Arts and culture
Here are reviews and feature articles and even a bit of backstage reporting (!) about music, sculpture (including architectural decoration), painting, and—for want of a better place to put them—pieces on booksellers and bookshops, the literary and performing 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, including the literary arts, is that of the dilettante. I wrote little about the state's painting, only some about sculpture (thanks to Lorado Taft), a bit about poets and translators of poets (Springfield somehow produced two or three of national reputation) and virtually nothing about music.
Illinois's signal contributions has been to the nation's popular arts, which I cataloged for a never-published guide to Illinois history and culture. Someday I might get around to excerpting that material and posting it here.
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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Furnishing Springfield's Dana-Thomas House
Chicago Times March/April 1990
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
Springfield's house poet Vachel Lindsay
“Prejudices," Illinois Times February 13, 1981
Public statuary on the Illinois statehouse grounds
"Prejudices" Illinois Times undated
Exterior Decoration
Books about public sculpture in Chicago
Reader August 12, 1988
On Mark Harris on Springfield poet Vachel Lindsay
Reader June 25, 1993
Hostile to the Arts, Just Indifferent
The state of state-funded arts in Illinois
Illinois Issues December 1998
Chicago Sinfonietta at Rosary College
Art fights audience and manages a draw
Wednesday Journal April 17, 1991
Robert Fitzgerald, translator, teacher, Springfieldian
“Prejudices” Illinois Times June 23, 1994
All Is Not Well Forever
Robert Fitzgerald’s youth in Springfield
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times November 19, 2009
Saving History from the Wrecking Ball
Richard Nickel and Sullivan's legacy
Illinois Issues April 1995
Merchandising Modern Art
Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art
Reader April 10, 1992
Unseen nature in books by Kanfer, Irving, and Clay
Nature of Illinois Winter 1989
Come Home, Papa, All Is Forgiven
Oak Park tries hard to be proud of Ernest Hemingway
New York Times Book Review July 8, 1990
George Lucas wants to improve young Chicagoans
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times May 1, 2014
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
What Good Are Public Libraries?
A commercial ethos creeps into the stacks
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times October 14, 2010
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
Our new sculptors don’t do justice to our history
“Prejudices” Illinois Times October 12, 1979
Springfield Visited
Novelist Evelyn Waugh lectures the capital in 1949
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times April 26, 2012
Markable Authors
Which Springfield writers deserve commemoration?
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times December 16, 2010
Independent publishing, and thinking, lose a champion
“Prejudices” Illinois Times February 23, 1989
Two Springfield English teachers raise a flock
“Prejudices” Illinois Times September 8, 1978
The Encouragement of Competent Teachers
Would Elizabeth Graham be allowed to teach today?
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times April 30, 2015
The Young Man and the Suburb
Oak Park welcomes Hemingway back home, at last
Reader March 30, 1990
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
Today's heroic public memorials trivialize heroism
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times April 5, 2012
Contemplating antique glass paperweights
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times April 2, 2015
Vachel Lindsay and Springfield, Illinois, U.S.A.
A first try at understanding Harris understanding Lindsay
“Prejudices” Illinois Times October 5, 1979
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
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New York, New York
Gotham has always drawn Springfieldians to the bright lights
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times September 18, 2014
Illinois State Museum
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
