A Museum of Our Own
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“We want to be positive,” he goes on. “We don’t fault the other institutions for not focusing on Chicago. We accept that the mandate of the Art Institute and the MCA is to bring art in [from outside]. But we want to invert the museum model.” In Klein’s vision, the Chicago Art Foundation would be an inclusive, intergenerational “incubator” where artists would have an advisory voice, an opportunity to sell their work, and a vested interest. “There’s an incredible amount of talent in Chicago that’s not getting recognition,” he says. “My position has always been that at least 50 percent of the people who go to the Art Institute and the MCA are from out of town and want to know what’s going on in Chicago.” Board president and fine-art insurance adjuster Robert O’Connell chimes in, “People come to Chicago because we’ve got great art schools. Then they’re told if they want to make it as artists, they have to go somewhere else. We want to include an educational component that would help artists learn how to run their business and make a career here.”
Last month Klein and O’Connell invited about 50 artists to Flatfile Gallery to talk about their plan; 35 or so showed up. Most were enthusiastic, Klein says, though a few fretted about provinciality. Muralist and painter Dzine, for example, thinks the meeting was an “old-guard” effort and that “people were focusing too much on being local.” On the other hand, Dzine says, “There’s a lot of people from Chicago getting picked up by New York and LA galleries. We need to make sure these artists shine here first. That’s where this can come in.” Among the enthusiasts were printmaker Tony Fitzpatrick, who says “Nobody’s keeping the history of Chicago art; somebody needs to stand up and say this is us,” and painter Rhonda Gates, who says she and her husband, sculptor Peter Stanfield, have been thinking they’d have to leave Chicago to make it as artists, “but listening to Paul and Bob convinced us to stay.”
Performing Arts Chicago shut down late last month because of a $350,000 debt, most of which it had been carrying for years. The staff of five–including executive director Susan Lipman, who’d been there 23 years–was laid off, and the Fine Arts Building office the organization had occupied for a quarter century was closed (they’re looking to sublet). PAC was founded in 1959 as the Fine Arts Music Foundation; it later became Chamber Music Chicago, with the Vermeer Quartet in residence.
There might be angels in the audience at the League of Chicago Theatres annual awards gala Monday at the Goodman Theatre, but there won’t be any Saints. The volunteer ushers are celebrating their 25th anniversary with a party at Chicago Shakespeare Theater the same night. The Saints’ Penny Schaefer says they found out about the scheduling snafu when the League “called some of our people to volunteer at their event.”
