Artist Judy Ledgerwood
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ART
Judy Ledgerwood Adds Gray To Gallery Roster
Gray announces Judy Ledgerwood has joined the gallery’s roster of artists, representing her in New York and globally alongside Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago. “In a painting career spanning four decades, Ledgerwood has confronted and expanded the history of abstract painting by decentering perceptions of its neutrality and prioritizing visual engagement and pleasure.” Ledgerwood’s first solo exhibition will open at Gray New York in the fall of 2025. More here.
Caroline Kent In “Flow States” At El Museo Del Barrio
Thirty-three artists have been chosen for “Flow States—La Trienal 2024” at New York City’s El Museo del Barrio, the museum’s second large-scale survey of Latinx contemporary art. Opening October 10, the edition builds on the framework of “Estamos Bien—La Trienal 20/21,” the museum’s inaugural survey of Latinx contemporary art, the first of its kind in the United States. Among the artists: Caroline Kent of Sterling, Illinois; lives and works in Chicago. More here.
DESIGN
How Chicago Built Millennium Park
For the twentieth anniversary of the once-embattled project, Mike Thomas talks to fifteen key players for an oral history at Chicago magazine. “When it opened in July 2004, Millennium Park was four years behind schedule and $340 million over budget. But all of that was quickly subsumed by the magnitude of the accomplishment. The 24.5-acre showpiece has become the city’s unrivaled top attraction, a symbol of Chicago’s civic pride and vision. Each year, an estimated twenty million visitors stop by to snap selfies at ‘Cloud Gate’ (a.k.a. the Bean), lounge on the Great Lawn, frolic at Crown Fountain, catch a concert at Jay Pritzker Pavilion, or commune with nature at Lurie Garden [in] ‘America’s most dazzling urban park.’ Chicago spoke with organizers, artists, architects, builders, benefactors and political insiders who played key roles in its often arduous, sometimes controversial and ultimately triumphant creation.”
The Chicago Designers Behind O’Hare Satellite Concourse
“SOM, Ross Barney Architects, Juan Gabriel Moreno Architects and Arup have unveiled designs for a ‘satellite concourse’ at Chicago O’Hare International Airport,” details Dezeen. “The terminal, Satellite One, will provide additional gates for airlines that operate out of Chicago and space for layover passengers. It will service international and national flights… Led by SOM, the design team chose a structure based on trees—a… nod to the orchard that once occupied the spot in what is now the Northwestern suburbs of the city. ‘Inspired by the orchard that gave O’Hare its original name (Orchard Field), a tree-like structural system inside the concourse eliminates almost half the columns at the gates, reducing congestion and enabling more efficient boarding and improved visibility for passengers.'”
House Speaker: No Public, Taxpayer Cash For New Stadiums
“Not only did the Chicago Bears and White Sox fail to win state funding for new stadiums before the General Assembly’s session ended last week, the teams shouldn’t expect to notch a legislative win later this year,” reports WTTW. “As we’ve said to the Bears over and over again, to the White Sox, and also to the Chicago Red Stars, there’s just no appetite to use taxpayer funding to fund stadiums for billionaires,” House Speaker Welch told WTTW News. “Even after the election.”
Blue Cross Parent Shedding 230,000 Square Feet In East Loop
“Health Care Service Corp. has formally hit the market with nearly 230,000 square feet of available office space as downtown vacancy remains at a record high,” relays Crain’s.
Developer Plans For St. Adalbert’s Still Unclear
“The city awarded federal tax credits to a proposal to build affordable housing for migrants despite questions about the project’s feasibility,” reports South Side Weekly. “A review of the project narrative, submitted in July 2023 as part of an application for low-income housing tax credits, raises questions about the developer’s ability to get the project off the ground. For one, the Archdiocese still owns the land, and has ‘no current agreement with any group,’ a diocesan spokesperson told the Weekly.”
Trib Editorial Board Ices Snow Removal Proposal
Mayor Johnson is “proposing a sidewalk snow removal program for four 1.5-square-mile city zones beginning next winter,” writes the Tribune’s editorial board (free link). “The cost of this ‘pilot’—up to $3.5 million in the coming fiscal year—seems modest. But, as 13th Ward Ald. Quinn… argues, that cost is likely to mushroom into the tens or even hundreds of millions if all Chicagoans come to expect the city to remove snow not just from the streets but from their sidewalks as well. In a city where a poor blizzard response at least partly determined the outcome of a mayoral election forty-five years ago, there’s a reason Chicago mayors haven’t decided to provide sidewalk snow removal service before now, and it’s not that the notion didn’t occur to them. The cost is exorbitant.”
Wonder City Studio Moving To Pennsylvania
“After nineteen great years in Chicago, we’re moving back to Pennsylvania end of July to be closer to family. Going forward: we’re not re-printing anything in the shop, have a waitlist for new commissions. Next two months will be focused on the book. Not closing, just evolving,” relays Wonder City Studio on Instagram. Their posted mission: “We create artwork that honors the architecture and history of places worth preserving.”
Lincoln Square Preps For Western Brown Line Station Revamp
During construction through the summer and into the coming year, “commuters will have to navigate partial interruptions to Western Brown line service and related street blockages,” reports Block Club. “The nearly $20 million renovation of the public transit hub in the heart of Lincoln Square was announced in 2022. The completed project will have new bus boarding island and canopy structure, refinished floors and interior walls, new elevator cabs and a repaired concrete platform, among other features requested by neighbors.”
Times Sees Ghost Bikes In New York
“In New York City, volunteers paint old bicycles and fasten them to poles as ‘ghost bikes’ for the New York City Street Memorial Project, which consists of installations around the city marking locations where cyclists have died,” writes the New York Times. “The bikes—completely white, including tires, spokes and pedals serve as stark memorials, both an alert to passers-by that a cyclist was killed and a reminder of the dangerous conditions cyclists face in New York. The activists who install the bikes hope to catch the attention of drivers as well… The concept of ghost bikes didn’t start in New York…”
DINING & DRINKING
Angelic Organics Farm Closing After Farmer John’s Stroke
John “Farmer John” Peterson’s “community-based farm in Caledonia will have its final harvest this summer after thirty-four years—much to the dismay of his customers, the majority of whom are in the Chicago area,” reports Block Club.
FILM & TELEVISION
John Cusack Wanted A Beatles Needle-Drop In His “High Fidelity” Rainbo Club Proposal Scene
In his recent Auditorium Q&A with “High Fidelity,” John Cusack said there was a song he couldn’t have, reports Block Club: “The scene comes late in the movie at Rainbo Club, when Rob proposes to his on-again girlfriend Laura. She turns him down, but points out that the important thing is that he asked. Cusack told the Auditorium crowd that he wanted to use the line, ‘I’d give you everything I’ve got / For a little peace of mind’ at that moment from ‘I’m So Tired,’ a track from the Beatles’ ‘White Album,’ but he wasn’t able to.”
LIT
Hull-House Books Opening
Hull-House Books will launch on June 21 and feature “the work of authors and artists who share the museum’s mission to inspire civic action. Residents of Hull-House and their neighbors built social movements around literature. Beginning with Ellen Gates Starr’s bookbindery and the Hull-House branch of the Chicago Public Library that opened in 1891, books have always been integral to education and empowerment,” Hull-House posts on Instagram. “At Hull-House Books, readers can find histories of Hull-House—including what Jane Addams loved to read—alongside current publications that resonate with the settlement’s influence upon the worlds of art, education, food, literature and politics.” Preview opening June 21-July 21; grand opening September 6.
Rockford Public Library Announces Opening For Downtown Main Branch
“Rockford Public Library has set an opening date for its new Main Branch in downtown,” reports Rock River Current. “The 66,000-square-foot library will open with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and daylong celebration starting at 9am Saturday, June 22.”
MEDIA
Chicago Sports Network Announced
“Starting in October, CHSN will be available across multiple platforms, aiming to bring Chicago Blackhawks, Bulls and White Sox games to the largest broadest audience possible,” the group announced.
Exec Of Oddly Ubiquitous Right-Wing Sheet Epoch Times Accused Of Vast Money Laundering Scheme
“The chief finance office of right-wing Epoch Times accused of $67 million money laundering scheme,” reports the Washington Post. Weidong Guan, sixty-one, “is charged with one count of conspiring to commit money laundering and two counts of bank fraud between 2020 and 2024. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement that Guan ‘conspired with others to benefit himself, the media company, and its affiliates.’… Federal prosecutors allege that in a ‘sprawling, transnational scheme,’ Guan and others used cryptocurrency to purchase proceeds obtained through insurance fraud and other illegal means before moving it to accounts associated with the Epoch Times, contributing to a jump in the company’s revenue of around 410 percent.”
Harper’s Magazine Workers Request Union
“We, the staff of Harper’s, have formed a union with Local 2110 UAW,” the workers relay on Twitter. “We believe that organized labor is a necessary next step for our 174-year-old publication—the oldest general-interest monthly in the nation—and in that spirit have presented management with a request for voluntary recognition after receiving overwhelming support from across the staff. ”
Largest Kentucky Public Radio Station Latest To Face Cuts
“Louisville Public Media is laying off eight of its employees,” reports Inside Radio. It’s “a move to reduce operating expenses by roughly ten percent for the budget year ahead… The stations feeling the impact include WFPK Independent Louisville, WUOL Classical Louisville and WFPL News, in addition to Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, KyCIR.”
MUSIC
Shuttered Lake View 7-11 To Become Access Contemporary Music’s New Venue And School
“The proposal drew some concerns over parking and a liquor license from neighbors in Graceland West, though the neighborhood’s community group voted in favor of the necessary zoning change,” reports the Sun-Times. “A closed North Clark Street 7-Eleven would be the fourth location and largest venue for the nonprofit organization, whose mission is to teach and make music accessible to all ages.”
Spotify Hikes Prices Again
For Spotify subscribers, “The cost of the individual plan rises by $1 per month, with the duo plan rising by $2 and the family plan by $3,” tallies the Hollywood Reporter. Spotify blames inflation and also claims the additional cash is needed “so that we can continue to invest in and innovate on our product features and bring users the best experience.”
ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.
City Unveils Microsite Highlighting Forty-Seven Transformative Creative Placemaking Grant Projects
Mayor Johnson, the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) and Office of Equity and Racial Justice (OERJ) have launched a microsite (here), “featuring forty-seven community-driven creative projects aimed at promoting racial healing and revitalizing neighborhoods. The platform, part of the Together We Heal Creative Place (TWHCP) cultural grant program funded by the American Rescue Plan Act as part of the Mayor’s Road to Recovery Plan, provides a comprehensive overview of the projects spread across Chicago’s North, South, East and West sides, including an interactive map directing the public where to visit a calendar of events and resources for both artists and community members. Launched in 2022, TWHCP is DCASE and OERJ’s response to the urgent need for racial equity and community healing in neighborhoods historically affected by disinvestment and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“TWHCP is a resulting product of OERJ’s Together We Heal Framework launched in 2022 and harnesses the practice of creative placemaking: The confluence of arts, culture and community-guided design to transform public spaces into vibrant hubs of expression and connection… Supported by a record $5.8 million in funding, forty-seven community-led projects are an intentional curation of performances, events, public art and inclusive initiatives that promote healing, engage communities, beautify public spaces, build or renovate community spaces, and drive economic growth and celebrate local cultural richness.” More here.
“Chaos” Breaks Out At Dolton City Meeting With Lori Lightfoot
“Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot in April agreed to investigate Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard amid claims that Henyard misused public funds,” reports CBS-TV. “After Lightfoot tried to speak from the crowd at the village board meeting… things quickly started to get chaotic. Chairs were quickly shoved out of the way. There was already a heavy Dolton police presence for the heated trustee meeting—and officers had to step in to separate the two squabbling sides.”
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