Displaying items by tag: Chicago

A Chicago Park District panel recently approved an admission fee hike for the city’s Art Institute. On February 1, 2013 prices for adult visitors who are residents of Chicago will potentially climb from $16 to $18 and admission for out-of-state patrons will jump from $18 to $23. Chicago’s Committee on Programs and Recreation also approved the fee increase and the district’s full board is expected to pass the hike this afternoon. The Art Institute hasn’t raised its admission prices since 2009.

Art Institute officials said that the admission fee increase would help compensate for the rising costs experienced by any organization over time. For example, the museum now pays about $200,000 a year for water usage and sewer maintenance, utilities that used to be covered by the city of Chicago.

Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry is also facing an admission fee increase, which has been approved by both the Chicago Park District panel and the Committee on Programs and Recreation. The Science and Industry raise would see prices go from $13 to $15 for city residents and from $15 to $18 for non-residents.

The month after a Salvador Dali sketch turned up at Washington state Goodwill shop, an Alexander Calder lithograph was discovered at one of the bargain chain’s outposts in Milwaukee, WI. Karen Mallet, a media relations specialist for Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., bought the print for $12.34 after she spotted a Calder signature on the bold black-and-white artwork.

Mallett did some research on the Internet and found a number of Calder lithographs that bore a striking resemblance to the work she had purchased. She discovered that the piece in question, titled Rudolph, was the 55^th lithograph in a series of 75 created by Calder in 1969. Jacobs Fine Art Inc. in Chicago valued the piece at $9,000.

An important American artist of the 20^th century, Calder is best know for his sculptures, specifically his mobiles and stabiles. However, Calder also produced an impressive number of paintings and prints throughout his illustrious career.

Although Mallett was not particularly enamored by the Calder lithograph at first, she says that she is growing to like it and has no plans to sell.

The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens acquired thirteen pieces of furniture by the American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. The selection of furniture had previously been on display at the Library since 2009 as part of a long-term loan from the prominent New York collectors, Joyce and Erving Wolf. The purchase was made directly from the Wolfs for an undisclosed amount.

The highlight of the group is a nine-piece dining room suite designed in 1899 for the now-demolished Husser House in Chicago. The commission marked a turning point in Wright’s career as he moved away from his more architecturally rigid views on interiors towards the notion that interior space can be open and flowing. The other four pieces in the acquisition were from signature Wright houses in Illinois including the Avery Coonley House, the Arthur Heurtley House, the Little House (which has been demolished), and the Ward W. Willits House.

One of the greatest architects of the 20^th century, Wright played a pivotal part in changing design sensibilities from the highly ornate styles of the late-19^th century to more streamlined designs for modern times. In addition to developing plans for upward of a thousand buildings, Wright designed furniture, leaded-glass windows, light fixtures, metal ware, and textiles – all made to harmonize with the buildings for which they were intended.

Finally, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is going to make sense, if all goes according to plan. Like a new owner in an old home, chief curator Michael Darling is overseeing a philosophical gut rehab whose ultimate goal is clarity.

"As an outsider, I wasn't 100 percent sure what the MCA stood for," says Darling, who was hired last summer in what has since been acknowledged as the catalyst for a nearly complete overhaul of the curatorial department. "I didn't have a great sense of what was in the collection, what defined the museum, etc. This (re-imagining) is a way to tie the ID of the museum to its collection and also have a clearer message about the exhibitions that we do and the types of shows that we're doing, building these competencies and reputations with different through-lines."

Needless to say, this kind of change doesn't happen overnight.

Darling's vision began last summer, within weeks of when he landed on his new turf. During a lengthy interview in August at the MCA's cafe, the museum building came up, along with its reputation as an overpowering venue whose overscaled walls dwarf most of the exhibitions it has housed.

Darling, at the time, was careful in his word choice. "I think (rethinking the layout) would help to streamline things," he said. "I think it would help to build our identity in a clear way. I'm getting to understand the building and the collection, and the curators are trying to start to understand some of those patterns that we can create for people."

Nearly 12 months later, Darling's curatorial clarity is beginning to manifest itself physically, most immediately in the museum's front yard: A massive yet playful four-piece installation by Hong Kong-born sculptor Mark Handforth will live on the front plaza beginning July 8 (pending weather) through autumn. By then, every last corner of the building at 220 E. Chicago Ave. will have been re-imagined, perhaps for the first time in its 15-year history, with the museum's permanent collection in mind.

It's a comprehensive overhaul that doesn't end with the property. Over the course of the next year, the MCA will adopt revamped graphic and digital identities, ultimately including a searchable online archive similar to what large institutions such as the Art Institute of Chicago have.

It's due time, according to director Madeleine Grynsztejn.

"The last time the MCA engaged a major change to its design identity was 15 years ago with the opening of the new building," Grynsztejn wrote last week via email from Italy, where she was attending the Venice Biennale. "It was right for its time, and as we've changed and evolved, we again need to create a new visual identity for the MCA Chicago that fits with our current and future vision."

The plan is to roll out physical changes gallery by gallery, floor-by-floor, like a progressive supper, allowing visitors to digest one newly rebranded area at a time.