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ART
Pussy Riot Founder Decries Russia’s “Extremist” Designation
“I’m laughing in disbelief,” says Pussy Riot co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova. “Singing in the streets is not extremism, doing street actions is not extremism,” she said, according to a report from Artnet. “Prosecutors from Russia’s Ministry of Justice have filed a lawsuit with Moscow’s Tverskoy Court seeking to designate Pussy Riot as an extremist organization. A hearing is scheduled for December 15. Tolokonnikova, meanwhile, has been occupying a mock-prison cell for ‘Police State,’ which closed at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago on Sunday.”
The Lives Of US Artists And Their Livelihoods
“With the understanding that artists’ work can take many shapes and unfold over many timelines, the Mellon Foundation commissioned NORC at the University of Chicago to design a National Survey of Artists that casts a broad definition of who an artist is and offers a representative snapshot of the many ways artists live and work,” they relay. “The survey data helps us understand key details about artists’ lives and livelihoods in the United States, including: how artists are employed (whether self-employed or employed by an entity); what percentage of artists hold multiple jobs; what other jobs, roles and responsibilities artists hold (from teachers and veterans to caretakers); and what economic vulnerabilities artists face.” The report is linked here.
Former LA Times Art Critic Christopher Knight On Witnessing The City’s Art Scene
“I’ve been doing daily art journalism for forty-five years — thirty-six of them at The Times, with 2,195 bylines,” Christopher Knight writes as he exits the Los Angeles Times. “The sixties and seventies saw a roster of major artists, too long to list here, overtake prominent art scenes in San Francisco and then Chicago, America’s so-called ‘second city’ for art. But it was the eighties and nineties that witnessed art’s truly staggering expansion in the rich demographic diversity of L.A. What happened? Young artists emerging from Southern California’s bountiful art schools decided, en masse, to stick around. New York? Why move there?”
By the nineties, “the city’s vivifying artistic production was put on the map. Artists, mass media, infrastructure — the thriving triad was extraordinary to watch erupt. Art is a mysterious experience, with an object or event as its catalyst. And because art is experience, it’s essential to be willing to change your mind as your experience unfolds. Art criticism is about writing, a fundamental way to process that mystery, aiming to discover something at least temporarily intelligible.”
Eckenhoff Saunders Apartment Project Proposed For Vacant Lincoln Park Lots
“A residential development is being proposed at 1728 North Clybourn in Lincoln Park. Planned by Contemporary Concepts Inc, the project site is located midblock along North Clybourn between West Concord Place and North Sheffield and is currently vacant,” writes Urbanize Chicago. “Designed by Eckenhoff Saunders, the new construction would be a four-story building with fifty-nine residential units, eighteen parking spaces, fifty-nine bike parking spaces, and no commercial space. To meet affordability requirements, twelve of the units will be set aside as affordable.”
Marshall Field’s Upper Floors To House Hireology
Human resources house Hireology “is moving its headquarters to the Marshall Field building in the Loop, notching a win for the developer that turned the landmark’s upper floors into modern office space,” reports Crain’s.
Alinea Named Greatest American Restaurant Of The Twenty-First Century
“Despite widespread praise and exceptional reviews, Alinea did encounter a setback in recent weeks,” relays NBC Chicago of its loss of a Michelin star. But luxury magazine The Robb Report “listed nine Chicago restaurants as among the Hundred Greatest American Restaurants of the Twenty-First Century,” granting Alinea the top spot. The extended Robb Report piece is here, which also includes Boka (ninety-six); Girl & the Goat (eighty-three); Oriole (eighty-one); Monteverde (seventy-four); Virtue (forty-one); Charlie Trotter’s (thirty-nine); Kasama (twenty-nine) and Smyth (eighteen).
Veggie Vamoose: Chicago Diner Closing Logan Square Locale; Last Native Foods Has Closed
December 12 is the last day in Logan Square for vegetarian and vegan restaurant Chicago Diner, relays Block Club. “The diner’s Lakeview location at 3411 North Halsted will remain open.” Adds the publication, Native Foods, a fast-casual vegan restaurant in business for more than a decade, closed its remaining location at the end of November. “The location was the last in the city after two in Hyde Park and the West Loop closed.”
DoorDash Plans To Populate Bike Lanes With Delivery Robots
“Could the future of delivery zoom past you in a bike lane?” asks Momentum. In two cities in Arizona, DoorDash is “rolling out Dot, its new autonomous delivery robot — an all-electric bot that can hit speeds of up to twenty mph and is designed to navigate sidewalks, driveways, roads and… bike lanes… The cycling community has been quick to react, questioning the safety, logistics and ethics of sharing bike lanes with what some have dubbed ‘twenty mph burrito bots.'”
The Music Box Announces Minnesota Expansion, Shares Details On Third Screen
As the Music Box prepares a new, one-hundred-seat third screen on Southport, it also announces a new theater acquisition outside of Minneapolis, in Columbia Heights, Minnesota. The Heights Theater, “a 1926 atmospheric gem, will join the Music Box family in January 2026… Ryan Oestreich, general manager of the Music Box Theatre and a Minnesota native, will join forces with [Music Box owners Brody] Sheldon and the Schopf Family in the acquisition of The Heights Theater, as well as oversee operations, ensuring the venue retains its distinctive character while benefiting from the Music Box’s programming expertise.”
Meanwhile, the long-in-the-works third screen will open next summer, seeing the conversion of two commercial storefronts just south of the theater. The project is funded by ownership and a community development grant from the city of Chicago. “In addition to allowing the Music Box to offer a more diverse mix of programming, Theatre 3 also enables the venue more opportunities to do special programs with filmmakers, host community events, and extend runs of films.”
The 400 Will Reopen In Rogers Park
Rogers Park’s 400 Theater is set to reopen, reports Block Club. Jordan Stancil, “the operator of three historical movie theaters in Michigan has leased the shuttered 113-year-old theater, which was the city’s oldest continually running movie theater when it closed in 2023.” An opening date will be announced at some point on the theater’s Facebook page. Stancil “operates three movie theaters in Michigan, including the Rialto Theater in Grayling, which his family has owned since 1915… ‘What I really care about a lot is the movie theater experience for the people watching the movie. There shouldn’t be any compromise for your moviegoing experience when you go to The 400 Theater.'”
Making “Risky Business”
At Chicago magazine, Jake Malooley looks back at Paul Brickman’s Chicago-set sardonic masterpiece, “Risky Business,” forty-two years after its release. “The reclusive Brickman, who admits he’s ‘from the J.D. Salinger school,’ has given few interviews. He once sent me a bulleted list to explain why he avoids talking to journalists. He didn’t even do an interview with the Criterion Collection, which last year put out a restored edition of ‘Risky Business’ that includes a version with his original ending. But Brickman, now seventy-six, has been exceptionally responsive to my long-held fascination with his one hit.”
The Latest Bids For Warner Bros. Discovery Arrive
“Netflix reportedly made a mostly cash bid for the Warner Bros. streaming and studios entity; Comcast is also in the mix,” assays Variety. “Netflix and Comcast want only the Warner Bros. studios and streaming business, and not WBD’s linear TV assets,” while a new, higher all-cash offer for the entire company from Paramount “is still mostly backed by the Ellison family (that is, Oracle co-founder and billionaire Larry Ellison) and includes financing from RedBird Capital, Apollo Global Management [and] Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).”
Adds the Wall Street Journal: “Some officials at the Justice Department are concerned that Netflix owning HBO Max would give it too much power in the streaming marketplace… The department’s antitrust division, which is responsible for reviewing deals, hasn’t formally evaluated a potential transaction. There was also a recent meeting of high-level White House officials in which concerns about a Netflix-Warner Discovery deal were discussed… Netflix is the biggest subscription streaming service in the United States. However, it is sixth in total TV usage ranked by parent company, coming in behind Google’s YouTube, Comcast, Paramount and others, according to Nielsen.”
New York Times’ Best Books Of 2025 Includes Daniel Kraus’ Latest
“On paper, ‘Angel Down’ sounds like a book that shouldn’t work: It’s a stream-of-consciousness World War I novel, told in one sprawling, 285-page-long sentence, about a failed draft dodger who finds, of all things, an angel on the battlefield,” classifies the New York Times. “And yet, Daniel Kraus [Newcity Lit 50 Hall of Fame] brings all of these elements together to craft a triumphant, unforgettable book filled with bravura writing, indelible set pieces and an urgent message.” The Times review is here.
The Chicago Reader Announces Its New Editor-In-Chief
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sarah Conway arrives at the Reader as editor-in-chief “after eight years at City Bureau, where she most recently served as senior reporter and special projects manager, as well as managing editor… Her reporting has appeared in a wide range of local and national publications, often focusing on Chicago’s marginalized and overlooked populations.” The press release is here, while the Reader elaborates here.
Advertising Conglomerate Sheds 4,000 Workers, Along With Agencies FCB, DDB And MullenLowe
The agencies BBDO, TBWA and McCann will be retained as the three global creative networks in a new structure at Omnicon after a huge overhaul, tallies Adweek, which included a $13.5 billion acquisition of Interpublic Group. FCB and DDB, two of the just-retired brands, had a deep legacy in Chicago. Adweek looks at some of the iconic campaigns of the closed shops here, including Budweiser’s 1999 “Wassup?” campaign (by DDB Chicago), and McDonald’s 1997 “Did Somebody Say McDonald’s?” campaign (also from DDB).
Chris Jones: Why Tom Stoppard Was The Greatest Living Playwright
Chris Jones elaborates at the Trib (gift link): “I have been struggling to write a tribute to Tom Stoppard, the living playwright I admired more than any other in my professional life as a theater critic. Why was he my favorite? Whereas most playwrights offer us their personal view of the world, often communicated with the moral or political certainty they feel, Stoppard simply concentrated on making sure we learned that the world was more complicated than we knew when we first sat down in our seats. This has always been what I have most wanted from seeing a show. I believe it to be the theater’s great value proposition.” Stoppard’s friend and director of “Leopoldstadt,” Patrick Marber, offers a short, tart remembrance of their meeting, their collaboration and the last four cigarettes they shared. The New York Times’ obituary is here.
Mayor Johnson Suggests That Christkindlmarket Could Move If It Needs More Space
Mayor Johnson says “that his administration has been having discussions about possibly moving Christkindlmarket from Daley Plaza to a different location,” reports CBS News Chicago. “This comes as capacity restrictions at the annual holiday festival have caused discord between the city and vendors.” City officials had “agreed to ease new capacity restrictions at Christkindlmarket slightly, amid complaints from vendors that the new rules were threatening their ability to make a profit. Christkindlmarket organizers said at the last minute, the city imposed a 1,553-person capacity for the popular German-themed holiday market this year. The capacity limits the city imposed led to long lines of customers waiting to get into the market, even amid the persistent snow on Saturday, and vendors said their business has dropped forty percent so far this year.”
Northwestern Biomed Institute Launches With $29 Million Gift
“A $29 million donation from Northwestern trustee Kimberly K. Querrey will enable the launch of a new institute ‘to catalyze the translation’ of academic research into practical medical tools,” reports the Daily Northwestern. “The Querrey-Simpson Institute for Translational Engineering for Advanced Medical Systems will help fast-track University research through clinical testing processes for new technologies.”
