Countersued!
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In 1999 Hodes challenged the financial management and record keeping for the program, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs that gets 1.33 percent of the cost of any new public building to spend on public art. That suit was settled when the city agreed to publish an annual public art financial report. Four years later Hodes sued again, charging, among other things, that the program wasn’t adhering to requirements of the Open Meetings Act. That suit was settled a year ago, but then Hodes was back in court again last fall. He charged that the city had failed to live up to the settlement on numerous counts, including the way the city gathered applications for commissions–through a registry of thousands of artists’ slides submitted from around the world.
Hodes is represented by Robert S. Atkins and Jay Stewart of the Better Government Association. Atkins argues the personal attack on Hodes is unusual and falsely maligns him. “To suggest that this is a frivolous lawsuit and was done simply to create favorable publicity for Mr. Hodes and his law firm is irresponsible and outrageous,” he says. Last week Hodes filed a response arguing that the city’s countercharges are unsupported and asking that they be dismissed; a hearing’s scheduled for June 8.
Indiana real estate developer Cari Shein is backing a monthlong run of Imagine Tap! at the Harris Theater beginning July 11. Shein is producing the original dance review with partners Aaron Tolson and Derick K. Grant. The show will feature 18 dancers, eight singers, a nine-piece band, and mostly original music. Shein worked out a sublease with the city, which rents the Harris for the summer months, and says the show’s budget is “over a million.” She has her eyes set on Broadway or Vegas next. . . . Construction delays on the Hyde Park Art Center didn’t stand in the way of the opening last weekend. The 32,000-square-foot former printing plant is owned by the University of Chicago, which has made it available rent free for 25 years with two five-year renewable options. The deal is part of the university’s own community outreach efforts and perhaps its secret desire to be a little more like those artsy schools in the Loop. . . . Ina Marlowe has handed off the job of artistic director at Organic Theater to Northern Illinois University prof Alex Gelman, who says he’s working on rebuilding the board and staff and making plans to bring the Organic back to Chicago. Marlowe’s launching the Library Theater this weekend in a 60-seat space at the Feltre School, 22 W. Erie. She’s directing two Tennessee Williams one-acts in a “salon environment” that’ll include postshow discussion. Feltre cofounder Lawrence Lenza is the new company’s executive director.
