| FROM THE EDITORS 08.26.09 2:33 PM |
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The 2009 BizBash Chicago Event Style Award Winners
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 | The Association of Bridal Consultants' "Frank's Favorite Things" meeting
Photo: Courtesy of Frank |
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On Friday, we posted a list of the winners of BizBash's 2009 Event Style Awards, which were announced on Thursday at a ceremony following our annual expo at the Merchandise Mart. Here's a closer look at the winning work.
Best Nonprofit Event Concept
Children’s Memorial Hospital’s “Seasons: A Year of Discovery” Children’s Ball
Submitted by Hilton Chicago
Using the seasons as inspiration, planners of this annual gala employed four separate decor schemes. In the Hilton Chicago’s grand ballroom, a costumed butterfly nymph pranced around a tree hung with lanterns, and pink umbrellas topped cocktail tables. The International ballroom evoked a winter landscape with blue lighting, sugar crystals, and beaded white linens, and dinner comprised autumnal dishes such as chestnut soup and baby pears soaked in cabernet. Violinists performed a modern take on Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.”
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RELATED TOPICS
Children's Memorial Hospital, Harley Davidson, Bacardi, Hilton Hotel Corporation, Art Institute of Chicago, Toshiba, Association of Bridal Consultants |
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| THE WALKTHROUGH 05.22.09 1:13 PM |
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Art Institute of Chicago's Modern Wing Offers Conference Rooms and Italian-Mediterranean Restaurant
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 | The Art Institute of Chicago's modern wing
Photo: Charles G. Young, Interactive Design Architects |
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Open to the public since May 16—and the cause of 26 opening events—the Art Institute of Chicago's new modern wing devotes 264,000 square feet to modern European painting and sculpture, contemporary art, architecture, photography, film, and video. Events hosted within the space—which has a capacity of about 2,500—can involve open viewing of some or all the galleries, with additional fees for museum security.
Designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, the wing comprises two pavilions that surround the first-floor Griffin Court. The bilevel circulation space can host 1,800 for receptions or accommodate seated dinners for 350.
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Art Institute of Chicago, Renzo Piano |
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| EVENT REPORT 05.21.09 11:19 AM |
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Art Institute Opens Modern Wing With 26 Events Over 10 Days
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 | The Modern Wing Opening Gala
Photo: Troy Kuane |
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One of the most anticipated openings in recent Chicago history—and, it should be said, a pretty big deal in the art world at large—the Art Institute of Chicago's new modern wing, a 264,000-square-foot structure housing works from artists such as Pablo Picasso and Jeff Koons, opened to the public Saturday. At 9 a.m., a civic dedication drew masses to a closed-off section of Monroe Street, where the building's architect, Renzo Piano, spoke and guests got a free tour of the structure. For museum staffers, and for their production partners at TBA Global, managing the public opening was just one task of many surrounding the building's debut.
"We did about 26 events within 10 days," said Linsey Foster, the museum's director of constituent relations. Each event brought a distinct target audience to the new wing. During the events' 18-month planning process, "we had very much interest on the part of our trustees and [museum president and director] James Cuno to give all of our different constituencies a chance to celebrate this building," Foster said. Along with the museum's traditional visitors—teachers at the School of the Art Institute, donors, and members, for example—"we wanted to welcome people that were new to us," she said. "Because really, it is a building for the city of Chicago and for the citizens of the world, who come here and want to experience the collection that we have."
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Art Institute of Chicago, Renzo Piano |
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| EVENT REPORT 03.31.09 8:01 AM |
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Inspired by Munch's Moody Artwork, Collaboraction Benefit Aims to Unnerve, Then Delight
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 | The Atomica Project
Photo: Alan Rovge |
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Usually, hosts strive to put guests at ease. At Saturday night's Carnaval, a kickoff for Collaboraction's 2009 Sketchbook festival of plays, the theater group aimed to disconcert. As guests filed into West Grand Studios, a sound stage attached to Collaboraction's new administrative offices, performers clad all in black ambled up to individual attendees, staring at them through lace veils for uncomfortably long periods of time, and sometimes feigned fits of inconsolable weeping.
The happening took visual cues from Edvard Munch's brooding artwork—currently on display at the Art Institute of Chicago— and represented Collaboraction's take on Carnaval, which executive artistic director Anthony Moseley described as a "globally visceral celebration." Collaboraction's specialty, Moseley said, "is to take rituals [such as Carnaval] and deconstruct them," putting them back together with "our own alphabet, tools, passion, and neuroses."
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RELATED TOPICS
Collaboraction, Art Institute of Chicago |
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| NEWS 12.16.08 11:20 AM |
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Art Institute Draws Diverse Crowd to Open Asian Galleries
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The Art Institute of Chicago celebrated the opening of two new Asian art galleries on Friday night with a gala attended by some 450 guests. Madhuvanti Ghose, the museum's associate curator of Indian, Southeast Asian, Himalayan, and Islamic art, oversaw the gala's planning efforts and said that current events led to a scaled-back version of the evening she had initially envisioned.
"We were hoping to have the princess of Jaipur at the event," said Ghose. But November's attacks on Mumbai and current bomb threats against the country made it an inopportune, and perhaps inappropriate, time for guests to fly in from India, and planners had to tone down the festivities accordingly.
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RELATED TOPICS
Art Institute of Chicago |
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| VENUE NEWS 11.11.08 12:37 PM |
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Modern Wing Restaurant Gets Executive Chef
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In May, a 140-seat restaurant will open in the Art Institute of Chicago's modern wing, a still-unfinished structure that recently hosted its first event.
The museum announced on Friday that Tony Mantuano, a James Beard Award winner and a chef and partner at Spiaggia—currently gaining national publicity as Barack and Michelle Obama's favorite date-night restaurant—will serve as the new restaurant's executive chef. Mantuano will develop a menu that incorporates local ingredients and plays off the venue's Italian-Mediterranean theme.
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Art Institute of Chicago |
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| EVENT REPORT 10.29.08 8:00 AM |
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Art Institute Gala Guests Get Sneak Peek at Modern Wing
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 | | The Griffin Court dining area in the modern wing |
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Chicago’s art and design communities have been eyeing the progress of the new Renzo Piano-designed modern wing at the Art Institute of Chicago since plans for the project came to light in 2005. On Saturday night, some 450 guests attended the first event to be held in the structure, which is still under construction and won’t open to the public for another six months. Dubbed the "Modern Ball in the Modern Wing," the event raised $200,000 for the Education and Acquisition Fund of the Architecture and Design Society of the Art Institute.
The unfinished state of the building presented a unique set of challenges for the ball's planners. From adhering to strict electrical codes to consulting with the fire department to determine capacities for the areas of the building that were ready to use, co-chairs Karen Hyatt, Carrie Lannon, and Victoria Lautman worked closely with Art Institute personnel and Turner Construction to monitor the constantly changing state of the venue. “We all had to be good sports,” said Lannon. “It was a very integrated process, because one change could mean that many other changes would have to take place accordingly.” For instance, because the new wood floors in the wing have yet to be sealed (and spills could spell disaster), the night featured an all-clear drink menu of white wine, gin, vodka, and white Cosmopolitans.
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RELATED TOPICS
Art Institute of Chicago, Renzo Piano, Architecture and Design Society of the Art Institute |
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| NEWS 08.27.08 11:24 AM |
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Mike Ditka's Weekend Extravaganza Benefits Ex-Football Players in Need
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Last weekend, Glamorama raked in $250,000 for the Art Institute of Chicago, while Good magazine's party benefitted nonprofit organizations like Teach for America. Meanwhile, in the suburbs, a series of events dubbed "Da Coach's Summer Extravaganza" had a decidedly less standard beneficiary: ex-NFL stars.
Organized by the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund—an organization dedicated to helping retired football players who are in need for reasons such as sports-related disabilities—and produced by Raydiant Entertainment, the "extravaganza" began with an NFL autograph show at the Westin Lombard on Saturday afternoon. Other activities included a V.I.P. party at Oakbrook's Ditka's restaurant, a blackjack tournament at Four Winds Casino, and a golf tournament at a Michigan-based golf club. —Jenny Berg
RELATED TOPICS
Mike Ditka, Gridiron Greats, Art Institute of Chicago, Teach for America |
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| EVENT REPORT 07.09.08 1:25 PM |
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Concurrent Dinner and Cocktail Receptions Flank Art Institute Gala
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 | The V.I.P. dinner reception at the Art Institute's Royal Gala
Photo: BizBash |
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On Tuesday night, the Art Institute of Chicago stayed open hours past its typical closing time for "A Royal Gala," which celebrated the opening of "Benin," a new exhibition of Nigerian court art. Produced by the museum's leadership advisory committee, with planning efforts spearheaded by the committee's associate director Erin Gilbert, the event featured cocktails, dancing, an on-stage presentation within the museum's auditorium, and—in a separate wing—a sponsor dinner (where tickets cost $1,000 a pop).
An hour before the bulk of the evening's 800 guests arrived, top ticket holders were privy to a curator-led tour of the exhibition. The ensuing sponsor dinner took place in one of the newly renovated galleries, where guests like Mayor Richard M. Daley, Reverend Jesse Jackson, and Nigerian dignitaries in town for the occasion sat at tables crowned with tall, palm leaf-adorned centerpieces.
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Art Institute of Chicago |
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| NEWS 07.07.08 2:26 PM |
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Local Tourist Destinations Dealing With Gas Woes
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The price of gas and other necessities this summer has local tourist hotspots feeling the pinch, according to Crain's Chicago Business. After attendance numbers fell last year amidst rising costs, some attractions have taken action to combat further fall-offs in 2008. Tourist destinations such as Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, the Field Museum, and the musical Wicked at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts Oriental Theatre came up with creative marketing ploys to lure guests to make the trip.
At Six Flags, which is located some 40 miles from downtown Chicago, adult tickets that usually go for $54.99 are selling at children's ticket prices, $34.99. The amusement park is also offering buy-one-get-one-free ticket deals. In the case of Wicked, theater promoters Broadway in Chicago gave last week's ticket holders a $50 gas card.
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RELATED TOPICS
Six Flags Great America, Field Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Wicked, Ford Center for the Performing Arts Oriental Theatre, Broadway in Chicago |
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