Art and necessity
State restores legislative chambers

Photograph by Michael Tercha, courtesy of the State Journal-Register Lawmakers returning to the Capitol for last month's veto session were greeted with refurbished chambers, including this angelic trumpeter on the Senate ceiling.

Illinois government has changed much in the past 100 years. As has the building in Springfield where that business is conducted. But, though we might not want to return to the outdated political styles of earlier eras, falling plaster in the Senate and House chambers offered a long-overdue opportunity to restore some bygone charm to the 19th century Capitol.

The ornate Senate ceiling, unveiled last month in time for the launch of the fall legislative session, was repaired and repainted over the summer to resemble how it looked around 1900. (That date is politically appropriate, as the Republican governor of the time, John Riley Tanner, loved pomp and circumstance.) Workers added Victorian-style draperies to the hallways at the sides of the chamber. A clock face befitting the era may be added later.

Over in the House, leaks have been plugged, and the decorative ceiling, which boasts fewer ornaments, was repainted.

The cost of the work in both chambers, including new windows and roof repairs, was $6 million. While the price may seem steep, fixing the ceilings became an obvious necessity about a year ago. Protective nets had to be draped above lawmakers' desks to catch falling chunks of plaster, some weighing several pounds.

Rather than patch the problem as in past decades, the state chose a long-term solution sure to please historians and art lovers. The General Assembly appropriated the money last spring and work began immediately after lawmakers adjourned in April. Yet the repairs forced the legislature to meet in the Howlett Building's auditorium during a special summer session called to temporarily repeal the state sales tax on gasoline.

Accomplishing the renovation required research and a mixture of old-style craftsmanship and modem technology. Specially trained workers used steel pins and glue to reattach restored ornaments, including a particularly elaborate angel. They used a combination of old photos and a microscopic analysis of paint chips to arrive at a historically accurate and newly uniform color scheme. The effort was labor-intensive because much of the paint had to be mixed by hand on site to make sure it matched. Canvas portions of the ceiling were repainted, then glued back into place.

To oversee the project, the state hired an expert in historical restorations, Jeff Greene of Evergreen Painting Studios in New York.

"Really, the whole encyclopedia of art techniques was up there at one point or the other," Greene says, referring to the results of years of patch-ups. He found evidence of gold leaf, bronze powders, glazing and freehand painting. Many of those aesthetic touches had been covered by subsequent restorations.

But earlier craftsmanship may have contributed to some modern problems, too. Greene discovered that Illinois coal ash, high in sulfur content, had been mixed with plaster when the chambers were originally built. Apparently, architect Alfred Piquenard used the combination to create a hydraulic effect in the plaster, making the ceiling more capable of holding heavy ornaments. "At the time, the science was not available to tell them that a chemical reaction would occur creating sulfuric acid, which led to deterioration," Greene says. That reaction has helped to loosen the plaster since 1888.

But advancements in decorative materials kept costs down in this latest renovation. Greene decided on imitation gold leaf to brighten areas that had been covered in a dull gold-colored paint. The newly decorated chambers feature a scheme of muted colors that includes green, blue-gray and umber. "We were striving for the historical accuracy, but we understand this is a work area," Greene says. "We think we found that balance."

Laptop computers and electronic voting boards will continue to reflect a more modern era. But as lawmakers deal with today's issues, they'll do so in a setting that barkens back to a simple, yet stylistic, time.

8 December 2000 Illinois Issues www.uis.edu/~ilissues

ART AND POLITICS
The fight at the Terra Museum is high-powered and high-priced

Charges of a plot to move the Terra Museum of American Art from Chicago's Gold Coast to the nation's capital hit a Cook County court this fall, launching a case loaded with political figures, jet-set players, big-money and high-prestige stakes.

Following allegations of mismanagement by the foundation that runs the museum, lawyers from Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan's office joined the fray. They also must deal with the potentially far-reaching issue of whether an Illinois charity can leave the state. As part of his official responsibilities, the attorney general monitors foundations and charitable institutions.

Two foundation board members filed suit in September charging other members were scheming to close or move the museum. Founded by the late self-made millionaire Daniel J. Terra, the museum shows a collection, particularly strong in American Impressionists, valued at more than $100 million.

One plaintiff is Ron Gidwitz, head of the Illinois State Board of Education. The other is Dean Buntrock, former head of Waste Management Inc. Among the defendants is Judith Terra, Daniel's widow. The lawsuit charges that she wants to violate her late husband's wishes and pull his museum out of Chicago, furthering her own climb up the Washington, D.C, social ladder.

Adding a soap-opera kick to the story, there's already a history of tax disputes involving the Terra, and the current bickering reaches to France, where Daniel Terra founded a sister museum near Paris. In addition, the cast includes Mayor Richard M. Daley's wife, Maggie, who is a member of the foundation's board. And the script is being guided by a disputatious cadre of some of the highest-powered, highest-priced lawyers in Chicago, who are lining up in the Cook County courtroom of Judge Dorothy Kirie Kinnaird.

Plaintiffs Gidwitz and Buntrock won a temporary order from Judge Kinnaird barring the museum from closing or moving.

Defendants insist no moving plan has been developed, although the foundation is considering options designed to maximize its art collections. Indeed, the lawsuit created a "train wreck" for the foundation, which spends $3.5 million a year to maintain the Chicago museum, says Paul Tucker, foundation president and another defendant in the suit. "Let us be clear; no decision has been made whatsoever about the museum's fate." The lawsuit amounts to a "squandering of the assets" of a not-for-profit that has to hire lawyers to defend itself, Tucker says.

A significant question is whether a not-for-profit can close up shop and go elsewhere. A plaintiffs' spokesman warned that disallowing a move would have a chilling effect on foundations statewide. But Floyd Perkins, head of the attorney general's charitable trusts division, says, "We believe there is enough [in case law] to show a charity can't change its purpose." Sometimes a charity's purpose is attached to its location, he says, as with a community hospital, where its mission is specific to its place. Defendants argue there is nothing in the foundation's rules requiring a museum in Chicago.

The Terra Museum opened in Evanston in 1980 and moved in 1987 to North Michigan Avenue in Chicago. The foundation prides itself on its educational programs and on its sister museum that opened in Giverny, France, in 1992, near the studio of Claude Monet.

So far, the case hasn't gone beyond procedural wrangling over such issues as who in the foundation should oversee defense of the lawsuit (critical since board members are named in it), where board meetings could be held, even the job of scheduling a board meeting and determining whether outsiders could be present.

The attorney general's office has been drawn into Terra affairs before. In 1989, it investigated whether $11 million had been improperly invested in a company owned by Daniel Terra after the Chicago Sun-Times raised questions. In 1992, Terra battled with the IRS, which sought back taxes and penalties stemming from museum investments. Perkins also worked on the earlier case.

Whether they are seriously contemplating a move, defendants contend that before he died, Terra himself recognized there were problems at the Michigan Avenue location. It suffers from a lack of amenities that today's museum-goers expect, such as a restaurant and auditorium, they say.

Terra, a major Republican fundraiser, became ambassador-at-large for cultural affairs for President Ronald Reagan. His widow sought to have him buried in Arlington National Cemetery, but the request was denied when it turned out that statements that he had served in the Navy during World War II could not be verified.

Art notes

The Illinois Arts Alliance cheered the adoption of a bill that gives all not-for-profit art and cultural organizations access to a sales tax exemption.

Previously the right to the exemption was available only to music and performing arts groups.

The bill took effect this summer.

QUOTABLE " There will be a market for these things, but e-books, for example, will most likely appeal to other sorts of people who wear calculator watches and ride solar-powered bikes. Gadgeteers. Our opinion is that the average reader likes owning books, actual books, period. "   David Eggers, editor of McSweeney's Books, to John Donatch, publisher of Basic Books and Andre Schiffrin, director of New Press, about the trend toward cyber-publishing.

www.uis.edu/~ilissues Illinois Issues December 2000 9

URBAN GATEWAYS
Chicago arts education center turns 40

Photograph courtesy of Urban Gateways Center for Arts Education Urban Gateways Executive Director Libby Lai-Bun Chiu teaches the art of Chinese calligraphy to a Chicagoland student.

When Reginald Robinson was 13, the Urban Gateways Center for Arts Education arranged for a ragtime pianist to perform for his seventh grade class at the Robert Emmet School in Chicago's Austin neighborhood. That performance awakened the boy's interest in music. And in 1998, Robinson, by then 25, released his third ragtime piano album. Euphonic Sounds.

Next month, Urban Gateways, a nonprofit group designed to address the inequity in arts programming for inner-city schools, begins its 40th year of introducing children like Robinson to the arts.

The center arranges matinee theater performances for some 45,000 school-children each year and makes low-cost tickets available for classes. It also books school tours for acting troupes, musicians and dancers. The artists often provide on-site workshops for students and teachers in conjunction with their performances. Urban Gateways runs an artist-in-residence program, which places teaching artists or performers in a school system for 11 weeks, during which they collaborate with full-time faculty to develop an arts curriculum. The center's musical instrument bank gives donated and rehabilitated musical instruments to the Chicago Public Schools and other area groups that otherwise could not afford them. Last year, Urban Gateways made literary, visual and performing arts experiences available to 500,000 children, teachers and parents in the metropolitan Chicago area.

With 180 affiliated artists and an annual budget of $3 million. Urban Gateways program director Tim Sauers says the center has come a long way toward fulfilling its mission. "There are a wealth of programs providing art programming to [inner-city] schools. Forty years ago, we were the only ones doing it." But, says Sauers, the work needs to continue: "In a time where reading, writing and arithmetic and teaching to tests are the focus of education, the arts still take a second seat to that." Arts education is valuable, he says, because it's another way to teach children to ask questions and make decisions, and it gives them a dose of "aesthetic health."

10 December 2000 Illinois Issues www.uis.edu/~ilissues

CULTURE WATCH
At least they spelled the name right

Decatur, or its big black eye, has hit the big time. "After strikes, tornadoes, racial hostilities and a tire recall, what's next?" asks The New Yorker in an October feature on the beleaguered town.

Thanks to an "accumulation of calamities and embarrassments," Decatur has moved way up on what writer Mark Singer calls the Central Illinois Recognition Factor Index.

Deadly tires. Labor troubles. Racial discord. Singer tried to tactfully address these issues with Decatur residents.

Larry Haab, retired chairman of Illinois Power, told Singer, "The community has a consciousness, a state of mind. It can feel good in good times and feel worse when things aren't going so well. And now is a bad time. I hear it largely in throwaway comments: 'What bad thing is going to happen next? We're getting dumped on again.' I think the broad citizenry think it's all beyond our control."

UPDATES
Illinois River, death penalty, grandparents' rights and contract quotas

• Congress and President Bill Clinton agreed to authorize $100 million for a 20-year plan to clean up the Illinois River watershed (see Illinois Issues, November, page 33).

• A special Illinois Supreme Court committee reviewing death penalty procedures recommended amending the code of conduct to state that "the duty of a prosecutor is to seek justice, and not merely to convict" (see Illinois Issues, May 1999, page 24).

• The state Supreme Court ruled an Illinois statute violated divorced parents' fundamental right to raise their children after a lower court favored a grandmother's petition for visitation rights over the parents' objections (see Illinois Issues, June, page 28).

• A federal judge struck down as unconstitutional Cook County's ordinance requiring that 40 percent of publicly funded construction contracts go to minority- and women-owned firms, a potential threat to other public set-aside programs (see Illinois Issues, June, page 14).

CHILDREN AND CULTURE
Younger Chicagoans celebrate the humanities

Children participated in the annual Chicago Humanities Festival for the first time this year through activities planned for them and their parents. "Our audience often consists of people college age and over-50," says Rebecca Young, organizer of the Children's Humanities Festival. "We want to reach out to young families."

Eleven events were held in two city schools last month highlighting storytelling, music, drawing, word games and spontaneous theater. Among the attractions was a new adaptation of Aaron Copland's children's opera. The Second Hurricane, about six high school students caught in a storm who learn tolerance, courage and the spirit of freedom.

Beverley Scobell

12 December 2000 Illinois Issues www.uis.edu/~ilissues

WEBSOURCE
Site rolls many journals into one

For history buffs, the new Web site produced by the University of Illinois Press may become a favorite source for one-stop information shopping from the latest journals. The History Cooperative at www.historycooperative.org provides electronic access to a universe of historical scholarship, and, for a short time, it's free.

This is one of the major projects that takes the press into the new arena of electronic publishing.

To launch the history site, the press joined forces with the American Historical Association, which publishes the American Historical Review, the Organization of American Historians, which publishes The Journal of American History, and the National Academy Press, which among other services is the publisher for the National Academy of Sciences.

The American Historical Review and The Journal of American History are both available in fully searchable versions back to 1995. Some articles offer audio clips and color illustrations.

The U of I plans to add four other journals in searchable formats: The William and Mary Quarterly, Law and History Review, The History Teacher and Western Historical Quarterly. In January, the U of I Press will put the Booker T. Washington Papers on the site. Fourteen volumes of the papers were originally published in the 1970s and '80s.

"This is just the very beginning," says Paul Arroyo, the press' new electronic publisher. "The intent of the founders is to include a variety of other history journals. For that matter, it won't just be journals; it will be other supplemental information, things that we haven't even conceived of right now that we may like to put online."

Access to the site is unlimited now, but beginning next month it will be restricted to individual or institutional members of the sponsoring organization of one of the journals in the cooperative. Eventually, others can gain access on a subscription or single-article-delivery basis for a fee.

12 December 2000 Illinois Issues www.uis.edu/~ilissues