In the wake of the recent flag-on-the-floor exhibit at the School of the Art Institute Gallery, the Illinois House of Representatives is considering a bill passed by the Senate to cut funding for the school from about $65,000 to $1. During demonstrations against the exhibit this spring, state senator Walter Dudycz, one of the leaders of the protests, urged his supporters to express their displeasure to corporations that contribute to the Art Institute. School and museum officials say that they have lost about 700 individual memberships to the museum (less than 1 percent of the total) but that corporate contributions to the school and museum are actually up. Dudycz says, however, that several corporations have informed him that they are reviewing their policies of giving to the school.
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Early this week, the Reader obtained the minutes from a recent meeting of the board of directors of the Midwestern Mucketymuck Corporation of Greater Lesser Chicagoland, operators of 132 Widgets-R-Us stores in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Excerpted below are remarks of Mark M. Mucketymuck, chairman and chief executive officer, whose autobiography, Out of the Muck, Into the Bucks (the sequel to Don’t You Fidget, I’ve Got Your Widget), written with William Novak, will be released next month.
“As for that big round metal colossus in the employee cafeteria, don’t ask me. The wife picked it out. And please quit hanging your umbrellas on it. They scratch.
“You also had students thinking about the First Amendment and questioning our long-cherished symbols of patriotism. Is this why we have funded the High Mucketymuck Scholarship for the past five years? We want the youngsters to explore new frontiers in the use of pastels and airbrush technique and advertising, through the graphic arts. As I tell my secretary, I hope not too graphic–they’re just kids. Hah! We want them to brighten and lighten this vale of tears we call Planet Earth. We don’t want them worrying their multicolored little heads about the Bill of Rights, do we?
