В Чикаго открылся новый театр Northlight, а галерея Anthony назначила директором опытного куратора Сибилле Фрише

Get Chicago & Great Lakes culture news sent to your inbox every weekday morning. Subscribe to Newcity Today here. ART Sibylle Friche Joins Anthony Gallery As Director Sibylle Friche has joined Anthony Gallery as director. Based in Chicago since 2010, Friche previously served as director at Document (2015-2022), becoming partner until 2026. Friche oversaw more than eighty exhibitions and international fair presentations in Paris, Lisbon, Miami and New York, supporting artists like Kiah Celeste, Julien Creuzet, Gordon Hall, Erin Jane Nelson and Paul Mpagi Sepuya. From 2011-2013, she was director at Rhona Hoffman Gallery, helping produce exhibitions for Derrick Adams, Spencer Finch, Deana Lawson, Sol LeWitt, Gordon Matta-Clark and Zanele Muholi. Isimeme “Easy” Otabor, founder of Anthony Gallery, says: “I’ve always admired Sibylle’s work ethic and the respect she’s earned from everyone she’s worked with.” SoNa Chicago Plans Show With Laleh Motlagh In her upcoming solo exhibition, “Rooted. Uprooted.,” Iranian-Azerbaijani American artist Laleh Motlagh (Newcity Breakout Artist 2023) presents new work “exploring multicultural identity, resilience and personal geography. Moving between the memories of her hometown of Tabriz, Iran and her life in Chicago, Motlagh navigates the complex realities of geopolitical displacement and belonging.” September 12-November 7. Opening Saturday, September 12, 5pm-8pm. DESIGN Local Eclectic Opens Jewelry Store In Streeterville Mansion Local Eclectic, an online jewelry brand based in Chicago, opened “its first brick-and-mortar store Thursday inside a renovated historic mansion at 212 East Ontario, where colorful rooms, commissioned artwork, vintage finds and whimsical details reflect [founder Alexis] Nido-Russo’s bright personality and maximalist style,” reports Block Club. “Local Eclectic has built its business around colorful, accessible fine jewelry and pieces from independent designers, many of them women-owned. The brand is popular online with nearly one million Instagram and over 60,000 TikTok followers. After years of operating online, the Streeterville mansion gives the brand its first permanent physical home.” The store will also feature a cafe, which will “serve a customized Metric coffee blend, wine and pastries, with Nido-Russo aiming for a small selection of standout baked goods.” Dyson Debuts Toothbrush With Camera Inside Dyson, which has its U.S. headquarters in the West Loop, has announced an electric toothbrush named the Dyson CameraJet, the company’s “first dental hygiene product. According to the brand it combines brushing, flossing and mouth-washing into one device,” reports Dezeen. “Described as an ‘entirely new way to clean your teeth,’ along with an oscillating brush head, the device ‘uses a camera to floss while you brush.’ Set near the brush head, a 100,000-pixel macro-lens camera tracks the teeth to find gaps, which are sprayed with mouthwash.” Company owner James Dyson moved from fine art to engineering early in his career thanks to inspiration from Buckminster Fuller. Proposed Amtrak Facility Alarms Chinatown And Bridgeport Residents “As Amtrak pushes on with plans to build a maintenance facility in Bridgeport, organizers and residents are making it clear that they don’t want the project in their backyard, especially without an environmental review,” reports Block Club. “Despite the lack of publicly detailed plans, the project has received $700 million in federal transportation funding and is expected to move through permitting and site preparation before construction begins in 2027.” DINING & DRINKING Chef Christian Hunter Opens Hooligan In Logan Square Chef Christian Hunter of Lincoln Square’s now-shuttered Michelin-starred Atelier “brings approachable fine dining” to Logan Square with a “Midwestern bistro,” reports Crain’s. “The fifty-seat restaurant, called Hooligan, plans to move into 2528 North California, taking over a 2000-square-foot spot that restaurant Good Fortune once occupied. While Hunter said he appreciates a tasting menu, Hooligan’s dishes will be à la carte. He wants to create a neighborhood spot that pays homage to Midwestern ingredients. “‘We want people to come in, whether it’s while you’re just on your way to Mi Tocaya… or if you want to sit down for an hour and a half or two hours and really indulge. The whole point was really just to resonate with the neighborhood and make it a really approachable place.’ Hunter has keyed in on an evolving trend in Chicago’s dining scene: More consumers see tasting menus as too expensive for anything but special occasions.” Roscoe Village Café Won’t Charge For Plant Milks Dewey’s Café in Roscoe Village “is embracing local produce with an eye towards dietary restrictions on its coffee and lunch menus,” ventures Eater Chicago. The cafe will feature vegan doughnuts from Beacon, homemade cookies and coffee drinks made with Metric beans. “In keeping with its plant-forward philosophy, oat milk will be the go-to with soy, coconut and corn milks available at no extra cost. Local vendor Volition supplies teas. Syrups are made in house, including one for a cold brew special topped with a peach cream foam.” Food Delivery Robots Swarm Lincoln Park Sidewalk “A Lincoln Park resident’s video showing more than a dozen delivery robots clustered on Clark Street has drawn more than 300,000 views,” reports Block Club. “The machines have become particularly concerning on a busy pedestrian corridor used by runners, older residents and people using wheelchairs and walkers. Coco did not return Block Club’s request for comment, but the company did comment on Becca Ostien’s viral video that the robots were not designed to operate that way and that the company caught the issue quickly and cleared the machines within minutes.” MEDIA Feminist Pioneer And Ms. Founder Gloria Steinem Was Ninety-Two “Gloria Steinem, the writer and activist who became the public face of the American women’s movement and helped launch Ms. magazine, died Wednesday,” chronicles Variety. “Calling herself ‘an entrepreneur of social change,’ Ms. Steinem helped usher in sweeping cultural transformations across virtually every facet of American life, from the boardroom to the courtroom to the bedroom,” writes the New York Times. She “galvanized the modern women’s movement, helping millions of women develop a sense of self-worth and gain a measure of equality at home, at work and in society at large.” MUSIC Sound & Gravity Goes “Left Of Center” Returning for its second year, three-day festival Sound & Gravity will be held at multiple venues around Roscoe Village and Avondale this weekend, reports the Sun-Times. The festival is designed “so music fans can easily jump from one venue to the next and discover a new band. ‘I wanted to get away from the festival of 20,000 people in the park, which I think has in a lot of ways played itself out, at least in Chicago,’ said Mike Reed, who founded the festival and also co-produced the now-defunct Pitchfork Music Fest.” Read Newcity’s preview here. STAGE Northlight As A Space For New Plays The $32 million glasswalled Northlight Theater opens this month, reports the Sun-Times. “We wanted to design a building that fit into Evanston, but also was distinctive,” said Northlight executive director Tim Evans. “It has an industrial sort of feel to it and look to it because we make art in here, but we also wanted it to have a bit of a contemporary flair.” The 24,000-square-foot building “features plenty of bells-and-whistles, including 150,000 pounds of structural and catwalk steel. But the key component of the space is the theater itself. ‘The most important thing is that the audience feels like they’re in the journey of the play. That’s the gift and that’s part of what having a bespoke theater is all about,’ said artistic director BJ Jones.” The Loop’s Fourteenth Floor Spiegeltent Finds A New Operator Charlie Maréchal and Nicolas Allard of Circensia Entertainment Group are opening a new immersive theater venue called Kermess in the former Teatro ZinZanni space, a Belgian Spiegeltent on the fourteenth floor of the Cambria Hotel at 32 West Randolph. The theater opens October 15 with “Premonitions Inc.,” a contemporary circus and cabaret show hosted by Sabrina Von B, known for her viral videos as the Evil Queen at Disneyland. “The room is built around a century-old Belgian Spiegeltent, with 300 seats at tables and circus unfolding overhead and around you.” More here. Ballets Jazz Montréal Honors Leonard Cohen In Chicago Debut The Auditorium Theatre will present the Chicago debut of internationally renowned Canadian company Ballets Jazz Montréal on November 7. The company will present an evening-length tribute to the artistry of singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, a fellow Montrealer, on the ten-year anniversary of Cohen’s passing. “Approved by Leonard Cohen during his lifetime, and under the artistic direction of Louis Robitaille and the strong and bold dramaturgy of Eric Jean, this riveting homage to the famed poet-singer-songwriter evokes the grand cycles of existence, as described in Cohen’s deeply reflective music and poems.” Saturday, November 7. Tickets ($44-$154) here. ARTS & CULTURE & ETC. How Does Chicago Stack Up On Arts Spending? “Brandon Johnson wants to be an arts mayor. How does Chicago’s spending stack up?” ask WBEZ and the Sun-Times. The report looks at “our city’s arts budget and how it compares to other major municipalities like New York and Los Angeles. Across the country’s five largest cities (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Phoenix), Chicago was the only one to cut the funding for its local arts agency during its most recent budget cycle. And while its spending dwarfs that of the larger Los Angeles, and trails only behind New York in per capita arts dollars, the pressure is mounting on city leaders to do more.” Two More Beluga Whales Lost At Shedd “Three belugas have now died at the Shedd in about a week for unknown reasons,” reports the Sun-Times. “Two of them were rescued from a shuttered Canadian aquatic park targeted by animal rights groups alleging the belugas lived in poor conditions.” Administration Renews Move To Strip Schools Of Tax-Exempt Status “The Treasury Department released rules that would prevent schools with race-based programs from qualifying for tax-exempt status, a threat to both higher education and other private schools,” reports the New York Times (gift link). “Such a change would thrust the I.R.S. into the center of the Trump administration’s push to pressure schools to abandon initiatives aimed at supporting Black and other minority students, efforts meant to address the nation’s long history of racial discrimination and segregation.” Send culture news and tips to [email protected]