There’s a new stamp honoring Chicago-born Shel Silverstein

The children’s book author and Playboy illustrator Shel Silverstein was not known to be particularly studious during his days attending Darwin Elementary School in Chicago’s Logan Square.

Instead, he had a tendency to doodle, officials said Friday at a ceremony hosted by Chicago Public Schools and the United States Postal Service to unveil and dedicate the Shel Silverstein Forever Stamp.

Via WBEZ

After long being mired in politics, Lincoln museum has ‘potential to be incredibly great’ under restructuring plan

Ever since it opened late and over budget in 2005, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield has been regularly beset by problems tied to the historically transactional nature of Illinois politics.

Via Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Reader is in jeopardy after a dispute between staff and a co-owner

Transitioning to non-profit status is in peril, and if that doesn’t happen, popular alt-weekly the Chicago Reader will not have the funds it needs to continue paying staff. The union is saying this fate could be avoided if co-owner Leonard Goodman signs documents allowing the transition to non-profit to continue.

Via WBEZ

Much Ado About Small Things: The Return of Barely Fair, Chicago’s Tiniest International Art Fair

The long-awaited return of Barely Fair—Chicago’s tiniest international art fair—was brimming with spectacle. Arriving at Vernissage on a bustling Friday evening in April, one might assume that the interminable line of people led to the bar. Not so. The string of partygoers—libations already in hand, abuzz with anticipation—were queued to see the art. Visitors patiently waited to enter a diminutive gallery that offered even smaller attractions: thirty miniature art fair booths produced at 1:12 scale of the white cubes familiar to the international art circuit. 

Via Newcity