CHICAGO — Working as an arts presenter is a hard job, and though I don’t know for certain, I would imagine that working for the City of Chicago is also hard. As Director of Performing Arts for the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), Shoshona Currier is doing both: administering city-funded performance-based programming, and simultaneously navigating the inevitable politics and…

CHICAGO — As the audience piled into Chicago’s Storefront Theater for Dana Michel’s one-night engagement, the ordinarily dark space was dressed in sterile white drops and white marley. But nothing – absolutely nothing – about Michel’s solo work Yellow Towel is as plain as the space in which it lives. Michel is dressed in a black hoodie and sweatpants. She…

In response to the 2012 Cultural Plan, the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (known to us artist-folk as DCASE) has beefed up its programming to include several new series of free performances. SpinOff is one such series, celebrating Midwest choreographers at three venues: Pritzker Pavilion, the Studio Theatre at the Cultural Center, and the Storefront Theater….

My sophomore year of college, I took an interdisciplinary seminar in ecology and economics.  We discussed how Midwestern prairie lands have changed over time, and the impact of economic development on our natural landscapes. We visited Prairie Crossing – a weird amalgamation of suburbia, farmland and natural prairie, mostly owned by Waste Management. As The Space/Movement Project (TSMP)’s 10th anniversary season…