Stories by marc vitali

The artistry of Frank Lloyd Wright is front and center when it comes to Prairie School architecture. But other architects made enduring impacts. A new group turns the spotlight on George Washington Maher, an under-recognized designer of buildings throughout the Midwest. 

The city’s newest concert venue, appropriately called the Salt Shed, which just celebrated its opening day Tuesday. The concert hall is on the site of the renovated Morton Salt shed. 

An art show near Ukrainian Village is a cry of protest against the ongoing war in Ukraine. Artists from Chicago and Ukraine are raising their voices in opposition to the Russian invasion. 

This summer hundreds of thousands of music lovers will descend on the city for its annual music festivals. And that impact on public land is a point of contention for some neighbors who live near the parks.

The recent Broadway smash “Six” is perhaps their most notable success. Now, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater is bringing aliens to center stage with a musical-comedy adaptation of the 1950s sci-fi film “It Came From Outer Space.”

The show curated by rapper Vic Mensa is called “Skin and Masks.” It was inspired by Frantz Fanon, the influential 20^th century thinker and author of “Black Skin, White Masks.”

Paul Cezanne was thought of as the greatest by some very great artists, including Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet, to name just two. The Art Institute along with the Tate Modern in London is presenting its first exhibition of Cezanne in 70 years. 

Jazz great Miles Davis is the focus of an ambitious concert this weekend at the Kehrein Center for the Arts in the Austin community. It is part of a new partnership between the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic and the Art Center. 

Arts critic Hedy Weiss gives us her recommendations.

A local music prodigy began studying in his native Ukraine before he moved to Chicago with his family. The community of musicians he found here – and music itself – have helped sustain him during an uneasy time. 

A patchwork child care system, a lack of paid family leave and millions of busy and stressed parents — a new book argues the current model of raising children isn't always the best for kids' brain development. In that book, the author writes society should give all parents more time and tools to optimize the growth of young minds.