Three exhibits featuring novel and compelling art works are currently in the spotlight at Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago.
The center reopened recently with the solo exhibition Cuts and Beats: Cecil McDonald Jr. as well as Ground Floor Biennial Exhibition of New Chicago Artists and Next Window, Please! Teen Showcase. Cuts and Beats runs through June 12 while Ground Floor and Next Window, Please! continue through April 3.
Four Magellanic penguin chicks, hatched in May, toured the Shedd Aquarium s Oceanarium section to become familiar with the sights, sounds and smells, staff said. Video provided by aquarium staff. All of these exhibitions were scheduled to happen in 2020 but because of COVID, they all had to be pushed back, said Mariela Acuna, exhibition and residency coordinator for The Hyde Park Art Center. People have responded positively to the exhibits, she said, adding visitors are happy to be viewing art live again in the city.
Kyle Flubacker
A Black History Month concert by the Chicago Children’s Choir features “Right on Be Free,” a collaboration with Grammy Award-winning vocalist Lisa Fischer, a backup singer with The Rolling Stones, Tina Turner and Chaka Khan whose story was told in the documentary “20 Feet from Stardom.” The Grammy-winning quintet Ranky Tanky, whose music celebrates the Gullah culture, also performs. Other concert selections include a performance of Peter CottonTale’s “Together” and a preview of music from “Rainbow Beach,” a full-length commission about the historic wade-in protest that helped desegregate Chicago’s beaches in the 1960s. Livestreams free at 7 p.m. Feb. 25. Visit ccchoir.org.
A virtual public program “Cuts and Beats From The Archive” will take place on Thursday, February 25, 5-6 p.m., featuring McDonald in dialogue with archivist Robert Hanserd about the use of the archive from the Center for Black Music Research in this exhibition.