Who is the hell doesn’t know what Highlander is? For shame. All of you, add it to your netflix queue pronto!
This week: Duncan, and a panel of superstar critical thinkers, Lori Waxman, Kathryn Hixson and James Yood discuss, Highlander, Artropolopolopolis, Robert Storr vs. the universe, and regionalism in an action packed, smack down of art critical smartness.
To digress for a moment, in googling everyone’s name to minimize errors I was astonished to find that there once was a Chicago Art Critics Association. Sadly their website was last updated in 2006. It seems to have died of disinterest. I wonder if the meetings entailed “Beat-it” style knife fights, alas Bad at Sports missed the boat there.
Only Duncan will be amused by the opening song, as he knows there can be only one, and only Kaveh Soofi and Dominic Molon by the closing song.
Pamela Michelle Johnson was one of the many (250) artists showing at this years Artropolis Artist Project and was kind enough to give a quick interview.
In 1994 Paul Morris, Matthew Marks, Pat Hearn and Colin De Land had a vision. That vision was that New York City would have an art fair. What began as the Gramercy International Contemporary Art Fair has become the the Armory fair, the jewel in the art fair empire the Merchandise Mart has amassed over the last 3 years; Art Chicago, The Armory, Art Toronto, Volta Basel, Next, and Volta NYC.
This week, Paul “the ‘marts Art Czar” Morris and Tony “Boss of Art Chicago” Karman break down why the Art Fair future is the future. Kathryn Born and Duncan MacKenzie listen with slack jaws and open minds.
The weird thing that happened is that Duncan actually started to get behind Art Chicago and the ‘marts future in the Art Business? WTF? Did he drink the Kool Aid? Was he bought off? Or is there reason to believe? Listen and find out… Continue reading »
So, it turns out that anyone who “bikes” to the Merchandise Mart gets in free to Artropolis. That would include the Next Fair (which all you good Art minded Chicagoans should be off too anyway) and Art Chicago. This seems to be in relation to the Mart being named the “largest ‘Green Building’ on Earth.” So, bike it Chicago and love America’s green future and international art.
Tree Hugger Excerpt:
For 78 years, Chicago’s Merchandise Mart has been the world’s largest commercial building; It is also now LEED-EB (existing building) Silver. According to Business Week, “The effort required overhauling decades-old practices and technology, from replacing most of the Mart’s 4,000-plus windows and upgrading rusty motors deep in its subbasements to taking better care of dust mops. The reward: At 78 years of age, the Merchandise Mart is now the biggest green building in the world.”
Business Week notes that “the return has been quick: Thanks to the upgrades, utility bills last year fell about 10%, and occupancy rates climbed to 96%, from 77% a decade ago. “We’ve had a wave of interest,” says Christopher G. Kennedy, president of Merchandise Mart Properties and an heir to former building owner Joseph P. Kennedy. “One prospective tenant, who had passed us over, came back because they require a LEED space.
More at Tree Hugger: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/03/merchandise-mart-goes-green.php
and Business Week http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/mar2008/db20080319_978885.htm
