design and a stunning live score, ‘Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol’ is a holiday show unlike any other.” Runs December 12-28. Tickets—$45 and up—go on sale October 1 here.
Theatre School At DePaul Sets Season
The Theatre School at DePaul University’s season will feature six mainstage productions, including new works, reimagined classics and contemporary pieces. “Students are involved in all aspects of production—as actors, designers, dramaturges, technicians and production staff. Their work is fully supported by the school’s professional guest artists, faculty, advisors and staff mentors. With emphasis on the concept of learning by doing, The Theatre School’s public performances represent the work of students in their final stages of conservatory training, as they fine-tune their craft for public audiences.” Tickets and more here.
Powering The Arts Funds Twenty-One Projects Across Northern Illinois
ComEd and the League of Chicago Theatres announced that twenty-one nonprofit organizations across northern Illinois will receive funding through the 2025 Powering the Arts Program, relays Broadway World Chicago. “A total of $230,000 in grants will support projects that expand access to arts and culture, with individual grants of up to $25,000.” Each nonprofit is required to match ComEd’s contribution with its own funding.
Recipients include Chicago Latino Theater Alliance; Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association; Citadel Theatre; CityPoint Community Church; The Connecting Routes Project; ConTextos Chicago; Elmhurst Centre for the Performing Arts; Emerald Avenue Foundation, Inc.; Evanston Symphony Orchestra Association; Green Star Movement; Heritage Museum of Asian Art; Hyde Park School of Dance; ISPro Academy; Lookingglass Theatre Company; Pec Playhouse Theatre; Red Line Service Institute; South Chicago Dance Theatre; Synapse Arts; Teatro Vista Productions; 3 Seeds Mentoring Group; and Wilmette Theatre Education Project.
Dance At Kennedy Center Sells As Few As Four Percent Of Tickets
Ticket sales are so poor at the Kennedy Center, “the Stuttgart Ballet will be performing for an Opera House between four and nineteen percent full when the German company comes to Washington early next month,” tallies the Washingtonian. “BodyTraffic, the Los Angeles troupe booked for the smaller Eisenhower Theatre October 29 and 30, is at twelve percent capacity.” Said a current Kennedy Center staffer, “Big yikes.”
ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.
Chicago Art Stars Counter Negative Portrait Of Chicago
“At the invitation of Choose Chicago, the city’s official tourism bureau, visual artist Theaster Gates, Plain White T’s lead singer Tom Higgenson and actor, producer and Steppenwolf co-artistic director Glenn Davis made the case that Chicago is the place to be for creatives,” reports WBEZ. “Thursday’s panel was hosted at the Driehaus Museum and moderated by Poetry Foundation President Michelle T. Boone. Each of the featured artists hails from Chicago.”
Historians See “Chilling Effect” On Museums After Smithsonian Crackdown
“Historians and researchers are sounding the alarm about President Trump’s plans to scrutinize museums,” reports WTTW. “Trump recently expanded his criticism of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture to include additional museums… Specialists in the field said these actions could potentially ‘erode the public’s trust in shared institutions,’ not just in Washington, D.C., but around the country.”
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