Arts and culture
Here are reviews and feature articles (and even a bit of backstage reporting) about music, sculpture (including architectural decoration), the performing arts, painting and photography, the popular arts, and government arts policy.
I was never the first writer an editor thought of when assigning pieces on the arts. My interest in the fine arts in particular is that of the dilettante. I wrote little about the state's painters, some about public sculpture, and virtually nothing about music.
For much more about the literary arts in Illinois, see Illinois books & writers.
Note: I here treat Frank Lloyd Wright's house fittings as art objects; as many of his clients would attest, they weren't really furniture.
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A pizza king gets Wright’s art-furniture to go
Chicago Times March/April 1990
No Room for Writers
The writers' memorial in Chicago's newest library
Reader September 25, 1992
Chicago Sinfonietta at Rosary College
Art fights audience and manages a draw
Wednesday Journal April 17, 1991
Hostile to the Arts, Just Indifferent
The state of state-funded arts in Illinois
Illinois Issues December 1998
Museums
Has the governor taken the wrong guy hostage?
“Dyspepsiana” Illinois Times October 15, 2015
Public science in an age of privatized government
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times February 11, 2016
Springfield’s Kidzeum promotes “health and wellness”
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times November 7, 2013
Merchandising Modern Art
Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art
Reader April 10, 1992
George Lucas wants to improve young Chicagoans
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times May 1, 2014
Contemplating antique glass paperweights
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times April 2, 2015
Flat Land into Landscapes
Scenic paintings of the central Illinois landscape. Really. "Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times November 29, 2012
Libraries
Public libraries in all their forms are essential cultural institutions, not that you'd know that from the way they are funded in Illinois. Here is a sampling of pieces that address these and related issues.
Libraries for people who don’t use libraries
"Prejudices" Illinois Times March 13, 1981
A more modern library, not a better one
"Prejudices" Illinois Times March 4, 1977
What Good Are Public Libraries?
A commercial ethos creeps into the stacks
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times October 14, 2010
An Overdue Policy on the Library
Ought the state’s historical library to be independent?
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times February 26, 2015
The Sangamon Valley Collection
History finds a home at Springfield’s public library
Illinois Times February 11, 1977
Saving History from the Wrecking Ball
Richard Nickel and Sullivan's legacy
Illinois Issues April 1995
Books Matter. People Care. Change Is Possible.
Richard Bray and “Chicago's most committed bookstore”
Reader April 14, 1989
The Elizabeth Birds of the Illinois Woodland peoples
Nature of Illinois Spring/Summer 1989
Vachel Lindsay pays the price of not selling out
“Prejudices” Illinois Times November 5, 1987
Bringing the Dana-Thomas House furnishings back home
Illinois Times December 10, 1987
Springfield’s city band marches into Salzburg
"Prejudices" Illinois Times August 23, 1990
The Band in the Park on a Summer Night
Springfield’s Municipal Band plays on
Illinois Times August 11, 1978
Illinois once was French—not that you’d notice
“Prejudices” Illinois Times May 21, 1992
Public art
Our new sculptors don’t do justice to our history
“Prejudices” Illinois Times October 12, 1979
Exterior Decoration
Books about public sculpture in Chicago
Reader August 12, 1988
Public statuary on the Illinois statehouse grounds
"Prejudices" Illinois Times undated
I Think Icon, I Think Icon, I Think Icon
Building iconography explained, sort of
Crain's Chicago Business April 5, 1993
How Lorado Taft carved out a future for himself
Illinois Issues January 1989
Today's heroic public memorials trivialize heroism
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times April 5, 2012
Restoration makes the statehouse too grand for politics
“Dyspepsiana” Illinois Times September 12, 2013
Fallen Heroes
Don't remove offending Statehouse statues, move them
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times August 20, 2020
See also "The people's art museum" in The Tourist’s State Capital and "Outside the museum walls" in “More of Beauty and Less of Ugliness”
The Encouragement of Competent Teachers
Would Elizabeth Graham be allowed to teach today?
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times April 30, 2015
A loss to the arts—but oh, the banking convenience!
“Prejudices” Illinois Times December 16, 1977
Local arts critics show courage under fire
“Prejudices” Illinois Times April 10, 1981
Lyric Flights
Does John Prine belong on as well as in the state library?
Illinois Times July 30, 2020
Town Character
The hometown as hero in mid-Illinois books
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times July 16, 2015
No Business Like Show Business
Springfield arts critics get panned—again
“Prejudices” Illinois Times July 28, 1978
Stirring Up the Arts at the PAC
Looking for an arts audience in Springfield
Illinois Times February 2, 1984
The U of I’s new world-class concert hall
Illinois Times December 23, 1977
Modern Minstrels
The heirs to Vachel Lindsay's performance poetry
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times August 18, 2011
Chicagolandia’s contributions to the popular arts
See Illinois (unpublished) 2002
Unseen nature in books by Kanfer, Irving, and Clay
Nature of Illinois Winter 1989
Springfield Visited
Novelist Evelyn Waugh lectures the capital in 1949
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times April 26, 2012
Furnishing Springfield's Dana-Thomas House
Chicago Times March/April 1990
Independent publishing, and thinking, lose a champion
“Prejudices” Illinois Times February 23, 1989
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New York, New York
Gotham has always drawn Springfieldians to the bright lights
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times September 18, 2014
