Maggie’s Dream: A Children’s Museum at the Cultural Center?
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Several weeks ago Maggie convened a meeting of representatives from various city museums and other arts organizations. At that meeting, she revealed she was interested in transforming the Cultural Center into a children’s museum. The revelation did not go unnoted by Weisberg, who was present at the meeting, or by Dianne Sautter, executive director of Express-ways Children’s Museum, the organization that sources say may be invited to occupy the Cultural Center should Weisberg decide it’s time to make Maggie’s dream a reality.
The notion of a children’s museum as the principal occupant of the Cultural Center isn’t as appealing to everyone as it is to Daley and Sautter. Some close to the situation say it would be a “travesty” if the mayor’s wife were to use her considerable clout to push through the scheme without due consideration of alternatives that might open up the building to a broader base of cultural interests. Eight months ago the League of Chicago Theatres, the Chicago Dance Coalition, the Chicago Artists’ Coalition, and the Chicago Music Alliance collectively wrote to Weisberg asking for time before any decision about the Cultural Center’s future is made to conduct their own feasibility study, to determine how the building might function as a site for performing arts groups. Two follow-up letters also were sent. The groups have as yet received no response to their repeated requests.
The Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s Tony Award-winning production of The Grapes of Wrath bids good-bye to Broadway next week. When the Steppenwolf crew got the word earlier this month that the $1.5 million-plus production was folding, it was almost like a bolt out of the blue–a bitter reminder that Broadway is about economics as much as artistic glory. Steppenwolf artistic director Randy Arney and Grapes director Frank Galati were auditioning for cast replacements when they were summoned to the offices of the Shubert Organization, one of the principal producers of the Broadway production. Arney and Galati were told that ticket sales beyond Labor Day looked grim–grim enough anyway to close the show some five and a half months after it opened. “The Shubert executives said September is a deadly time for ticket sales,” explains Arney. Grapes is expected to close with a loss of most of its substantial investment.
Rainy Days at Ravinia
