This year Chicago Magazine named the Hyde Park Jazz Festival the Best Neighborhood Music Festival saying “this precocious five-year-old festival swings like mad!” We will swing again on September 29 and 30, 2012.
There were so many more “bests” in and around the Hyde Park neighborhood this year beyond the Jazz Fest. Whether it was for museum exhibitions, art, music, architecture or food … the awards and accolades are shining on the Chicago Culture Coast.
In performances the Court Theatre stole the show. This year the Court earned prestigious Jeff Awards for Director Charles Newell and Music Director Doug Peck in the “Large Musical” category for their new look at “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess.” Chris Jones, theater critic for the Chicago Tribune included An Iliad as one of the top 10 best shows of 2011. And TimeOut Chicago featured both shows in their 2011 top 10 list.
The “best art exhibit in the last year or so” according to New City was at The Renaissance Society for their showcase of William J. O’Brien’s ceramic and assemblage heads. New City sited O’Brien as one of Chicago’s best emerging artists, and “the Renaissance Society gave him the space to prove it.”
Other Culture Coast museums took center stage this year. The Museum of Science and Industry’s new, permanent exhibition, Science Storms is the recipient of 16 national and international awards including the top exhibit honor from the American Association of Museums. And the Oriental Institute’s recent special exhibition, Before the Pyramids was recognized by the Chicago Reader as the “Best Museum Exhibit of 2011”.
Two of the best achievements in architecture this year, according to the Chicago Tribune’s Blair Kamin, are on the University of Chicago campus. Kamin describes Helmut Jahn’s Joe and Rika Mansueto Library as “a steel-and-glass elliptical dome sheltering a spectacular reading room that is enlivened by natural light and views of the neo-Gothic campus … and an ingenious solution to the U. of C.’s decision to keep books on campus instead of moving them off-site, as other universities have done.” Kamin also highlights the “Light Sabers” the university installed as a major streetscape upgrade, “designed by New York artist James Carpenter, to break down the Midway’s vast scale and are far more appealing to the eye than conventional street lights.”
Capping off this year of bests was Hyde Park’s fine French restaurant, la petite folie, receiving the Bib Gourmand Restaurant rating from the Michelin Chicago Guide.
Please share your “best” experiences from the Jazz Fest and in the arts and cultural organizations of the Chicago Culture Coast on our Facebook Page.
