Today In Culture, Monday, September 30, 2024: Get Ready For Exhibition Weekend | Fashion Week Announces Events | “The Black Utopians” Book Launch

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ART

The Second Annual Chicago Exhibition Weekend Begins Soon

Gertie will present the second annual Chicago Exhibition Weekend, October 3-6. Presented in partnership with Expo Chicago, CXW includes art galleries and creative spaces across the city, with over forty-five participants, including Blanc Gallery, Document, Gray, Mariane Ibrahim, moniquemeloche, Patron and Rhona Hoffman, many of which have exhibitions scheduled for the weekend with extended hours and special public programs. The schedule is here.

David Levinthal Donates Photos To Kinsey Institute

The Kinsey Institute at Indiana University relays that it has received a gift of sixty dolls used in the creation of renowned photographer David Levinthal’s “XXX” series. Selected prints from the “XXX” series and some of the dolls will be on view this fall at the Grunwald Gallery of Art in Bloomington. “We are grateful to David Levinthal for this generous gift that allows us to add a new dimension to the Institute’s unique collection of artwork,” says Dr. Justin Garcia, executive director of the Kinsey Institute. “For decades, David Levinthal has explored concepts like intimacy and desire through compelling photography. This latest addition to our collection will continue to allow researchers, historians and curators to document and explore the diverse dimensions of human sexuality for decades to come.”

Levinthal produced the series between 1999 and 2001. “With resin plastic figures ranging from about thirteen to eighteen inches tall as his subjects, he again used shallow focus and studio lighting to perform alchemy, transforming lumps of molded plastic into apparent human flesh… Taken as a whole, Levinthal’s work shows a fertile imagination, not just plumbing history but examining how art, photography, and other media have created our cultural stereotypes and collective memory. How we tell ourselves who we are.” (The Institute blogs on Levinthal’s “XXX” Polaroids here.) More Kinsey here.

Major Gift To Raclin Murphy Museum Of Art From Estate Of Ernestine Morris Carmichael Raclin

The Raclin Murphy Museum of Art is the beneficiary of a significant gift of paintings, sculptures and decorative art objects from the estate of Ernestine Morris Carmichael Raclin (1927-2024). Work by masters from Gainsborough and Reynolds, Houdon to Guillaumin are included. “The Raclin Bequest includes works from the fifteenth through the early twentieth centuries but is especially strong in eighteenth-century art. A portrait by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, a landscape sketch by Hubert Robert, and a ‘Fête Champêtre’ by Nicolas Lancret, for example, offer further depth to holdings by French masters Elisabeth Vigée Lebrun and François Boucher already in the University’s collection. Portraits by Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds bolster the representation of British art in the collection with impressive demonstrations of costume and technique. Jean-Antoine Houdon’s patinated terracotta portrait bust of his infant daughter is the first of its kind in the collection.” More here.

Low Morale, High Attrition At The Wex

“Nearly two dozen employees have left the Wexner Center for the Arts (the Wex) at Ohio State University since Canadian curator Gaëtane Verna assumed the role of executive director in late 2022, indicating a twenty-eight-percent turnover rate in under two years,” reports Hyperallergic. “The high employee attrition has led to low staff morale and fundraising struggles attributed to Verna’s conduct throughout her tenure.” A source said “that when people take a job at the Wex, they hope to work there until retirement. ‘What’s sad is that people have left very close to retirement—with twenty-to-twenty-five years under their belt—because working under Verna was just too much.’”

DESIGN

Chicago Fashion Week Announces Twelve Days Of Citywide Events

Chicago Fashion Week, the twelve-day initiative from October 9-20, has announced its full lineup of events, including more than fifty fashion shows and presentations, award programs, retail marketplaces, gala celebrations and educational programs in partnership with local fashion organizations, retailers and fashion designers. Chicago Fashion Week includes six categories: fashion runway, exhibition, social, in-store, market and education. All events are open to the public, but some require advance registration or ticket purchase. The full lineup is here.

Englewood Seed Library Blooms With History

“Neighbors can grab free books and flower and vegetable seeds at the Go Green Griot Plaza. Each seed package has a digital link to an interview with an Englewood elder,” reports Block Club.

DINING & DRINKING

Does A Taqueria At A Lincoln Park Gas Station Serve The State’s Best Tacos?

El Tragón Taqueria at 1234 North Halsted was named “the best taco spot in Illinois, according to Yelp’s 2024 Best Taco Spot in Every State ranking,” relays Block Club. The small, three-year-old taqueria is “connected to a gas station on the outskirts of Goose Island’s industrial district.”

Chicago’s Nabala Cafe Turns To Community After Attack

“After the Palestinian Nabala Cafe was attacked, owner Eyad Zeid decided not to turn to police. Instead, he found strength and support in community,” reports In These Times. Writes Zeid: “Chicago is home to the largest population of Palestinians in the United States, and we have a strong community of hundreds of Nabalis living in the area. The concept of Nabala Cafe started here, building on the deep community roots of Nabalis that have remained strong over decades… At least two other nearby businesses, the bookstore Women & Children First and the clothing store Naaz Studios, were also attacked in recent months… Instead of turning to police, we turned to what Nabala Cafe is all about: community. As soon as word got out about the attack, our community came through to support us.”

FILM & TELEVISION

“The Rick and Morty Multiverse Mania Experience” Is Coming

Coming in December, an “immersive experience will house some of the fan-favorite television series’ most iconic moments, activities, custom merchandise, themed food and drinks. While exploring the 25,000-square-foot adventure, guests will have the chance to gear up for Seal Team Rick Laser Tag, sit on Rick’s legendary toilet and play mini-golf with Mr. Meeseeks.” Morgan Arts Complex, 3622 South Morgan. Tickets ($28) and more here.

LIT

“The Black Utopians” Launches In Pilsen

Pilsen Community Books presents the Chicago launch of Aaron Robertson’s debut book, “The Black Utopians: Searching for Paradise and the Promised Land in America!” and will be joined in conversation by Lauren Michele Jackson. Based in part on Robertson’s essays “It Was More than a Notion” and “Attack the Block,” “The Black Utopians” asks: “How do the disillusioned, the forgotten, and the persecuted not merely hold on to life but expand its possibilities and preserve its beauty? What, in other words, does utopia look like in black? To explore Black Americans’ efforts to remake the conditions of their lives, Aaron makes his way from his ancestral hometown of Promise Land, Tennessee, to Detroit—the city where he was born, and where one of the country’s most remarkable Black utopian experiments, the Black Christian Nationalist organization the Shrine of the Black Madonna, got its start. Along the way, he reflects on a diverse array of Black utopian visions, from the Reconstruction era through the Sixties and Seventies and stretching into the present day, offering a portrait of a movement and a world still in the making.” Wednesday, October 2. Details here.

Chicago Critics Table Applications Open This Week

Arts + Public Life posts that applications for the 2025 Chicago Critics Table open on Tuesday, October 1: “This biennial program, launched by Professor Adrienne Brown in 2023, returns in 2025, led by Tempestt Hazel. We’re looking for six dynamic fellows with a passion for cultural criticism, storytelling and reflection to join… The program runs April-November 2025, featuring a ten-week intensive followed by an eleven-week collaborative curriculum. It’s a chance to learn, grow, and shape the conversation around arts and culture in our city.” More here.

MEDIA

Star Tribune Makes Election Coverage Free

The Minnesota Star Tribune is making its 2024 presidential election news and opinion coverage accessible to all readers, not just subscribers. “One of our most basic responsibilities as citizens is to vote, and one of our most essential jobs as a news organization is to inform our readers about the candidates, campaigns and issues and to track election results.”

MUSIC

Annual Jingle Ball Rings In Season

The lineup for “iHeartRadio 103.5 KISS FM’s Jingle Ball 2024,” at Allstate Arena on Monday, December 9, 7pm, will include Jack Harlow, Teddy Swims, Jason Derulo, Benson Boone, Madison Beer, Saweetie, NCT Dream and Wonho. Tickets and more here.

STAGE

League of Chicago Theatres And ComEd Award $200,000 In Grants To Community-Based Organizations

The League of Chicago Theatres and ComEd’s Annual “Powering the Arts” Grant Program has awarded over $200,000 to eighteen organizations across northern Illinois. The program has distributed over $850,000 in funding since 2018 to nonprofit organizations, arts programs, cultural centers and local theaters. The recipients include Steppenwolf, where the grant will fully subsidize student matinee tickets; Crossing Borders Music will bring culturally responsive string quartet programs, “Stories and Music of Resilience” and “Celebrating Black Trailblazers,” to 6,400 students in Chicago Public Schools; and the grant to Theatre Y will support their “Voices of Lawndale: Theatre Y Youth Ensemble” initiative, amplifying the voices of youth in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood through immersive arts education. Full details here.

Introducing Elijah Jones At Chicago Shakes

“It’s not often a youthful out-of-town actor lands their first role in Chicago and gets cast as the ruler of England. At a Tony Award-winning theater, no less,” writes WTTW. “Elijah Jones must have impressed Chicago Shakespeare Theater with the same charisma he projects as the king in ‘Henry V’… It bodes well for the new era at Chicago Shakespeare, because new artistic director Edward Hall personally chose Jones to lead a vivid cast of veteran actors and new faces.”

Why Is Executive Leadership At Dance Companies Difficult?

In the business of dance, “things are hard right now,” writes Dance magazine. “Really hard. Ticket sales are down. Individual giving is down. Grants are a moving target. And all of it is the purview of executive directors, who are feeling the pressure… Today’s dance organizations need executive directors who are out-of-the-box thinkers, with an understanding of artistic vision as well as great business sense. ‘You need a unicorn,’” says one consultant.

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

The Twentieth Andersonville Arts Weekend Is Here

The Andersonville Chamber of Commerce will present its twentieth annual Andersonville Arts Weekend, with the neighborhood transformed into a walkable art gallery, Friday, October 4-Sunday, October 6. The free, three-day event includes over forty businesses and more than a hundred artists “working in visual art, theater, dance, music, makers, film, culinary, student art and public art.” Details here.

Chicago’s 911 Mental Health Response Teams No Longer Include Fire, Police

“Chicago’s 911 mental health response teams no longer include police,” tweets the Tribune’s Jake Sheridan. “The CARE teams—with no arrests made in 1,500 runs—first included CPD officers and CFD paramedics, but now only use emergency & behavioral health workers trained by the public health department.” (Sheridan includes the complete statement from the city.)

New York City Council Could Legalize Jaywalking

Would Chicago do the same? New York City Council, reports Streetsblog NYC, has “passed a bill to legalize walking into the street outside of crosswalks, sometimes known as ‘jaywalking,’ two weeks after holding off on the legislation due to advocates raising concerns that it put too much blame on pedestrians… The lawmaker behind the proposal said that the bill still addresses the racist policing of ticketing pedestrians in the street, which overwhelmingly goes toward New Yorkers of color—despite everyone in the city doing it.” No word if the embattled mayor will pass the legislation.

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