http://artsandabout.com News, Reviews and Opinion on Visual, Musical and Literary Culture Thu, 16 Feb 2012 01:01:41 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en [caption id="attachment_939" align="alignright" width="150" caption="DePaul Art Museum"][/caption] There’s a new museum in town. Yet I’m not sure how many Chicagoans know the good news. The DePaul Art Museum opened last September in a new, three-story structure adjoining the Fullerton CTA stop. The museum is only new in a technical sense. Since 1998, ... http://artsandabout.com/art-museums/chicago%e2%80%99s-new-art-museum/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=chicago%25e2%2580%2599s-new-art-museum [caption id="attachment_935" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Derek Guthrie"][/caption] It has been 10 years since The New Art Examiner published its final issue. The monthly magazine, which called itself “Chicago’s Independent Voice of the Visual Arts,” enjoyed a rough but highly-respected run from 1973 to 2002. It was born in controversy by founding editors, ... http://artsandabout.com/art-artists/chicago%e2%80%99s-independent-art-voice-revived/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=chicago%25e2%2580%2599s-independent-art-voice-revived Savvy theatergoers know Next Theatre in Evanston offers provocative and artistically adventurous work without fail. Next, which celebrated its 30th anniversary last season, is a company that, along with Steppenwolf, Wisdom Bridge and a host of small, storefront troupes, put Chicago Theater on the national map in the 1980s. Though housed ... http://artsandabout.com/literary-theatre/%e2%80%9cthe-girl-in-the-yellow-dress%e2%80%9d/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=%25e2%2580%259cthe-girl-in-the-yellow-dress%25e2%2580%259d [caption id="attachment_905" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Bill Russo"][/caption] The Chicago Jazz Ensemble has had only 3 music directors in its 47-year history.  Bill Russo, an esteemed jazz composer/arranger, who played in Stan Kenton’s orchestra in the 1950s, was the first director. Russo founded the CJE in 1965 which, since its earliest days, has been ... http://artsandabout.com/music-jazz/chicago%e2%80%99s-preservation-jazz-band/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=chicago%25e2%2580%2599s-preservation-jazz-band [caption id="attachment_886" align="alignright" width="150" caption="L. T. Selman, Ltd. Gallery"][/caption] Editor’s Note: The blogs posted this month feature lesser-known personal discoveries that can provide enjoyable holiday outings. One evening in late October, I entered Studio 207 in the Fine Arts Building and discovered a whole new world. For several long moments, I stood ... http://artsandabout.com/art-exhibitions/a-world-under-glass/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-world-under-glass Editor’s Note: The blogs posted this month will feature lesser-known personal discoveries that can provide enjoyable holiday outings. [caption id="attachment_873" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Driehaus Museum"][/caption] If you passed the imposing three-story brownstone at 40 East Erie in recent years, you would have found the building dark and open only by appointment. One would ... http://artsandabout.com/art-museums/not-just-any-old-home/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=not-just-any-old-home While riding the Brown line last month, I had a most delightful surprise. “Delightful surprise” are two words that are rarely associated with the CTA. As the train left Chicago Avenue heading south, my eyes caught a giant image of opera star, Renee Fleming, on the side of a River ... http://artsandabout.com/music-classical/lyric-pushes-passion/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=lyric-pushes-passion With the 47th edition of the Chicago Film Festival just ended, a new biography of legendary film critic, Pauline Kael, now in stores and the wave of holiday blockbusters about to break, it’s a good moment to write about movies. As a location for movies production, Chicago has been a favored ... http://artsandabout.com/literary-books/when-movies-mattered/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=when-movies-mattered [caption id="attachment_807" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Photo by Jason Pickleman"][/caption] The years from 1984-1990 were especially fertile for big cultural ideas in Chicago. I can’t pinpoint what was in the air at the time. But it gave rise to three festivals that have gone on to become vital, civic-boosting traditions. Each is now ... http://artsandabout.com/humanities/humanities-tackle-%e2%80%9ctech-knowledge%e2%80%9d/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=humanities-tackle-%25e2%2580%259ctech-knowledge%25e2%2580%259d [caption id="attachment_798" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Jackson Pollock Nunber 18"][/caption] The period following the Second World War was the heyday for a group of artists known as Abstract Expressionists.  They were a group of artists, different in style and personality, who came together in New York’s Greenwich Village and hung out at their ... http://artsandabout.com/literary-theatre/%e2%80%9cred%e2%80%9d-paint-emotion-truth/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=%25e2%2580%259cred%25e2%2580%259d-paint-emotion-truth