@JHS thanks very helpful
I’m kind of surprised nobody’s asked what I’m so concerned about the city. There’s been all kinds of speculation about my motives for posting here, And a fair degree of ad hominem stuff (I’m “douchy”–very life of the mind, I must say). But no one’s thought to ask, “Why do you think it’s going to matter all that much?”
There’s a reason. I’m interested in arts management. Internships are going to be really important. And the connection that the college I attend has with those institutions is going to be really important.
And before you say, “well then go someplace in NYC” understand that that may be the right call, but UChicago, unfortunately, is not in NYC, so there’s the dilemma.
When it comes to the arts, for theatre, Chicago is as good as it gets outside of NYC and LA.
For everything else, eh…depends.
A lot of what Chicago offfers strikes me as “convention culture”–e.g., stuff with which to distract visiting proctologists when they’re in town for the annual meeting American Colonoscopy Association.
As I’ve said, Boston’s not an option for me: I’ve done Boston. But just in case anybody else stumbles into this thread, for the record:
MUSIC: Chicago has an incredible blues scene and, of course, Lolapalooza. Again, a great place for conventioneers. But, for my purposes, not so much of interest.
Classical music scene in Chicago is kind of dead. CSO is one of the very greatest, of course. But Orchestra Hall just blows. There are no words to describe the cosmic mediocrity of its acoustics. Ravinia is a nice place to have a picnic while someone thumps out Tchaikovsky in the background but, again, cf. the ACA, above.
As for the Chicago Lyric Opera, ok very nice but it’s kind of dinner theatre culture: Puccini’s greatest hits. Not rocking anybody’s world.
It’s a big step down from Boston, which is only rivaled by NYC and, arguably, LA, for the depth and breadth of activity. NYC, for example, three full-time conservatories. Boston has five, (two of them, New England Conservatory, which may right now may have the strongest string faculty of any music school on the planet, and Berkelee, are world-beating). It has the BSO and the Boston Philharmonic and the Handel & Haydn Society and the Boston Baroque and the Boston Camerata and so many musical organizations I lost count…and I actually tried counting. For EDM and other forms of electronic music, Boston is probably unrivaled by anyplace other than LA.) And then there’s Tanglewood, the pre-eminent summer music festival in this hemisphere. No middle-brow opera company, it’s true. But tomorrow’s opera stars (and Broadway stars) can be found honing their craft at NEC and BU. Some of those productions are quite exciting (not always intentionally, but that’s another story.)
ARTS: The Art Institute is great museum but I don’t know how you figure it’s a “cut above” the Museum of Fine Arts: The MFA’s collection is half again as large as the Art Institute’s and of a quality that’s matched only by the truly gigantic Met. And then there’s the MFA’s art school. And the Massachusetts College of Art. And the Gardner. And the Fogg. And the ICA…
MONEY: Art follows money. Always has, always will. And there’s not as much of it in Chicago as there is in some other places. By just about any measure–per capita income, real estate value, percentage with advanced degrees, etc., etc.–Chicago comes up way short next to a place like Boston, where the Boston Sympony has the largest endowment of any orchestra in the world, where Harvard has the largest endowment of any university in the world. Etc., etc.
Anyway, that’s enough of this.
Adios.
it’s terrible