What's happening on the arts scene – on stage, in museums and at fairs and festivals
Plan now to see shows at discounted prices ranging from $15 to $30 during Chicago Theatre Week, Feb. 8-18, 2024.
More than 100 theaters are participating with performances from drama and musicals to comedy such as improv and shows such as Blue Man Group and Teatro Zinzanni.
For a complete listing and more information visit the Choos Chicago, city’s tourism site at Theatre Week Events in Chicago | Choose Chicago
Jodie Jacobs
First Bites Bash at Field Museum (Photo courtesy of Choose Chicago)
Just as the January calendar and weather look dismal, Chicago Restaurant Week comes to town. The dates are Jan. 19 through Feb. 4, 2024.
About 350 restaurants from across the city and suburbs will participate, ranging in cuisine from American, French and Italian to Indian, sushi and Mediterranea, plus seafood and steakhouses in between. Dining rates are $25 for brunch or lunch and $42-$59 for dinner.
This is a chance to try something different from your usual eat-out fare or a restaurant you have been meaning to visit.
As an example Riccardo Enoteca, 2116 N. Clark St., is doing three courses for $42. See the offerings at Riccardo Enoteca | Choose Chicag0
So is Kama at 1560 N. Milwaukee Ave. Bucktown/Wicker Park
Just as good is the First Bites Bash at the Field Museum Jan 18 with samples from several restaurants.
Check out the restaurants and First Bites event at Chicago Restaurant Week | Official Guide | Choose Chicago
Jodie Jacobs
(Photo courtesy of Lake County Forest Preserves)
Keeping the holiday decorations up through the first week of January is pretty common. But when you start to see your real Christmas tree start to shed, then at least that part of the holiday décor needs to change.
Ta Da… Fortunately the Lake County Forest Preserves has a solution: its website notes say “Recycle for a greener tomorrow” and “Turn Your Holiday Tree into Trails.”
Instead of putting it out to go to the local landfill, drop it off at one of these eight designated LCFP sites: where the trees will be turned into wood chips used for trails and other forest preserve landscaping projects. Just remember to take off the decorations and tinsel first. By the way, the LCFP has been recycling the real holiday trees for about 20 years.
The drop-off sites: (open 6:30 am–sunset daily, through February 1, 2024). Note: this offer is not for yard waste or commercial drop-offs.
Grant Woods Forest Preserve, 25405 W. Monaville Road, Ingleside
Greenbelt Forest Preserve, 1110 Green Bay Road, North Chicago
Half Day Forest Preserve, 24255 Milwaukee Ave., Vernon Hills
Heron Creek Forest Preserve, 22890 N. Old McHenry Road, Lake Zurich
Lakewood Forest Preserve, 27277 Forest Preserve Road, Wauconda
Old School Forest Preserve, 28285 St. Mary’s Road, Mettawa
Ryerson Conservation Area 21950 N. Riverwoods Road, Riverwoods
Van Patten Woods Forest Preserve, 15838 W. Route 173, Wadsworth
Interesting Note: Most of the trees are mulched for trails but some are used to create “fish cribs.” These are when several trees are tied together and sunk with a cinderblock in the larger lakes, particularly those that were formerly gravel quarries because they lack substantial underwater vegetation. The fish cribs serve as crucial habitats.
Jodie Jacobs
Chicago is a great place to spend the holidays. But you might want to plan where to go when because there is so much going on in the city and suburbs.
Here are just a few suggestions.
Lincoln Park ZooLights (J Jacobs photo)
Sitting just north of Chicago’s downtown Loop and on the west side of DuSable Lake Shore Drive, Lincoln Park Zoo celebrates the holidays with more than a million colorful LEDs for the annual ZooLights.
Sponsored by Com Ed and Invesco, ZooLights casts a joyous spell on paths past animal homes and food booths from Nov. 17, 2023 to Jan. 7, 2024. The free daytime zoo now is by $7-$10 tickets at night but is free on Mondays. Festival hours: Sunday–Thursday: 4:30–9:00 p.m. Friday–Saturday: 4:30–10:00 p.m. The zoo closes at 3 p.m. for the festival so it can reopen at 4:30 p.m.
Tip: best plan is to take a bus. Number 22, 36, 151, and 156 buses stop along the western edge of the zoo.
Tunnel of Light at Brookfield Zoo (Photo courtesy of Chicago Zoological Society)
At southwest suburban Brookfield Zoo, the season is also celebrated with more than a million LEDs Holiday Magic. Those dates are Nov. 24-26, Dec. 30 and dec 1-3 and Dec.7-10, Dec. 14-17, Dec .21-23 and Dec.26-31.
Get tickets for North or South Gate entry Advance tickets needed for South entry. The zoo open from 3-9 p.m. on Holiday Magic dates. Entertainment is 5-8p.m. with “Those Funny Little People” and “Juggling Elves.”
North Gate: 8400 31st Street (1st Avenue and 31st Street),
South Gate Main Entrance 3300 Golf Rd.
Christkindle Market Daley Plaza, (JJacobs photo)
A fun place to visit during the holidays is the German-style market downtown Chicago at Daley Plaza, 50 W. Washington St. or its branches at Gallagher Way Gallagher Way 3635 N Clark Street in Wrigleyville alongside Cubs Park or in Aurora at RiverEdge Park, 360 N Broadway.
Filled with food and gift booths, it’s impossible to walk away without a taste treat or gift. Visit Christkindlmarket.
For more holiday lights visit November Lights
Jodie Jacobs
(Photo courtesy of Chicago Botanic Garden)
No sooner does Halloween wave a cold and scary skeleton hand goodby than the Chicago Botanic Garden and Morton Arboretum beckon with tickets for their light shows.
Lightscape
The word “Lightscape” really defines the Chicago Botanic Garden’s winter transformation of its paths, garden areas and islands.
Open Nov. 10, 2023 through Jan. 7, 2024, formerly familiar Garden sections turn into plots of fire, fantastically large flowers and colorful, bright beacons.
For its fifth annual holiday light show some displays, such as the popular Winter Cathedral, return like old, familiar friends. Other sections, such as Evening Island, welcome visitors to new vistas.
What to expect: food and drink in various courtyards plus an enchanting experience of music and light.
The Chicago Botanic Garden is at 1000 Lake Cook Rd., Glencoe, IL (847) 835-6801.
For tickets and more information visit Lightscape | Chicago Botanic Garden
llumination
Light transforms a one-mile pathway at Illumination: Tree Lights at The Morton Arboretum. Opening Nov. 18, 2023, Illumination continues through Jan. 6, 2024.
A grove of trees comes alive as color change while you watch and lights make trees dance. Hug a tree to see it light up. Then see the display’s finale on Meadow Lake.
You can warm up by a fire and roast marshmallows for s’mores or stop in a concession tent for a snack and beverage or dine at the Ginkgo Restaurant in the Visitor Center. Stop at the Arboretum Store to purchase a temperature-activated, color-changing ceramic mug available Illumination.
The Morton Arboretum is 41oo IL Rt 53, Lisle, IL For tickets and more information visit Illumination: Tree Lights at The Morton Arboretum | The Morton Arboretum.
Jodie Jacobs
See the Tully Monster and the Dryptgosaurus Dinosaur plus the duck-billed dinos of the Hadrosaurs group. They are just some of the creatures now on exhibit at the Lake County Forest Preserves’ Dunn Museum in Libertyville, IL
If you walk into the exhibit from the front admission desk you see a couple of samples tempting you to see more. Then you walk through the permanent exhibits on the way to “Dinosaurs. Fossils Exposed.”
However, if you turn into the corridor just past the desk you are in the temporary exhibition space for the dinos and fossils. You can then go on to the permanent exhibits and exit back at the desk.
Touching is permitted.\. Many of the exhibit’s bones are skeletal molds including a Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus rex and Velociraptor. The exhibit is interactive.
BTW, Tully monster is small enough to miss if you walk by its rocky fossile too fast. When it existed it could be a foot long and look like a swimming sausage. The fossil rock was found in Lindenhurst in 1957 and has brachiopods, cephalopods and other ancient sea creatures.
Touching is permitted. The special exhibition is interactive. You can touch six full dinosaur skeletal molds including a Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus rex and Velociraptor. For photos, stand next to a 6-foot Apatosaurus femur.
(Dinosaurs: Fossils Exposed was conceptualized by the Arkansas Discovery Network, The Preservation Foundation, the charitable partner of the Lake County Forest Preserves, provided support for the exhibition.)
This special exhibition is up through Jan. 15, 2024.
The Dunn Museum is at 1899 West Winchester Rd, Libertyville IL 60048. For more information call 847-968-3400.
If you drive through downtown Highwood, a tiny northern suburb next to Fort Sheridan (they say they are a city) on the east side of the Metra tracks, you see many skeletons.
They don’t look scary. They look like family members who have gathered for a reunion similar to what may be seen at the National Mexican Museum in Chicago National Museum of Mexican Art, Pilsen, Chicago and Dia de Muertos.
The Highwood skeletons are a good reminder that Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is celebrated throughout the Chicago area as a time to pay homage to and reunite family and friends who are still around with those who have passed on.
The Museum of Mexican Art is one place to go but another place, maybe unexpected, is Brookfield Zoo.
Sponsored by Chevrolet, the zoo’s celebration is Oct. 28-29 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The zoo celebration ranges from face-painting (fees) and getting sugar skulls (while supplies last) to taking photos with the catrinas (traditional skeleton characters).
For more information visit CZS.org/DiadelosMuertos.
Jodie Jacobs
On Saturday, you might hear “Look up.” But don’t do it unless you have the proper glasses to protect your eyes from the sun
Chicago’s Adler Planetarium is holding Eclipse Encounter ’23, a free, fun, educational and safe way to view a partial solar eclipse this Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023, from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Partial solar eclipses occur when the Moon comes between the Sun and Earth but just covers part of the Sun.
WGN meteorologist Tom Skilling will be there along with Adler staff, volunteers and teens who will pass out solar viewers (while supplies last) and help with Adler telescopes fitted with solar filters. The telescopes and event will be outside on the museum grounds.
Large solar glasses will be available to take fun eclipse selfies. The eclipse starts about 10:37 a.m. CDT and lasts until 1:22 p.m .CDT with its peak occurring at 11:58 a.m. CDT. That is when about 43 percent of the Sun will be covered by the Moon as seen from Chicago.
For more solar eclipse dates and locations visit NASA Maps.
Jodie Jacobs
(Photo courtesy of Kroll’s Farm)
With Labor Day passed, fall now here and students back in school, Around The Town was going to focus on fun fall events. But first, in case it slips by unremarked Banned Books Week is Oct. 2-7, 2023.
Actors at City Lit Theater will be doing excerpts from the top 10 challenged books at eight sites around the Chicago area beginning Sept. 27.
Held in conjunction with the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, the event is “Books on the Chopping Block” that takes place around the Chicago area through mid-November.
The program will include background on the books, reasons some people want them off the shelves and audience discussion.
The sites include the Edgewater Branch of the Chicago Public Library Oct. 3 and Belmont Branch Oct. 4, plus the DePaul University Library in Lincoln Park, the public libraries of Bellwood, Highland Park, and River Forest, the Vernon Area Library in Lincolnshire Public Library, and the Frankfort Public Library. A presentation is also taking place Nov. 14 at the Women of Temple Sholom Banned Books Event, 3450 N. DuSable Lake Shore Drive in Lakeview.
For all dates and locations visit City Lit Banned Books event BOOKS ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK | citylittheater
The 18-year-old event is now in its 16th consecutive year to let folks know about books some people want off the shelves.
Pumpkins and Jack-O-Lanterns.
The bad news is that Didier’s has closed its retail operation near Lincolnshire. But the good news is there is a really great place to find pumpkins, Halloween items, cider donuts and see farm animals north in Lake County, IL. It is the child and adult-friendly Kroll’s Fall Harvest Farm, Find it at 13236 W Town Line Rd, Waukegan, IL · (847) 662-5733
Carved pumpkins are Jack-O-Lanterns if you ask the folks at the Chicago Botanic Garden which is holding its “Night of 1000 Jack O Lanterns” that are artistically carved.
Or you can go to Highwood, a northern town, nearby that annually holds its Pumpkinfest. These orange, somewhat cut out gourds fill racks along the downtown.
The Great Highwood Pumpkin Festival i s Oct. 6-8, 2023. No tickets. Just come and enjoy live music and food booths.
Night of 1000 Jaci O Lanterns is Oct. 11-15 and Oct 18-22, 2023. Timed tickets needed. But there is food available for purchase and you get to walk the garden.
Jodie Jacobs
Celebrate fall with an Oktoberfest the end of September. Then keep the fun going by following a glowing path of hand-carved pumpkins in October.
Polka and celebrate Bavarian food and culture with Oktoberfest Chicago, Friday, Sept. 22 through Sunday, Sept. 24 on the grounds of St. Alphonsus church in West Lakeview. There will also be Craft Beer Tasting nights of September 22 & 23 in the church.
Hours are Friday from 5–10 p.m., Saturday from 12 noon –10 p.m. and Sunday from 12 noon –7 p.m. St. Alphonsus Catholic Church is located at 1429 W. Wellington Ave in Chicago. For more information visitchicago’s tourism site at 21st Annual Oktoberfest Chicago | 09/22/2023 | Choose Chicago
(Photo courtesy of Chicago Botanic Garden)
Imagine strolling a path after dark where pumpkins glare, smile and stare back at you. It’s Night of 1,000 Jack O Lanterns” at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
Actually, it’s quite family friendly and artistic.
“…Visitors walk through the Garden after dark guided by the glow of pumpkins,” said Jodi Zombolo of Visitor Events & Programs. “It’s a great opportunity to spend an evening outdoors with friends and family while being entertained along the way.”
The event sold out last year so get tickets now. Tickets for members/nonmembers are Adult: $19/$21, children (age 3 – 12): $13/$15 and free to age 2 and younger. Parking is free for members and $15 for nonmembers/
Night of 1,000 Jack o’ Lanterns is Oct. 11-15 and Oct. 18-22 from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. For more information visit Night of Jack O Lanterns or visit \https://www.chicagobotanic.org/halloween?
Jodie Jacobs