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ART

Ari Emanuel Closes Purchase Of Frieze From His Former Company, Endeavor

Ari Emanuel, former head of the Endeavor talent agency and brother of former mayor Rahm Emanuel, “has finalized the acquisition of Frieze, the company that includes its namesake publication, seven art fairs around the world, and two exhibition spaces,” tallies ARTnews. Frieze’s worldwide fairs include Expo Chicago. The $2 billion purchase “also includes several tennis events such as the Miami Open and Madrid Open, as well as a majority stake in Barrett-Jackson, a collector car auction house.”

At Ninety, Diane Simpson Builds Largest Sculptures Yet

“The awe-inspiring results that Diane Simpson has achieved through her self-generated system [of using unexpected materials] are on full display this fall, both in a full retrospective entitled ‘Formal Wear’ at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in a presentation of three newly commissioned works for an outdoor terrace at the Art Institute of Chicago,” writes Art in America in a detailed history of the sculptor’s career. “The outdoor sculptures for the Chicago Art Institute are her largest works to date. The exhibition’s title, ‘Good for Future,’ is taken from a note-to-self that Simpson wrote on a roll of drawings back in the mid-1980s. True to her word, she has been realizing sculptures based on them over the course of the past five years.”

DESIGN

IIT Hosts Stanley Tigerman Book Launch

IIT’s College of Architecture and MAS Context, in collaboration with Yale School of Architecture, will present the book launch for “Stanley Tigerman: Drawing on the Ineffable.” The program will include “presentations by the book’s editor George Papamattheakis; Yale University professor of architecture Deborah Berke and architects Thomas Kelley and Margaret McCurry, who all contributed to the book; and College of Architecture professor John Ronan.” College of Architecture dean Reed Kroloff and Iker Gil will host a Q&A as well.

The book “paints a new portrait of the legendary architect Stanley Tigerman through his drawings, collages and sketches,” Yale University Press writes. It showcases “creative documents and drawing styles, representative of the wide array of Tigerman’s projects and interests: master plans, urban designs, civic infrastructures such as museums and low-income housing, private residences, exhibition designs, furniture and tableware, as well as architectural cartoons—his so-called Architoons.” S.R. Crown Hall, October 27, 5pm. More details here.

A French Startup Joins The South Side Quantum Park

Pasqal “will set up its U.S. headquarters at the quantum park that’s being built on the sprawling former U.S. Steel South Works on the far South Side,” reports Crain’s. “It joins Silicon Valley startup PsiQuantum and Boulder-based Infleqtion among the roster of companies that have announced plans to build quantum computers at the IQMP. Ever since Governor JB Pritzker convinced legislators to commit $500 million to developing a quantum-computing industry, Illinois has been racing to establish itself as the leader in the space. It has been building critical mass in the nascent industry, signing up IBM and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as tenants, along with Australian startup Diraq.”

Chicago Fashion Week Is Back

Chicago Fashion Week’s second edition kicked off yesterday, “with sixty-plus shows, talks and shopping markets located in venues from Hyde Park to Highland Park,” styles the Sun-Times with a guide. “Chicago Fashion Week (CFW) won’t feel or look like the other global markets, which is the point. New York City, Paris and Milan are tailored for trade audiences, fashion editors and celebrities—not general market consumers. Chicago Fashion Week is designed to speak to Midwest shoppers.” Read Vasia Rigou’s interview with Chicago Fashion Week founder John Leydon here.

Jeanne Gang Co-Edits Harvard Design Magazine

“As architects and designers work to reduce the building industry’s outsized contribution to the climate crisis, Harvard Design Magazine 53 argues that the reuse and repair of existing structures offer architects and planners a vital path forward—one that keeps cities alive and responsive to their inhabitants. Guest edited by architect Jeanne Gang and historian Lizabeth Cohen, Harvard Design Magazine 53: ‘Reuse and Repair’ engages the practice of reuse across multiple scales—from individual buildings to downtown streets to the regulatory frameworks that organize urban life.”

Chicago Architecture Biennial Imagines What Comes Next

“With architect Florencia Rodriguez at the helm, the biennial’s tenth-anniversary edition unfolds across the city with installations that rethink materials and permanence,” writes Galerie Magazine. “I really believe in the ways in which you can make things public,” Rodriguez said at the biennial’s opening event, held under the stunning stained glass domes of George Foster Shepley’s 1897 Chicago Cultural Center. “But also understanding that we are not all the same, and that there is a kind of wonder in that, and a huge possibility when we start learning from others and looking for different responses.”

DINING & DRINKING

A Farmers Market Favorite Opens First Shop In Lincoln Park

“After years of selling out at Chicago farmers markets, Dorothy’s Bakery has found a permanent home in Lincoln Park,” tastes Eater Chicago. “The shop, which opened in mid-September, marks a new chapter for owners Brian and Taylor Bruns, who have been offering breads, pastries and bagel sandwiches since 2021.” Early success led to “a full-fledged farmers market operation. The couple began selling at Green City Market, where 500 to 600 hand-rolled bagels would disappear within hours, and converted the Flat & Point space into a production hub.”

ICE Fears Strike Chicago Restaurants

“As immigration enforcement has escalated across the city with federal agents staging raids and arresting people, often aggressively, in public view, so too have the fears of restaurant workers and owners across the city,” reports Lisa Shames at Block Club. “An industry reliant on immigrants is quietly struggling with staff shortages and morale, and restaurant operators are grappling with how to ensure the safety and security of their employees while keeping their businesses running and customers happy.”

Northern Michigan’s Food And Wine Scene Gets Attention

“With a bevy of national attention in 2025 for its growing restaurant and wine scene, people beyond Michigan are finally appreciating the bounties Up North,” writes Eater Detroit. For example, “Traverse City’s growing reputation as a farm-to-table dining destination is drawing more talent and recognition. The chef-owners of the Cooks’ House, Jennifer Blakeslee and Eric Patterson, were the only Michigan semifinalists to advance to the finalist stage of the 2025 James Beard Awards. Sarah Welch, also a James Beard nominee and the sassy runner-up on season nineteen of ‘Top Chef,’ left Marrow in Detroit to open Umbo in Traverse City (planned for February) with her husband, Mink chef Cameron Rolka.”

FILM & TELEVISION

“The Fugitive” Director Andrew Davis Remembers Actor Ron Dean, A Chicago Original

Born in Chicago, Ron Dean “began his career by playing cops and military officials. One of his earliest roles was in ‘Risky Business,’ where he appeared alongside Tom Cruise… Dean also had a role in John Hughes’ ‘The Breakfast Club,’ portraying Emilio Estevez’s father, and appeared in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight,’” as well as Andrew Davis’ films “The Fugitive,” “Code of Silence,” “Above the Law” and “Chain Reaction.”

Says Davis, “Ron Dean was my dear friend and a tremendous actor. He was the essence of what Chicago talent represented… The interrogation scene in ‘The Fugitive’ with Ron and Joe Kosala deeply moved Harrison Ford.” On X, Richard Roeper remembers Dean as “the cop who told Joel to get off the babysitter in ‘Risky Business.’ The hard-case dad in ‘The Breakfast Club.’ A detective questioning Dr. Kimball in ‘The Fugitive.’ A corrupt cop in ‘The Dark Knight.’ Rest in peace to Ron Dean—a Chicago original.”

LIT

Nobel Prize For Literature Awarded To Laszlo Krasznahorkai, “Master Of The Apocalypse”

Laszlo Krasznahorkai, “a Hungarian novelist known for his dark, apocalyptic themes and intricate sentences that can run on for pages, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature,” records the New York Times (gift link). The Swedish Academy, which organizes the prize, said at a news conference that the writer had received the award “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.” Krasznahorkai has said “that he had tried to develop an ‘absolutely original’ style… I wanted to be free to stray far from my literary ancestors, and not make some new version of Kafka or Dostoyevsky or Faulkner.”

The seventy-one-year-old Krasznahorkai (pronounced CRAS-now-hoar-kay) “has long been revered by fellow writers. Susan Sontag once called him a ‘master of the apocalypse,’ and the Hungarian movie director Béla Tarr has adapted several of his novels.”

MUSIC

Chicago Independent Venue League (CIVL) Reports On Economic Impact Of Music Venues

A recent study shows that seventy-eight percent of independent stages in Illinois are struggling with unprofitability, due to inflation, anti-competitive practices and predatory resale. The State of Live report is the first comprehensive national study examining the economic contributions of independent venues. According to the report, this year independent venues, festivals and promoters in Illinois generated $3.9 billion in total economic output; contributed $2.3 billion directly to the state GDP; supported 25,913 jobs across the local economy; paid $1.3 billion in wages and benefits; and produced $288.8 million in annual state and local tax revenue.

But only twenty-two percent of independent stages in Illinois reported profitability in 2024, reflecting national trends in which sixty-four percent of independent stages nationwide are struggling to remain financially viable. “Independent venues are more than stages for entertainment; they are economic engines and cultural lifelines,” said Stephen Parker, executive director of NIVA. “This report underscores the urgent need for policy reforms and public investment to sustain these indispensable community anchors.” The full report is here.

Music Direct Warehouse Clearing Boxes Of Used LPs

Music Direct will give away boxes of used records at its warehouse in Bowmanville, relays WBBM-TV. The company “is closing its used record division to focus on new vinyl and hi-fi gear, and thus, their inventory of used records is going for free at a five-hour event.” LPs “will be pre-sorted by genre—rock, country/folk, classical, soundtracks, comedy, pop vocals and jazz among them. Those who come to the warehouse for the event can choose a mystery box. The used record inventory will be in a giveaway box, whether it’s worth one dollar or twenty. Attendees may take two boxes per entry per person, with the option of getting back in line and waiting for two more.” Music Direct Warehouse, 1811 West Bryn Mawr, Saturday, October 25, 10am-3pm.

The Music Building Launches In Chicago

“Two New York institutions—The Music Building and Smash Studios—announced the launch of The Music Building Chicago, operating out of Chicago’s historic and upgraded Music Garage. The revitalized facility” at 345 North Loomis “features a dynamic combination of hourly and monthly rehearsal rooms, production studios, artist lounges, and performance-ready spaces designed to accommodate artists of every level. Smash Studios will provide hourly and lockout rehearsal studios along with full audio/video production services, while The Music Building will oversee the monthly rehearsal and production studios.” More here.

STAGE

Goodman Names Two New Board Leaders

The Goodman announces new leaders at the helm: Marsha Cruzan is the new chair of the board of trustees, while Diane Landgren is the new president of the women’s board. “Cruzan builds on ten years of service to the Goodman in executive committee roles, instrumental in guiding the theater’s strategy for successful outcomes in reaction to the pandemic shutdown, as well as advising leadership on optimal capital structure to ensure long-term financial stability. Civic leader Diane Landgren also builds on ten years of service to the Goodman in assuming presidency of the women’s board. In her women’s board leadership positions, Landgren has chaired major benefit events as the Goodman gala, auction and the education and engagement benefit.” The theater also notes that membership is up by twenty percent year-over-year, and that the centennial season’s first major fundraiser raised $500,000 for education and engagement programs to a sold-out audience.

Bob Wilson, Chicago Stage Actor, Was Sixty-Three

Bob Wilson, a veteran of the Chicago stage “who could channel the comedic, the surreal, the absurd and the melancholy,” was sixty-three, chronicles WBBM-TV. Wilson was “involved with the legendary Second City improvisational theatre troupe [and] later joined the since-disbanded WNEP Theater company, founded by fellow Second City alum Don Hall along with friends Joe Janes and Jeff Hoover. Wilson worked as technical director for WNEP while also taking the stage for the company—notably as a dynamic performer in the company’s acclaimed surrealist revue ‘Soiree Dada.’” Wilson’s Trap Door Theatre bio is here.

Doug Long, DePaul University Theater Professor, Was Sixty-Two

“Douglas Long, a DePaul University faculty member who taught theater and movie classes, spent fifteen years directing the university’s first-year program, which helps freshmen learn research, writing and critical thinking skills, and find community by exploring the city with their classmates, faculty and staff leaders,” chronicles the Tribune. “Long interacted with thousands of first-year students at DePaul over the years.” He “also taught at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn and at Victory Gardens Theater… ‘Doug lived DePaul’s mission and identity,’ said Mark Pohlad, a DePaul associate professor of art history… ‘He loved the urban identity and all the diversity that went with it. And he couldn’t wait to introduce students to campus, to various neighborhoods and to a life of the mind and heart.’”

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

The 3Arts Awards Recipients Of 2025

3Arts, the Chicago-based nonprofit grantmaking organization, has named the seventeen recipients of this year’s 3Arts Awards: dance artists Wendy Clinard, Chih-Jou Cheng, and Torrence “Tea Buggz” Griffin; musicians Tommy Carroll, Ariella Granados, Kara Jackson and Maxwell Senteney; teaching artists ebere agwuncha, Victoria Boateng and Tom Lee; theater artists Rammel Chan, Nina Castillo-D’Angier and Kristin Idaszak; and visual artists Jess Atieno, Leasho Johnson, Fern Logan and Odette Stout. Read their bios here.

The organization will honor the recipients at the 3Arts Awards on Monday, November 10, at the Harris Theater. The event includes a welcome reception, awards program, and a “jubilant” after-party. Tickets ($150-$300) here.

Chicago’s Pope Leo Urges Bishops To Support Immigrants

The pope conveyed a message to bishops to support immigrants “as President Trump escalated his deportation campaign, including in Chicago, the pope’s hometown,” reports the New York Times. “With National Guard troops expected to arrive in Chicago, Pope Leo met with a group of Catholics from El Paso. The group gave the pope more than 100 handwritten letters, written by immigrants—mostly undocumented individuals but also mixed families—living in Catholic communities across the United States… Pope Leo did not specifically mention Mr. Trump, Bishop Seitz said, or Chicago. But the crisis unfolding in the church in America—where a third of the church is Hispanic and families have told priests they are uneasy about going to Mass for fear of being apprehended by officials with ICE—was the obvious backdrop.”

Argentina Vs. Puerto Rico Soccer Match Moved From Chicago 

“Soccer fans who planned to catch the match with Lionel Messi at Soldier Field are out of luck. The change comes as Chicago has faced a surge in immigration enforcement activity,” reports Block Club. “The two teams were scheduled to play Saturday… as part of a series of ‘friendlies’ while the International Federation of Association Football, known as FIFA, takes a break. Messi was set to play in matches against Puerto Rico and Venezuela this weekend… The game will now be played at Fort Lauderdale’s Chase Stadium.”

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