Friday 20
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Of those in Harold Washington’s inside circle, Jacky Grimshaw may well have been the most interesting and toughest adviser. “I don’t remember when I met him,” Grimshaw says, although she knows she was a little girl, and he was already a bright reform legislator. Washington’s respect for her was seen in his naming her head of his Intergovernmental Affairs Office, and also in their long, hard, and loud arguments–which ended with a wink and a laugh. Even though she was technically the number-two person in the 1987 mayoral campaign, she was its spiritual leader and the glue that held many of its diverse elements together. Grimshaw, often mentioned as a possible mayoral candidate herself, will be a featured speaker today in a roundtable discussion on “Progressive Politics Citywide,” a subject on which she is a virtual brain trust. It’s part of a conference, From the Lakefront to the River: Building Progressive Power, from 9:30 to 3 at Truman College, 1145 W. Wilson. Suggested admission is $10. Call 281-3182 for more details.
As an environmental biologist, Diane Cox spent a lot of time examining the minutiae of Colorado and Wyoming, where she did environmental-impact studies for several government projects. The work brought her closer to the earth, but it also exposed the limitations of that traditional career. “It had no soul,” she says. In 1982, she left her job and took up sculpture seriously. Art gave her the vehicle for her concerns about the ecosystem and about the resilience of the human spirit. Cox’s work, which will be on display tonight through June 11 at the School of the Art Institute Gallery 2, 1040 W. Huron, combines organic and man-made materials in human-scale pieces. The opening reception starts at 6, and it’s free, of course. For more, call 443-7284.
Tuesday 24
Several architectural entries were recently submitted to the city’s library board and blue-ribbon jury. To choose the winner–the one firm that’ll charge millions of dollars to build Chicago’s new library–the judges must consider not just the efficiency and beauty of each design, but also how it would fit into the rest of the designated State Street block. Paul Goldberger, architecture critic for the New York Times, could certainly teach our library board a thing or two about Building Against Cities: The Struggle to Make Places, his topic for tonight’s lecture, sponsored by the New Art Examiner. Goldberger’s free talk starts at 7:30 at the Graham Foundation, 4 W. Burton Place. For more information, call 836-0330.
