ON THIS DAY (from NYTimes.com)
On Nov. 29, 1947, the U.N. General Assembly passed a
resolution calling for the partitioning of Palestine between Arabs and
Jews.
Being my birthday, I sort of hoped for a better "On This Day...", 'cause this one as we all know, didn't turn out very well.
Here's a story printed today that I like a lot more.
To Stretch City's Budget for the Arts, Chicago Turns to eBay
"If you want something wonderful to happen in Chicago, it happens."
Burt Wolf, an award-winning cooking personality and author, on his idea for a
city-sponsored auction.
CHICAGO,
Nov. 28 - The view out of Lois Weisberg's office window is of the
dazzling art installations at the new Millennium Park and the Art
Institute of Chicago, one of the world's great museums. For Ms.
Weisberg, commissioner of cultural affairs in Chicago, the view is a
constant reminder of how important the arts are to this city.
And for the last 20 years, Ms. Weisberg has dreamed up scores of
ideas to cultivate and promote the arts in Chicago. Now, with the city
facing a $220 million budget deficit and civic arts financing slowly
drying up, Ms. Weisberg is trying out another new idea: an online
auction on eBay.
In December, the city will hold what Ms. Weisberg said is the first
charitable eBay auction to be sponsored by an American city. Proceeds
from the "Great Chicago Fire Sale" (a reference to the city's worst
calamity, 1871) will benefit some of the city's cultural programs,
which are increasingly strained by a reduced budget.
Since August, the city's Department of Cultural Affairs has been
collecting auction items from Chicago celebrities and sports figures,
local businesses, hotels and restaurants and other benefactors.
"I think selling the city on eBay could be a big deal," Ms. Weisberg
said. "This may be the most creative thing we've ever done. I'm sure
that if this catches on, other cities will want to do it, just as they
did with the cows."
Five years ago, Ms. Weisberg unleashed a stampede of 300 life-size
fiberglass cows, decorated by local artists, onto the city's streets
for a summer. She followed up "Cows on Parade" the next summer with 300
Ping-Pong tables in public spots around the city. The Ping-Pong
festival was another first for an American city, but failed to catch on
nationally the way the cows did.
Then came "Suite Home Chicago," a living-room motif public art
exhibition. The show, another first, displayed 350 decorated fiberglass
loveseats, chairs, ottomans and television consoles, mostly on the
sidewalks of the city's downtown shopping district. It also did not
match the enormous popularity of the decorated cows.
Now, Ms. Weisberg believes, Chicago's latest project just might finally top the success of "Cows on Parade."
The items that bidders can vie for include an architectural drawing
of the Millennium Park band shell, the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, signed by
Frank Gehry, who designed it; an original 1960's Playboy Bunny outfit
(one fetched $14,340 last year at Christie's); a painting by Ed
Paschke; dinner and hotel packages; and pieces of Chicago memorabilia,
including an original Chicago Theater sign and an official resolution,
passed in 1997, absolving Mrs. O'Leary's cow from starting the fire of
1871.
Other items for sale are tours of Millennium Park, the Lincoln Park
Zoo and historic firehouses as well as a dinner party for 12 people
anywhere in the country prepared by Art Smith, personal chef to Oprah
Winfrey; a walk-on role in "A Christmas Carol" at the Goodman Theater;
and a chance to dye the Chicago River green on St. Patrick's Day, a
Chicago tradition.
The auction begins on Thursday, and runs for two weeks. A preview of
all of the 300-plus auction items, with full descriptions, is available
on www.thegreatchicagofiresale.org, the city's own Web site. New items
are also being added daily through Dec. 16, the final day of the sale.
But Ms. Weisberg said she might extend the auction, perhaps making it a continuous year-round sale.
"This is going to need a good year, at least, to find out how far this can reach," she said.
The projected value of the auction lot is $200,000 to $250,000, an aide to Ms. Weisberg said.
But Leslie Hindman, a Chicago-based auctioneer who is chairwoman for
the auction, is unsure how much the sale will raise, pointing out that
it is generally difficult to predict final prices at charity auctions.
"How much will someone pay to have lunch with Nate Berkus?" Ms.
Hindman said, referring to the celebrity decorator from Chicago.
"There's no precedent for it. It's worth whatever someone will pay for
it."
Organizers said that beyond raising money for the city's arts, the
auction could have promotional benefits for Chicago. "Every item you
got, you are learning about the city," Ms. Weisberg said. There are 125
million registered users on eBay, and Ms. Hindman said the auction
would "showcase Chicago to a national online audience."
The Department of Cultural Affairs sponsors more than 1,000 citywide
programs and exhibitions, almost all free. The department, which
includes the Office of Tourism, is also responsible for luring visitors
and big events to the city.
Because of the city's large budget deficit, Ms. Weisberg said she
was seeking out more creative ways to raise money for local artists and
arts groups.
"The mayor is strapped," she said. "I can't get the city, especially
in times like these, to raise that money, nor would I even ask them."
(This abstract piece is by Rene Magritte. It's housed at the Art Institute. Other photos are of Millennium Park. All photos by Cyn. Please credit if reprinting.)
The Cultural Affairs Department's budget declined to $9 million this
year, from $11.8 million just two years ago, a drop of almost 25
percent. But Ms. Weisberg called the plunge deceptive. "Even though you
see a cut, it's not a real cut," she said. "They don't increase, let's
put it that way. If I want to do anything beyond the $9 million, I have
to find the money myself."
She said more money from private sources and foundations has
augmented the department's budget gap and allowed it to sustain all of
its programming and services. And its grant-giving foundation, which
doles out about $1 million annually to Chicago artists and arts
organizations, has not changed in several years, she added.
But it is also true that the department has reduced its staff by 22
people since 2002, from 114 to 92, and left vacant positions unfilled.
Nine more jobs will be lost next year, according to a department
spokeswoman, and the department's budget is projected to drop even
further, to $8.5 million.
Randy Cohen, vice president for research at Americans for the Arts,
an arts advocacy group based in Washington, said the budgets of many
city arts agencies were also on a downswing. For example, Los Angeles's
city art budget fell to $9.6 million this year, from more than $14
million in 2002. And New York's final cultural budget shrank to about
$118 million this year from $127.4 million just two years ago,
according to Mr. Cohen, though one sector, public art installations,
has doubled in number since Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took office.
Whatever additional funds are raised from Chicago's auction, Ms.
Weisberg said, will benefit the Chicago Cultural Center; Gallery 37, an
arts job-training program for youths; the Clarke House Museum, the
city's oldest house, built in 1836; and grants to individual artists
and arts organizations, particularly emerging arts groups.
"I would never have enough money to do everything I want to do," Ms.
Weisberg said. "Pretty soon we have another idea, and we have to raise
money for that. That's the way it goes."
In this case, though, she credits Burt Wolf, an award-winning
cooking personality and author, with the initial idea for a
city-sponsored auction.
Interviewed by phone in Manhattan, Mr. Wolf said he came up with the
idea earlier this year, when he visited eBay's headquarters in San
Jose, Calif., for a television special on the history of shopping.
Mr. Wolf said he thought first of Chicago, not New York City, where
he lives, because he is chummy with Ms. Weisberg and the city's mayor,
Richard M. Daley, and because New York's bureaucracy is "too
complicated."
"If you want something wonderful to happen in Chicago, it happens,"
Mr. Wolf said. Ms. Weisberg, he added, "just took it and made it
happen, God bless her."
Mr. Wolf said he hoped New York other cities would hold their own
auctions. "If they don't, they've really missed the boat," he said.
Story by David Bernstein
