Chicago Loop Alliance teases 2021 plans for downtown: mural walks, pop-ups, open streets on State 

Chicago Loop Alliance and the Chicago Loop Alliance Foundation hosted their 16th Annual Meeting on March 23. During the virtual meeting attendees got a first look at the organization’s potential 2021 plans and programs, including an ambitious open streets project that would see parts of State Street in the Loop closed to vehicle traffic for up to 12 Sundays this summer. 

“Last year was incredibly challenging for the Loop community, which relies so heavily on the 370,000 workers and millions of visitors it normally sees,” said Chicago Loop Alliance President and CEO Michael Edwards. “This month, we noticed a 35 percent increase in pedestrian activity on State Street, which has really improved the atmosphere and energy downtown—we’re all starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. As vaccine distribution continues to ramp up, and as the weather warms, we see many opportunities to attract people back to the Loop in 2021."

Alan Koppel Gallery opens satellite gallery in Glencoe

Alan Koppel Gallery announced this week that they have opened a satellite location: Alan Koppel Gallery – North in Glencoe, IL. Located at 342 Park Avenue in downtown Glencoe, this new auxiliary gallery will bring modern and contemporary masterworks to the collectors and art lovers of Chicago's North Shore. The gallery's main location is still on N. Dearborn St. in Chicago.

The inaugural exhibition in the space is "Diane Arbus: A Secret about a Secret" with seven iconic artworks by one of America's preeminent photographers, along with works by contemporary artists influenced by Arbus. The show runs through May 8.

Golden Triangle Moving Sale Ends March 27

The Golden Triangle is moving from their Clark Street warehouse to the west side. To clear out a lot of their (often large) furniture and objects, their entire collection is being offered at 70% off, online or in person. All Sales Are Final  No Holds, Returns, Refunds or Exchanges. Sale Ends March 27th, 2021

Weinberg/Newton Gallery Names Artist Collective as Inaugural Artists in Residence

Weinberg/Newton Gallery named Chicago-based organization A Long Walk Home as inaugural recipients of the Art & Advocacy Residency. Conceived as an expansion of the gallery’s mission to raise awareness for social justice issues in collaboration with artists, the Art & Advocacy Residency offers awarded artists the use of the 2,200 square foot gallery space over the course of 12 weeks, in addition to a stipend. Participating A Long Walk Home artists Scheherazade Tillet, Robert Narciso and Leah Gipson will collaborate to realize The Visibility Project: Black Girlhood Altar, an installation comprised of four community altars to be placed throughout Chicago this May and June as temporary monuments to missing and murdered Black girls.

The Visibility Project: Black Girlhood Altar will engage Black girls and young women in Chicago as citizen-artists who will research, assemble and activate the altars, using the project to advocate for change within their communities. Each public altar will serve as a sacred space and gathering site for grief, healing, safety and comfort through multi-disciplinary art practices. The ALWH Collective is interested in finding ways for communities to come together to grieve, celebrate life, and make sustainable changes in their own communities. Over the course of the residency, ALWH and Weinberg/Newton Gallery will present programming that offers the public insight into the creation of The Visibility Project: Black Girlhood Altar.

An alderman’s bid to restrict house museums is withdrawn — and should stay that way

There are tons of problems the city’s lawmakers need to address — crime, the stratospheric costs of municipal pensions, historic racial and social inequalities — but passing a law to restrict the creation of neighborhood house museums, of all things, certainly isn’t one of them.

Yet that’s the quixotic battle Ald. Sophia King (4th) has chosen to fight recently, that is until the arts and culture community mounted up against her proposed ordinance, forcing her to withdraw the measure Tuesday from the City Council Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards.

Via Chicago Sun Times