Starting Monday, Lyric’s 13th annual Opera in the Neighborhoods program will kick off once again, bringing kiddie-friendly opera directly to young students throughout the Chicagoland area. This year’s program will present a version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, staging approximately 30 performances at different local schools and auditoriums through the beginning of November. We were glad to learn that Lyric’s education department doesn’t think that squirmy schoolchildren can be expected to sit through a long,......

It's time once again for the nonprofit Chicago Artists' Coalition's Chicago Art Open, taking place October 3-19 at the Merchandise Mart and in the West Loop's FLATFILEgalleries. This year's exhibition features 285 works representing all media, from drawing to installations. The festivities kick off Friday, October 3 with a special preview event (i.e., more expensive) from 4-6 p.m. and a general opening reception (i.e., less expensive) from 6-10 p.m. at the Merchandise Mart. Other Open......

We've thrown back many a pint at Old Town Ale House, but the recent addition of a nude painting of Sarah Palin almost made us nose our beer. Check it out for yourself [NSFW]. [via Windy Citizen]......

Giant tanks made from supermarket flyers, inflatable missiles, skulls covered with military symbols: The duo of Tom Burtonwood & Holly Holmes creates these and other works that combine pop culture and anti-war messages in surprising, memorable ways. Last weekend they unveiled this camouflage Santa Claus at artXposium 2.0 in West Chicago, and currently have a piece in Tel Aviv, Israel. Recently we spoke with Burtonwood about B&H's oeuvre, politics, and the industrial complexes that......

Happy First Day of Autumn! Fall makes us think of many things, with the most predominant being Halloween. We get easily excited about seasonal themes and events, so we made this list as much for our benefit as for yours, dear Readers. We might actually go to … all of these. The Brides of Ghost Hunter Richard Crowe Local professional ghost hunter Richard Crowe has been a collector of unusual folklore and ghostlore since 1973.......

Tonight Mess Hall hosts The Prison Poster Project, a public ed/visual art depiction of the issues faced by our nation's 2.3 million (and always, always growing) incarcerated citizens. The exhibit is the culmination of a five-year collaboration between artists and activists in the free world, and 100 prisoners. The 40+ illustrations on display are narrated through transcriptions of prisoners' writings, and cover everything from the historical roots of imprisonment to contemporary "life" behind bars. 7-9......

Film For $10 dollars, you can see The Atom Smashers tonight and get a peek into Fermilab scientists’ journey to the ultimate understanding of the atom. No lie, this story is full of twists and turns: international competition, diminished support for experimentation, crazy underground facilities. The movie screening takes place at the Museum of Science and Industry at 7 p.m., followed by a panel discussion with scientists from the film. Music If you’re feeling kinda......

Christopher Hiltz earns his bread and Nutella as an events photographer. But in his free time, he gets more experimental, using extended exposure and camera shakes to transform his shots of everyday objects into abstract expressionist pieces. On Saturday, September 20, Hiltz's first solo exhibition, "Everyday Ago," opens at Believe Inn, the cozy Bucktown Gallery run by ITSOK mastermind Sighn and Multi-Polar Projects. As part of the action, Hiltz will deposit around 100 of his......

It doesn't bear repeating, but we're doing it, anyway. Here at Chicagoist we're big fans of the Art of the Cocktail. If you aren't getting your fix from the "Properly Sauced" series, you can taste for yourself impeccably crafted cocktails while watching silk screen exhibitions and enjoying artwork. Starting Thursday night and running through October 9, Campari and Swindle Magazine are teaming up to host "The Art of the Cocktail" exhibitions throughout the city. The......

Mark your calendars, public art fans: Improv Everywhere is taking its spectacle-making show on the road. The annual "mp3 experiment," in which participants all download the same mp3 and convene to follow its dance-y, peaceful instructions, is coming to town. The Chicago leg of the tour is October 5, place and time TBD. Fun! Mp3 Experiment Four: Part One from ImprovEverywhere on Vimeo. Improv Everywhere is the group behind the annual "no pants" subway ride......

Yeargh, this stuff sells out fast. Local outfit Orange Beautiful's limited edition "Motivate Prints" are back. The set of four includes "get your sh*t together," "get on with it already," "quit your bellyaching" and "do something about it." But if your nesting instinct leans more to the love-love than the tough-love..........

Thanks to the Sun-Times for putting together this great list of ways to save on tickets to local live theater. Harris Theater’s price reduction on tickets for the upcoming ballet is mentioned, as well as the fairly well-known daily drawing for front row seats at Wicked (we won once!) but otherwise it’s a pretty thorough list – recommending both general and theater-specific tactics to help you save money. Chicagoist racked our brains to try and......

There are a lot of spoof posters out there, but this one, by David Friedman of Ironic Sans, is the clear winner.......

Surely, a lot of praying goes on in Wrigleyville: for such things as Cubs victories, and discount refills on MGD, and "that girl"'s number, and -- among local homeowners -- that one day they shall wake up to find their front lawns untainted by the urine of young men. So yes, Wrigleyville is a spiritual place. On Friday, September 12, the folks at A.Okay Official will take the hood's religiosity one step higher, when......

Head on over to Lakeview this weekend for the Lakeview East Festival of the Arts, held between Belmont and Roscoe on N. Broadway. This year, 140 juried artists ply their paintings, sculptures, and other original wares, while bands representing styles ranging from reggae to flamenco keep your eardrums happy. Free.......

Recently Chicagoist stopped by the Chicago Cultural Center to check out Life as a Legend: Marilyn Monroe, the collection of 300 photos and works documenting the tragic bombshell's icon status and ineffable glamor. Organized by Artoma in Hamburg, Germany, and circulated by International Arts & Artists, the exhibit has passed through six countries before stopping at the CCC, where it remains until September 21. The non-photographic works presented in LaL include few highlights -- for......

Two separate arts festivals will be taking place in Wicker Park this weekend. While poking around for information, we got the distinct impression that Wicker Park is fighting hard to keep an artistic community and these types of festivals in the neighborhood, despite creeping gentrification. Come on out and support your local artists. Renegade Craft Fair Now in its sixth year, the annual Renegade Craft Fair is again setting up camp in Wicker Park this......

This month, you don’t have to be among the well-heeled to afford a ticket to the ballet. Quality ballet performances can be pretty gosh-durn expensive; don’t miss these chances to experience one of the most beautiful forms of dance for a relative steal. Joffrey Ballet: “An Evening of Remembrances, A Salute to the Victims and Families of 9.11” This Thursday, Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet will host a free evening performance [PDF] in Millennium Park, dedicated to......

Photo of the BRB at the Cultural Center in June by deepblueskies Don't forget: the big red ball will be all over the place this weekend. Today, it's at the Wishbone on West Washington (until 6pm), tomorrow it'll be at the Field Museum, and Sunday, it'll be in Grant Park. We can only hope Clifford is joining it later. [Red Ball Project]......

The tiny gallery on the second floor of the Threadless shop in Lakeview usually hosts artwork of the graphic design sort, not really a surprise due to the nature of the company. In the same vein, the new show opening at Threadless gallery this evening is a celebration of printmakers and print collectives based in Chicago. All artists featured at the show have had their work printed by Threadless PRINTS.* Featured artists include Mat Daly,......

To make more room in their womb/space, Sonnenzimmer Art and Print Studio is holding a one-day "blowout" sale of older posters and misprints on Sunday, September 7. Prints are just $5 each. FIVE BUCKS! And that's not all(!): Local trio Jason Roebke, Josh Berman, and Keefe Jackson are gonna play some jazz for ya, too. Music starts at 5 p.m. Sonnenzimmer Poster Sale, Sunday September 7, 2 p.m. - 7 p.m., 3605 N. Damen (rear......

SummerDance is over for the year, but you shouldn’t be at a loss if you have a hankering to hunker down and learn a new dance form; there is no shortage of dance studios here. Dance instruction can be like the proverbial “box of chocolates”, and there are many teachers and studios in Chicago that have wonderful reputations for attentive, thorough and professional guidance in the field of dance. Flamenco Chicago Studio, owned and operated......

A program at the Art Institute uses art to help nursing students strengthen their observational and visual perception skills. "The Discerning Eye: Visual Observation Skills from the Art Museum to Patient Diagnosis" is a 90-minute presentation meant to be incorporated into the patient-analysis section of the nurse residency program at the University of Chicago. The program aims to increase students’ awareness and ability to filter visual stimuli, while helping to challenge the perception that......

This Friday marks the closing date of artist Barbara Koenen's Muse: a 125 square-foot installation examining the relationship between hand grenades and pomegranates. Koenen's piece, nested on the fifth floor of the Fine Arts Building, wryly and elegantly hypothesizes a connection between the War on Terror and what she perceived as a "sudden and simultaneous popularity of pomegranates in the U.S." Grenade-shaped water balloons, real-life grenades tucked away in crocheted sacks, and placards of POM......

At a recent brunch we learned about a neat platform for visual and performing artists to share their works-in-progress. Salon at ROOMS gallery, occurring every third Thursday of the month, is similar to a poetry reading but is expanded to include “sound, performance, video, dance, sculpture, readings,” and the like. The monthly art exchange allows artists the opportunity to gain experience with presenting their work in an environment that nurtures feedback and discussion. If you......

The Olympic flame isn’t the only big red ball that gets to travel around the world. An installation art piece titled the RedBall Project that has been bouncing around the globe since 2001, adopting various urban landscapes on its seemingly unending world tour, will be kickin’ it around Chicago all next month. The RedBall Project is the brainchild of Chicago-born artist Kurt Perschke, who has essentially bounced the globe himself creating public art in various......

Chicagoist has had a bit of a love affair with Pritzker Pavilion this summer, but that’s mostly because the Millenium Park events calendar has been stuffed with so many fabulous free events this outdoor season. Another tasty upcoming event that caught our eye: the Chicago Sinfonietta will be performing Gustav Holst’s seven-movement orchestral suite The Planets this Friday at Pritzker. The performance is touted as “a legendary sight and sound spectacular”, as the symphony will......

digg_url = 'http://chicagoist.com/2008/08/15/who_killed_barack_obama.php '; Polish artist Peter Fuss has raised quite a, er, fuss with his piece, "Who Killed Barack Obama?" recently on display in Poland. The piece, which depicts a wounded Obama, is part of the city scape aspect of the "Out of Sth" project. The website describes the project as presenting "the art of 20 leading European and Polish artists whose art derives from broadly understood urban art...Classical or political graffiti was......

Billing itself as a place where “fashion and art collide", Phaiz boutique continues its revolving relationship with both designers and the artists whose work adorns its walls. Since November 2007, boutique owner Robin Kyle has each month invited a new artist to create an exclusive installation within the space of the shop. In light of recent discussions about graffiti as “art", it’s notable that this month’s installation will be featuring graffiti artist Jersey Joe Rime.......

Chicagoist is home to some hearty discussions about whether or not illegal street graffiti can be considered “art." It’s so customary to associate graffiti with vandalism, as soon as artists completed a commissioned graffiti-style mural on the exterior walls of The Ashland bar in West Lakeview, the complaints from area residents started rolling in. Among the complaints issued to (32nd) Ald. Scott Waguespack’s office: that The Ashland had been vandalized, that the mural was an......