Sun-Times Article on Chicago Art Scene 7/28/97

News/Analysis Page 6/Chicago Sun-Times 7/28/97>

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ART SCENE BOOMS IN CHICAGO

The city's arts community is flourishing. Major institutions are finding new success in attracting donations and attendance, and even smaller organizations are experiencing good times. Tourists and artists are finding Chicago a Mecca for culture. Staff reporter Kevin Williams explores the reasons behind the arts renaissance, as well as its prospects for the future.

Chicago, "City of Big Shoulders," is supporting a burgeoning arts world.

Signs of an arts renaissance are everywhere: the Art Institute of Chicago already has distributed 89,700 tickets for its October Renoir show. Its younger sister, the Museum of Contemporary Art, has seen a fourfold increase in attendance since its move last July to its new home.

The Goodman Theatre has announced plans for a new $53.2 million home at the former Selwyn/Harris theaters site as part of a downtown theater revival, and Hubbard Street Dance is getting a new $3 million building this fall at Jackson and Racine that will be the first comprehensive facility dedicated exclusively to dance to go up in Chicago.

It is a good time to be in the arts in Chicago.

But while there are no easy answers to why all this activity is happening now, and while many in the cautious arts world are calling it a mere "mini-boom" there is no question the arts community here is riding a crest.

"I would say the arts are extremely healthy," said Gail Kaiver, executive director of Hubbard Street Dance, which is about to open its 20th season in Chicago. "Certainly the major institutions are being supported by the corporations, the foundations and by individuals."

And even the smaller groups are getting a share of the pie.

"We just finished our fifth year in a row with a surplus," said Michael Podlin, executive director of Music of the Baroque. "But even though you win the battle, it never gets any easier [to raise money]."

But the money is out there.

"Arts and culture drive economic development," said Lois Weisberg, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. "So people don't have to apologize for contributing to the arts anymore."

Nick Rabkin, program coordinator at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which provides grants to artists and art organizations, says, "The foundation has been involved in the arts since its founding. And we do it because we have faith that the arts are a pathway to creativity in Chicago, and can restore and build community."

And they are not alone.

Back in 1996, Chicago's business leaders were handed a challenge by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Lyric Opera.

"We and the Lyric went to some leaders of the corporate community and expressed to them that both of us were playing in outmoded facilities, and just as they wouldn't do business in outmoded plants, nor should we, symphony President Henry Fogel said.

The result? The leaders went out and persuaded the corporate community to come up with $100 million, said Fogel. "We each had to raise another $50 million privately."

The extraordinary contribution, shared equally by the CSO and Lyric, made it possible for the Lyric to substantially renovate its facilities. And the Chicago Symphony's portion will go toward its new $100 million Symphony Center, centered at the existing Orchestra Hall site, which will open this fall. The new center will sprawl from Adams to the north to Jackson on the south, with Michigan and Wabash as its eastern and western boundaries.

"I think that what has happened here is unique." said Fogel.

And this was not the only capital campaign going on in the city. The Museum of Contemporary Art and Hubbard Street have met or are ahead of schedule to meet their fund-raising goals.

Symphony Center will be a cornerstone of what city officials hope will be a thriving theater district. The district envisioned by Mayor Daley will sprawl across the Loop and include the Bismarck. 171 W. Randolph; the Oriental, 20 W. Randolph, the Goodman, Dearborn and Randolph, and the Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State.

Garth Drabinsky, CEO of Livent, the Canadian company that produced "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," and "Show Boat," announced plans in April for the $32 million Oriental renovation. Under its new home, the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, the former movie palace will provide another site for staging Broadway style blockbuster musicals.

"We've had unprecedented success in Chicago, and Livent has always believed that Chicago has been underserved, but has always been a great market for theater," said Norman Zagier, a senior vice president of Livent. "The decision to work with the city to restore the Oriental was an important one, and to play a role in revitalizing the North Loop is just terrific."

Critical to the success of the theater push has been the city's efforts to make it happen. Its financial assistance, primarily in the form of tax increment financing districts, has augmented both the Goodman and Livent efforts, and will assist in the $74.5 million Bismarck resurrection.

"We think that the fulfillment of our North loop theatre district is one of the most important projects to happen to downtown Chicago, in the last 50 years," said Greg Longhini, a spokesman for the city Planning Department, "Chicago's downtown, like most cities' downtowns, falls asleep at 6 o'clock. that's not what we want downtown to be, and what theaters can do is keep people downtown after 6 p.m. and bring them downtown."

But the city and its businesses aren't the only ones fueling this bounty.

Two major arts show, SOFA (Sculpture Objects Functional Art) and Art 1997 Chicago, both saw substantial attendance increases this year. The reason? Visitors from exhibitions make Chicago a cultural destination.

"This year's show [Art 1997 Chicago] has certainly re-established Chicago as one of the major contemporary art centers in the United States," said Tom Blackman president of the show's organizer, Tom Blackman Associates.

"There are a lot of tourists coming to Chicago for its culture." said Weisberg. "With all the money going into our major arts institutions, there's kind of a rediscovery of what Chicago means culturally,"

Figures released in May by the U.S. Travel Data Center and the University of Illinois Tourism research Center show that of the 252 million visitors who came to Chicago in 1995, 26 percent cited cultural attractions as the primary reason for their visit.

Also, individual artists are finding Chicago's Mecca of sorts. According to installation artist Carol Jackson, "The success potential is higher here for an artist, because visibility is a little easier than in New York or Los Angeles. There's a lot of new wealth that is coming to buy. It's very promising, and I just feel really good about it."

But can the magic continue?

The big fish, such as the CSO, are very aware of the struggles of their smaller brethren and believe that an artistic two-way street will ensure that these flush artistic times go on.

"The success of a small orchestra 25 miles from Chicago can only help the CSO, and vice versa," Fogel said.

"You might have people who try their first symphony there, and then decide to try the CSO.

"Art, when it is presented, has the power to move people more than they expect. The more they're exposed to it, the more they want."

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