If every city has its moments of triumph and defeat, its periods of acclaim and ignominy, there’s no question that, right now, Chicago is positively basking in glory–at least so far as culture and the performing arts are concerned.
The announcement this month that the Joffrey Ballet, a revered New York institution for more than three decades, was packing up its toe shoes, heading to the Midwest and rechristening itself Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, was but the latest evidence of this city’s dramatic cultural ascent.
If you doubt it, consider a few other, related developments:
– The American Booksellers Association, which held its convention in Chicago earlier this year, announced that, as of 1997, Chicago would become the permanent site for the event, “the most important bookselling trade show in the world,” in the words of Bantam Doubleday Dell vice president Stuart Applebaum.
– In July, the Art Institute of Chicago opened “Claude Monet: 1840-1926,” the most extensive exhibition of the artist’s work yet assembled. The show, which runs through Nov. 26, will not travel, which means that art lovers from around the world must come to Chicago to see it.
– Next year, the Museum of Contemporary Art will open its new, $46.5 million building (near the Water Tower), an extraordinary move in an era when major museums across the country are curtailing their hours to save on electric bills.
– By 1997, Canadian producer Garth Drabinsky plans to reopen the historic Oriental Theatre, a once-glorious movie palace on Randolph Street, refurbished as a home for large-scale musicals, plays and other attractions.
Those are just the highlights. The developments seem even more extensive when taking into account the multimillion-dollar renovations of the Civic Opera House and Orchestra Hall; the rising international acclaim of Lyric Opera of Chicago, which is presenting a major new opera every season; the $33 million Chicago Music and Dance Theater, scheduled to open in 1997 at Cityfront Center; and the new theater at the recently refurbished Navy Pier and the new home for the Goodman Theatre, in the former Selwyn and Harris theaters, on North Dearborn Street, both penciled in for later this decade.
Add to that Chicago’s rejuvenated jazz scene, with its new record labels, new clubs and new stars; choreographer Twyla Tharp’s recent collaborations with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago; and the cauldron of activity in alternative rock, and it’s clear that something is in the air. That the Democratic National Convention is coming to Chicago next year only underscores the point.
“This burly city of big shoulders and grand ambitions is experiencing what few other American cities could imagine in these days of recession and belt-tightening,” wrote New York Times correspondent Isabel Wilkerson, catching the trend early, in a 1991 article.
“Its cultural institutions are expanding in size and audience at a time when those in some other cities are trying to stay in business.”
So why is it happening, why now, why here, why all at once?
“Why shouldn’t it be happening in the best city in America?” asks Garth Drabinsky, the Toronto producer who has been spending a great deal of time here developing plans for his revived Oriental.
“About two weeks ago I took this wonderful architectural tour of the Chicago River, and it was so revelatory and inspiring to see the catalytic pull this city has had on architects and visionaries, on people like Daniel Burnham, who understood the importance of protecting the shoreline of Chicago as far back as the 1800s.
“In Chicago there is an overall critical mass of splendid cultural institutions, which is very important in attracting still more cultural institutions. To have an opera and symphony and an Art Institute of the strength that Chicago has, to have the great universities, the spectacular retail environment–all of it acts as a magnet.
“For the Joffrey Ballet to come to Chicago is a brilliantly inspired move. This is where the action is and where the potential is.”
Indeed, to Gerald Arpino, co-founder of the Joffrey Ballet and artistic director of the new Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, “I think the heartland is going to be focus of culture and of the greatest expansion of culture in our country.
“I think Chicago is attracting a great deal of activity because it’s not jaded, like some other cities. It’s fresh, it’s open, it’s what America is all about.
“There’s a freshness, a vitality about the city. It hasn’t been corroded with ultra-sophistication and with its citizens’ own esteeming of their own quality. Yet at the same time, it’s a magnificent city–the architecture, the music, it’s enough to make your mouth drop open.”
There’s much more at work here, however, than just the palpable zeal of Chicago converts such as Arpino and Drabinsky.
For starters, in the ’90s the Midwest did not face the kind of recession that struck the East and West Coasts, a well-documented fact that put Chicago’s burgeoning arts scene at an advantage when it came to fund-raising.
Without generous donations from Chicago’s corporate and charitable foundations, multimillion-dollar projects such as the new Museum of Contemporary Art, the expansion of Orchestra Hall and the Civic Opera House, and the emergence of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago (which plans a $5 million annual budget) wouldn’t get much beyond the planning stage.
“Then there’s the quality of life issue,” jazz pianist Jeremy Kahn told the Tribune earlier in the year, in explaining why he moved here from New York.
“My family and I moved into a situation that doesn’t exist in New York. I’ve got a beautiful old house with a back yard, and it’s 15 minutes from downtown. In New York, to get a house like that I would have had to live two hours out of downtown.”
Or consider the way composer-critic Virgil Thomson put it several years ago, when this writer asked why there was a cultural explosion in Paris in the ’20s. “Rent was cheap,” Thomson replied.
For these and other reasons, esteemed performers such as Ben Vereen and songwriter Oscar Brown Jr., as well as younger talents such as Spider Saloff and Kurt Elling, have moved here in recent years.
Depending on one’s point of view, however, all of this artistic activity is either a godsend or a curse. To the major-league players, it’s good news indeed.
“There’s a whole revolution going on in Chicago in terms of new performing arts facilities, and we’re thrilled to be a part of it,” says Drabinsky.
Publishers Weekly editor John Baker told a publishers conference last year that “the center of gravity is moving away from New York and the East Coast. It’s moving into the heartland to an astonishing degree.”
Considering that publishing already is a billion-dollar industry in Illinnois, with more than 500 publishers based in the state, Baker may be on to something.
Yet there’s a potential downside to all of this activity, as well.
“It’s great that all of these big, major things are going on, but it’s putting the smaller institutions in a little trouble,” says Bernard Sahlins, a co-founder of Second City in the 1950s and a stage director around town to this day.
“A lot of our smaller theaters are having real problems, and that’s dangerous, because the audience development and the risk-taking is really done by the smaller organizations. Without them, the bigger institutions cannot flourish, in the long run.”
Indeed, several of the smaller organizations have succumbed in recent years. The City Musick, a first-rate early-music group; MoMing, a modern dance center; and the International Theatre Festival of Chicago all have gone under in recent years. Meanwhile, the National Jewish Theater, the Bop Shop and HotHouse (two North Side jazz clubs) all have had close brushes with extinction.
With the new Joffrey Ballet of Chicago and Ballet Chicago presumably competing for funds, with midsize musical ensembles such as the Chicago Sinfonietta and Symphony II competing for audiences, there clearly are great challenges ahead.
Just how far the Chicago culture scene can continue to expand without stretching itself too thin remains to be seen. For now, though, there’s an unmistakable giddiness in the air.
“It’s an exciting moment, all the young people and all the big boys coming to town,” says author Studs Terkel, a longtime observer of Chicago’s perpetually evolving cultural landscape.
“But it’s important to remember that Chicago always was the spot, when it came to culture and the arts. There were great artists here during the WPA days, and long before, too.
“So this is an exciting moment, but there’ll be other ones, too. Chicago never stops.”
