While the month of free days at the Art Institute may be coming to a close, there are still plenty of opportunities to enjoy many of Chicago’s museums for free in February (members always receive free admission every day).
Art Institute of Chicago.Free Tuesday-Friday (including evenings), February 1-4; Thursdays Feb. 10, 17, and 24.Free the first full weekend (Feb. 5-6) for Bank of America credit or debit card holders(must show card and photo ID; valid for card holder only). Open Mon-Wed. ; Thurs-Fri ; Sat.-Sun. . 111 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago. 312-443-0849. http://www.artic.edu/aic/
Chicago Children’s Museum.Free for everyone every Thursday ( only); free for ages 15 and under Sunday, February 6.Open every day (Thursdays until ). Navy Pier, 700 E. Grand Ave., Chicago. 312-527-1000. www.chicagochildrensmuseum.org
ChicagoHistoryMuseum.Free for everyone every Monday; free every day for members of DuSableMuseum and NationalMuseum of Mexican Art.Open Mon.-Sat. -, Sun. Noon-5pm. 1601 N. Clark St., Chicago. 312-642-4600.www.chicagohs.org
DuSableMuseum of African American History.Free for everyone every Sunday; free on school days for Chicago Public School students; free February 5-6 for Bank of America credit or debit card holders(must show card and photo ID; valid for card holder only). Open Tues.-Sat. ; Sun. noon-5pm. 740 East 56th Place (corner of 57th& Cottage Grove), Chicago. 773-947-0600. http://www.dusablemuseum.org/
FieldMuseum.Monday, Feb. 14, Tuesdays, Feb. 8 and 15, Wednesdays, Feb. 2 and 9, Thursdays, Feb. 3 and 17.Open every day (last admission at ).1400 S. Lake Shore Dr., Chicago.312-922-9410.http://www.fieldmuseum.org.
Museum of Contemporary Art.Free for everyone every Tuesday; free Saturday, February 12 for families with children 12 and younger ( only with special Family Day activities).Open Tues. , Wed.-Sun. . 220 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago. 312-280-2660.www.mcachicago.org
Museum of Contemporary Photography.Free every day.Open Mon.-Sat. (Thurs. until ), Sun. (closed when ColumbiaCollege is closed). 600 S. Michigan Ave. at ColumbiaCollege, Chicago. 312-663-5554.www.mocp.org
Museum of Science and Industry.Free Monday, Feb. 14 and every Tuesday, Feb. 1, 8, 15, 22.Open .57h Street and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago. 773-684-1414.http://www.msichicago.org/
NationalMuseum of Mexican Art.Free every day.Open Tues.-Sun. -5pm. 1852 W. 19th Street, Chicago. 312-738-1503.www.nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org
NatureMuseum.Thursday is “suggested donation” day. Open Mon-Fri, -4:30pm; Sat-Sun -5pm. 2430 N. Cannon Dr. (just north of Lincoln Park Zoo), Chicago. 773-755-5100.www.naturemuseum.org
The Oriental Institute.Free every day (suggested donation $7 adults, $4 children).Closed New Years Day.Open Tues.-Sat. (Wed. until ), Sun. 12-6pm. 1155 East 58th Street at University of Chicago. 773-702-9514.http://oi.uchicago.edu/
Shedd Aquarium.Free for everyone Sunday, Feb. 20; Mondays, Feb. 7, 14, 21, 28; Tuesdays, Feb. 1, 8, 15, 22; Wednesday, Feb. 23; Thursday, Feb. 24.Free February 5-6 for Bank of America credit or debit card holders(must show card and photo ID; valid for card holder only). Open Mon-Sun .1200 S. Lake Shore Dr., Chicago. 312-939-2438.http://www.sheddaquarium.org/
SmartMuseum of Art.Free every day. Open Tues.-Fri (Thurs. until ), Sat.-Sun. - 5550 S. Greenwood Ave. at University of Chicago. 773-702-0200.www.smartmuseum.uchicago.edu
SwedishMuseum.Tuesday, February 8.Open -4pm (general museum), (children’s museum). 5211 N Clark St, Chicago. 773-728-8111.http://www.swedishamericanmuseum.org/
Lincoln Park Zoo.Free every day(Zoolights continues through Sunday, Jan.2). Open . 2001 N. Clark St., Chicago. 312-742-2000.http://www.lpzoo.org/
In addition to the free days,Chicago Public Library branches have free passes to a number of Chicago’s most popular museums, good for up to four people for one week. All you need to do is show your Chicago Public Library card and choose any available pass.
You can get information about parking, driving directions, and public transportation at each museum's website.
American modernist painter John Marin was one of this country’s most celebrated artists in the twentieth century.His improvisational approach to color, perspective, and movement made him a leading figure in modern art and helped influence the Abstract Expressionist movement.
A new exhibit opening Sunday, January 23, at the Art Institute of Chicago presents the museum’s complete collection of Marin’s work for the first time.The exhibit’s works range from early images rooted in traditional practice to more personal and experimental compositions.
While Marin worked prolifically in watercolor, etching, and oil during a career that spanned more than 50 years, it was the medium of watercolor that encouraged his development of a bold, original style that is both contemporary and authentically American, and John Marin’s Watercolors: A Medium for Modernism explores his working method and modernist vision.
The 120 works in the exhibition are grouped according to the locations where they were painted, including such diverse sites as New York City, France, the Maine coastline, and the New Mexico desert.
You can enjoy free admission to the Art Institute every weekday in January, which is open late on Thursdays and Fridays until After January, you can view the exhibit for free on Thursdays when the museum has free admission from
You can see the exhibition from Sunday, January 23 through April 17 in Galleries 124-127.Art Institute members can preview the exhibition on Friday, January 21 from and Saturday, January 22 from .
The Art Institute of Chicago is located at 111 S. Michigan Avenue.Click here for directions and parking and public transportation information.
Visitors to Phoenix may know about the area’s golf courses and shopping, but to really experience the uniqueness of this desert city, get away from the typical tourist enticements and find some of the activities that can be enjoyed only in this unusual environment.
Unlike the flatlands of Chicago, Phoenix has a mountain literally in its backyard – CamelbackMountain.Camelback is great for urban hiking when time is short; it’s a favorite with locals because it’s so close.Spend an hour on one of the two easy trails - Bobby’s Rock Trail or the Ramada Loop Trail.If you have more time, take the longer Cholla Trail, or challenge yourself by hiking to the 2,700 foot summit on the EchoCanyon trail.The view is spectacular from any point on the mountain.It’s also the perfect spot to watch the sun setting on the city below you – although it’s best to drive to the summit to watch the sunset since the law requires that hikers arrive at their descent before dark.
Another great spot for looking down on this desert cityscape is SouthMountainPark, the largest municipal park in the country.Drive the South Mountain Park Scenic Drive, which wanders through the park’s 16,500 acres and provides several lookouts, or hike the trails and see the area’s petroglyphs.The view from Summit Lookout at 2,330 feet emphasizes the size of this sprawling desert metropolis.The park includes 58 miles of trails for horseback riding, mountain biking, and hiking, including a wheel-chair accessible trail.Spend some time in the EnvironmentalEducationCenter or participate in one of the ranger-led outdoor programs if you’re interested in learning more about the area’s desert ecosystem.The park has picnic areas, so bring a lunch and spend the day.
Visit the DesertBotanical Garden in PapagoPark.This botanical garden has one of the world’s best collections of desert plants with 50 acres of outdoor exhibits.It is also home to 139 rare, threatened and endangered plant species from around the world.
220 acre EncantoPark may not be unique to a desert environment, but it’s a very popular spot with the locals.The park has a lagoon (where you can rent canoes), a swimming pool, a nature trail, two golf courses, and fishing.One of its most popular attractions, though, is EnchantedIsland, with rides, games, and a train that travels around the park.
Do like the locals do and go tubing on Salt River.Salt River Tubing is the company most people use when tubing.Floating down the Salt River on an inner tube is a wonderfully lazy and relaxing way to spend the day.If you go with a group, you can tie your inner tubes together and make a party out of it.The season runs from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend with tubing offered on the weekends only in September.
If you’ve never been to Phoenix or spent time in any desert environment, remember that it is very hot and very dry (it may be a city, but it’s a city that was built in the middle of a desert), so always bring sunscreen, sunglasses, a hat, and plenty of drinking water, especially when hiking in the parks or visiting the surrounding desert.Be especially diligent if children are with you.
If you have time to venture outside of the metro area, here are a few suggestions:
Drive Apache Trail
The Apache Trail, which contains some of the most beautiful landscapes in Arizona, has been designated a USFS Scenic Byway by the U.S. Forest Service, as well as an Arizona Scenic Historic Byway.The most popular route begins in Apache Junction, about 25 miles east of downtown Phoenix.It continues in a loop through Roosevelt, Globe, and then back to Apache Junction.Along the 80 mile trip, you’ll see magnificent mountain-top views, dense forests of saguaro and ferocactus, and several deep blue lakes.If time is a consideration, you can also take the shorter 46 mile route between Apache Junction and RooseveltLake.You’ll pass (and can stop at) Lost Dutchman State Park, Goldfield Ghost Town, Saguaro Lake, the Canyon Lake Recreation Area, the Theodore Roosevelt Dam site, and the Tonto National Monument.While this drive is spectacular, it is not for the faint of heart.The road is narrow in places, partially unpaved, and at some points hugs the edge of a canyon which then drops several hundred feet below.Large vehicles are not recommended.
Watch the sun setting in the Painted Desert
There are few sites more beautiful than watching the sun set over the hills in Arizona’s Painted Desert (about 3.5 hours northeast of Phoenix).Because of the geographical history of the region and the composition of the rocks, the hills in the Painted Desert contain a multitude of colors – lavender, yellow, red, orange, pink, and gray, which took millions of years to create.The setting sun illuminates the brilliance of all these colors at once, like a rainbow in the middle of the desert.Set aside some time to visit the nearby Petrified ForestNational Park, with 200 million year old fossils and one of the world’s largest concentrations of petrified wood.
And there’s always that’s little spot known as the Grand Canyon.
For a completely different perspective on Phoenix, drive from California to Phoenix and arrive after dark.After driving that long, lonely open stretch of desert highway and seeing nothing but the millions and millions of stars lighting up the black sky for miles on end, it’s a somewhat surreal feeling to slowly see some faint light in the distance and watch as it gets larger and clearer until you realize an illuminated city is rising from the desert just like a phoenix from the ashes.It’s a sight and a feeling you won’t soon forget.
Southwest Airlines has unveiled a vastly improved Rapid Rewards program designed to make earning and redeeming points easier for members.
Key changes include:
1.No blackout dates – members can redeem points every day on every flight
2.Every Southwest Airlines seat is a reward seat with no seat restrictions or capacity controls.
3.Points never expire as long as members fly on Southwest or use a partner airline once every 24 months (the current system deletes any points not used with 24 months).
Ryan Green, Senior Director of Customer Loyalty and Partnerships for Southwest, wrote in a blog post on the airline’s websitethat the company “conducted months of customer surveys, focus groups, and research to find out what travelers like about our current program, what they don't like, and what they'd like to see changed."In the company’s press release about the upcoming changes,Southwest's Chairman, President, and CEOGary Kellysaid the result of all that research is that "We took our award-winning program and made it even better by giving our members more flexibility and control over how and when they earn and redeem their points."
Rapid Rewards members will earn points based on the price of the flight and the type of fare purchased. In changing the way rewards are calculated - by revenue rather than miles – Southwest presents a real challenge to other airlines.Because airlines’ frequent-flier programs tie in with other processes and services that they offer, making such changes would require them to revise reservations software and websites and to retrain employees for the new system.
Southwest’s new Rapid Rewards Program will launch on March 1, 2011.
The Chicago Chamber Musicians’ Composer Perspectives 2010-2011 series continues on Tuesday, January 18.
The Composer Perspectives series allows contemporary composers the opportunity to present their own compositions along with those of the composers who inspired them.
Frank has been described as a musical anthropologist who uses the music of her multicultural heritage to create new sounds and experiences.
The concert will also feature Chicago Chamber Musicians Larry Combs (clarinet), Joseph Genuald (violin), Jasmine Lin (violin) Rami Solomonow (viola), and Clancy Newman (cello) with guest artists Mary Stolper (flute), Karina Canellakis (violin), and Gabriela Lena Frank (piano).
Program:
Frank: Sueños de Chambi: Snapshots for an Andean Album Frank: Quijotadas Bartók:Contrasts
The concert begins at with a pre-concert talk at .
Tickets are $20 ($10 for students) and can be ordered online or by calling 312-CALL-CCM (312-225-5226).
The Composer Perspectives concerts take place in Ganz Hall at Roosevelt University 430 S. Michigan Ave, 7th Floor, in Chicago.
If you want to plan ahead, the next Composer Perspective concert will be on Monday, May 16 with Dana Wilson.Click here for more information.
The current production of As You Like It at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier offers a good reason to venture out in the cold this winter.The beautiful and intimate theater setting and the actors’ fine performances will soon have you forgetting about the weather outside as you settle in and enjoy the adventures found in Shakespeare’s popular comedy.
As with Shakespeare’s other comedies, mishaps and misunderstandings are resolved in the end, the main characters are paired off, and everyone, for the most part, is happy.Of course, because this is Shakespeare, there are more layers to the story than that.
Director Gary Griffin explains that the play concerns identity and love, and so it does.Shakespeare skillfully weaves comedy with deeper questions about self-identity and the power of love:how do we become who we are, and how do we come to understand and appreciate love in all of its forms?
In many of Shakespeare’s plays, there is a dominant and a secondary female lead, and this play is no exception.The significance of the secondary female lead is often determined by the skill of the actress portraying that role.She can be a somewhat shadowy – and forgettable – character, or she can shine as brightly as the lead female.In this particular production, one of the more memorable characters is the secondary female, Cecilia, played by Chaon Cross.Her character is well-rounded – playful, amused, fiercely loyal, witty, charismatic, with a twinkle in her eye and comedic body language that greatly adds to the appeal of any scene in which she appears.
While most people have likely heard the expression “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” they may not be aware that it comes from this play and that it is but a small part of a larger contemplation on human life delivered by the character Jaques, who is portrayed by Ross Lehman in this production.Lehman turns in a fine performance as Jaques, not only delivering this familiar musing in a funny yet touching manner, but also offering both comedic and poignant moments throughout the play.
There are many characters in this play, and several are worthy of mention:Kate Fry as Rosalind, Matt Schwader as Orlando, Dennis Kelly as Adam, Phillip James Brannon as Touchstone, Matt DeCaro as Duke Frederick, Kevin Gudahl as Duke Senior, and Elizabeth Ledo as Phoebe all turn in memorable performances that you won’t soon forget upon leaving the theater.
Kevin Depinet’s set designs are a beautiful and significant visual complement to what’s taking place on stage.Whether it’s the minimalist opening scene with its suggestion of an orchard or the more opulent forest setting, the scenery greatly adds to the appeal and interpretation of this production.
Mara Blumenfeld’s costumes are lovely and add a visually appealing dimension to the performances.
All in all, As You Like It is great fun to watch.If that is all you get from it, that will be enough, but, if you’re so inclined, you can also leave the theater with food for thought about some of life’s questions, which is one of the reasons Shakespeare and his plays remain so popular and relevant some 400 years later.
The PeggyNotebaertNatureMuseum is currently featuring a remarkable display:the recently discovered collection of 20,000 fragile photographs that allows a glimpse into the landscape of Chicago and northern Illinois between 1894 and 1928.
The photographs were taken by the Sanitary District of Chicago over a span of 35 years.Many of the photos were taken with such precision that when pieced together, they create seamless and stunning panoramas showing what Chicago and Northern Illinois looked like before all of the changes that have reshaped the northern Illinois landscape in the past 80+ years.
The museum compares the artistic beauty of these black & white panoramas to those of Ansel Adams and other great American photographers.
As beautiful as these panoramas are, they are important for another reason as well.The photographs also document one of the great engineering feats of the twentieth century—the reversal of the Chicago River.
The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum is located at 2430 N. Cannon Dr. (just north of Lincoln Park Zoo) in Chicago.Hours are Mon-Fri, ; Sat-Sun .Admission is $6 (ages 3-12), $7 (students and ages 60+), and $9 (adults).If you’re able to go mid-week, Thursdays are suggested donation days.
If you’ve never seen the U.S. national bird, the bald eagle, up close in the wild, now is the time to do so.Official bald eagle watches begin in early January along the Mississippi River in northern Illinois and continue through February.
Over 2,000 of these magnificent birds make their winter homes along the Mississippi west of Chicago.They begin arriving as early as mid-December and stay through early March, depending on the weather.The river’s dams provide plentiful fish for the eagles, and the wooded bluffs overlooking the Mississippi offer excellent roosting (and sometimes nesting) possibilities.
Bald eagles in flight are a sight to be seen.Their wingspans can reach up to eight feet, and, if you’re lucky, you can watch them as they powerfully, yet gracefully, dive toward the water for a meal, then grab a fish with their talons.You may even see a couple of eagles fighting in mid-air over a fish or a few male eagles battling for supremancy in a tree.
Incidentally, not all bald eagles have the familiar white-feathered heads.Immature eagles, up to five years of age, have dark heads, and you should be able to see both kinds of eagles.
Here are some suggestions for making your viewing time as pleasurable as possible for both you and the birds:
1.Dawn and dusk are the best times to see the birds diving for a meal.
2.When you’re not at a manned eagle observation site, stay in your vehicle. If you approach a tree where eagles are perched, you’ll chase them away, and they need to limit their flying time in order to preserve energy and maintain body heat to survive in the cold temperatures.
Suggested Viewing Spots:
The Mississippi RiverVisitorsCenter on ArsenalIsland, between Davenport, IA and Rock Island, IL sets up scopes and eagle cams throughout the area for viewing bald eagles.The Quad Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau recommends the following as the best spots for viewing:
Lock and Dam 14 at Pleasant Valley, IA and Hampton, IL
The Davenport, IA and Rock Island, IL riverfronts downriver from Lock and Dam 15 offer frequent sightings
SunsetPark inRock Island and CreditIsland in Davenport also serve as prime viewing area
Some of the towns surrounding the viewing spots in northern Illinois and Iowa offer special programs along with viewing opportunities:
Outdoor viewing at Pearl City Station and Lock & Dam 16 from
Live Eagle programs at and at the Pearl City Station in RiversidePark
Eagle Dance performances at and , Pearl City Station
Conservation and environmental booths, Pearl City Station
For more information call the Muscatine Ranger office: 563-263-7913
Guided Tour/Photo Safari
If you’re a photo buff or would like to benefit from a guide tour, give Bald Eagle Safaris a try.Guide Bob Motz provides spotting scopes that magnify 15 to 45 times for good viewing of eagles in trees. You’ll be so up close and personal that you can see the yellow of their eyes, the nostrils in the beaks, and the black talons of their feet. Binoculars are also provided to see eagles in flight. Cost is $20 per hour for one to four people. Two or three-hour safaris are recommended. Call Bob at 309-788-8389 or email him at eaglemotz@aol.com to arrange a safari.
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