The Art Institute of Chicago has received an endowment and two grants of unusual importance.
Larry J. Feinberg, who has been at the institute since 1991, will become the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan curator in the department of European painting. It is the second endowed curatorship in the department and the eighth at the museum overall.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a $225,000 grant to the institute for two post-doctoral fellowships for scholars who wish to pursue curatorial careers in art museums. Each fellowship lasts three years and will support scholarly research related to the museum’s collections. The first Mellon Fellow is scheduled to be selected this spring.
The institute’s Ryerson and Burnham libraries have received a National Endowment for the Humanities challenge grant in the amount of $200,000 to undergird humanities research and programming. Under the grant’s provisions, the museum must raise $800,000 in matching funds.
– Chicago painter Roger Brown has donated the design for a mosaic mural to be installed in the lobby of the Howard Brown Health Center under construction at 4025 N. Sheridan Rd. The center, which is the Midwest’s oldest gay and lesbian health organization, is scheduled for completion next September. Among the mural’s depictions are Hull House, Cook County Hospital and the Brown Center under a sky of low tufted clouds.
– “Mercuria,” a 75-minute performance work incorporating movement and vocalizations, will be presented by Lynn Book and Theo Bleckman at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday in the theater of the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave. Admission is $12, $10 students and senior citizens. 312-397-4010.
– Alan G. Artner
JAZZ
Dempsey Travis, the distinguished author of several books on black life and culture, will appear during the “Chicago Voices Interview Series” at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Chicago Historical Society, Clark Street and North Avenue. Travis will be featured in conversation with Chicago author Studs Terkel, with much of the discussion sure to focus on Travis’ latest book, “The Louis Armstrong Odyssey: From Jane Alley to America’s Jazz Ambassador” (Urban Research Press). Phone 312-642-5035.
– The Velvet Lounge, Fred Anderson’s club on the Near South Side, has expanded its music schedule. 8 Bold Souls play at 8:30 p.m. Thursdays; the Tony Mujica Trio, 9:30 p.m. Fridays; Ernest Dawkins Trio, with Anderson, 9:30 p.m. Saturdays; Velvet Lounge jam session, 5 p.m. Sundays. The Velvet Lounge is at 2128 1/2 S. Indiana Ave.; phone 312-951-9050.
– Singer Grazyna Auguscik performs Saturday at the Green Mill Jazz Club, 4802 N. Broadway (773-878-5552); and Feb. 25-March 1 in the Metropole of the Fairmont Hotel, 200 N. Columbus Drive (312-565-8000).
– Pianist Larry Novak, a veteran Chicago artist, will collaborate with the Arts Center Jazz Ensemble Friday in the Arts Center at College of DuPage, 425 22nd St., Glen Ellyn. The concert, directed by Tom Tallman, will feature music of Horace Silver, Claude Thornhill, Chick Corea and Neal Hefti, among others. Phone 630-942-4000.
– The Jose Valdes Latin Jazz Ensemble plays Saturday at Andy’s, 11 E. Hubbard St. Phone 312-642-6805.
– Howard Reich
CLASSICAL
One of the area’s long-established string ensembles, the Vermeer Quartet, will join forces with one of the area’s newest string groups, the Chicago String Quartet, in a concert at 3 p.m. Sunday in the DePaul University Concert Hall, 800 W. Belden Ave. The program holds Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat, along with Elliott Carter’s String Quartet No. 1, written in 1950-51. Performing Arts Chicago is the sponsor. Phone 773-PAC-LINE.
– Master flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal will return to Orchestra Hall at 7:30 p.m. Sunday for a program of works by Telemann, J.S. Bach and others. Assisting artists will be Claudi Arimani, flute, and John Steele Ritter, harpsichord and piano. Phone 312-294-3000.
– The Chicago Baroque Ensemble next week will pay homage to the father of French music in an all-Gallic Baroque program, “Apotheosis of Lully.” Soprano Patrice Michaels Bedi is the soloist. The concert will include excerpts from Lully’s “Armide” and Francois Couperin’s “Apotheose de Lully.” Performances will be at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Michigan Shores Club, 911 N. Michigan, Wilmette; and 6 p.m. Monday at the Union League Club, 65 W. Jackson Blvd. Phone 773-274-2528.
– Lukas Vondracek, a 10-year-old piano prodigy from the Czech Republic, will make his area debut in three recitals this weekend. His program holds music by Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann and others. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Ganz Hall, Roosevelt University, 430 S. Michigan Ave.; 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Arts Center of Oak Park, 200 N. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park; and 7:30 p.m. Sunday in Lutkin Hall, Northwestern University, 700 University Pl., Evanston. Phone 847-864-0112.
– Zubin Mehta will lead the Civic Orchestra of Chicago in a concert of Shostakovich and Mahler works at 8 p.m. Monday in Orchestra Hall. His soloist will be the young American cellist Bion Tsang. Although admission is free, tickets are required and are available by mail order, phone or fax at the Orchestra Hall box office, 220 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60604. Phone 312-294-3000.
– John von Rhein
ARCHITECTURE
Marrying historic preservation and social needs, a little-known Chicago non-profit group, Inspired Partnerships, helps religious organizations to take care of buildings and to use for them community service activities such as soup kitchens.
On Wednesday, the 5-year-old organization is sponsoring a bus tour of three turn-of-the-century churches–two on Chicago’s West Side and one in Oak Park. “Join us to learn what it takes to bring heaven down to earth,” says an invitation from the group.
The tour begins promptly at 3:30 p.m. from Assumption Church, 323 W. Illinois St., and lasts until 6:30 p.m. It takes in the following churches: New Mount Pilgrim Baptist, 4301 W. Washington Blvd.; Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica, 3121 W. Jackson Blvd.; and Pilgrim Congregational, 460 Lake Street, Oak Park.
The tour is free. Reservations must be made by Monday. Call 312-294-0077.
– Renowned architect I.M. Pei, whose buildings include the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, is the subject of a 90-minute special airing on WTTW-Ch. 11 at 9 p.m. March 5.
– The Chicago Architecture Foundation is sponsoring a Wednesday lunchtime lecture series that features some fine speakers on Chicago architecture and related design topics.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill partner Joseph Gonzalez begins the series on March 5 with a talk, “Stainless Elegance,” about the Inland Steel Building, a Skidmore-designed high-rise at 30 W. Monroe St.
Future speakers include Ward Miller of Vinci Hamp Architects, March 26, on concepts for redeveloping the Central Post Office as a transportation hub; and author Maya Moran Manny, April 9 on the landscape of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Tomek House.
The lectures, which begin at 12:15 p.m., are at the foundation’s lecture hall, 224 S. Michigan Ave. Admission is free. Call 312-922-3432.
– Blair Kamin
DANCE
The Ruth Page Dance Series presents the second of three weekend showcases this season Feb. 28 and March 1 at Northeastern Illinois University, 5500 N. St. Louis Ave.
Ensemble Espanol Spanish Dance Theater, the River North Dance Company, the Swift Brothers and Concert Dance Inc. are all on the roster. The series concludes March 28 and 29. For ticket information: 773-794-6138.
Chicago choreographer August Tye will present a program of her work, “Being in Dreaming II,” Friday through March 1 at the Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave.
Tye has been a member of the corps de ballet at the Lyric Opera of Chicago for four seasons. The concerts will feature 20 Chicago dancers and guest artists from the Kalamazoo Ballet Company. For ticket information: 312-902-1500.
– Sid Smith
