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Spertus in the News
Spertus' new building to open Nov. 30
CULTURE | $55 million project includes classrooms, theater, gallery, sky garden, kosher cafe
Chicago Sun-Times
April 25, 2007
BY HEDY WEISS Arts Critic
The building's sharply angled, almost Cubist-style glass facade has not yet been snapped into place. And the full range of activities planned for inside will not get under way until the official opening on Nov. 30.
But don't be deceived by the work-in-progress at 618 S. Michigan, where the new Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies -- designed by the Chicago-based firm of Krueck & Sexton Architects -- is now in its final six months of construction, and where a slew of exhibitions, performances and educational programs are already waiting in the wings.
A hard-hat tour of the site on Tuesday revealed some of the outstanding features that will be part of this new $55 million permanent home for Spertus and the three major elements in this 83-year-old institution's work: a college, a museum and a library. Among the highlights of the 10-story building -- designed, as architect Ron Krueck explained, "with a transparency that will suggest the energy, dynamism and learning going on inside" -- are:
• A total of 8,000 square feet of gallery space to house Spertus' permanent collection of more than 1,000 objects, as well as special exhibitions.
• A green roof and a small 10th floor sky garden that will enable the public to enjoy sweeping views of Grant Park, Lake Michigan and beyond.
• A specially designed 400-seat theater for lectures, films and live performance, particularly music.
• A floor devoted to the Asher Library, with a reading room and circulating collection, plus a floor set aside for classrooms, the Chicago Jewish Archives, rare books and maps and a conservation lab.
• A Children's Center designed in collaboration with Redmoon Theater's artistic director, Jim Lasko.
• A kosher cafe managed by Wolfgang Puck Catering.
• An expanded gift and book shop with a special section for children.
A weeklong opening celebration for Spertus will begin Nov. 30, and is to include the inauguration of the Center for Public Dialogue on Issues of the Day lecture series, featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Thomas Friedman.
The first major exhibition to be mounted at the museum will be "The New Authentics: Artists of the Post-Jewish Generation," a look at the work of 16 contemporary artists and their sense of identity in the context of the global contemporary art world, and as Jews.
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hweiss@suntimes.com
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Sun-Times
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