The Chicago Cultural Center – Formerly Chicago's Central Public Library

The Chicago Cultural Center opened in 1897, is a Chicago Landmark building that houses the city's official reception venue where the Mayor of Chicago has welcomed Presidents and royalty, diplomats and community leaders. It is located in the Loop, across Michigan Avenue from Millennium Park. This building is a favorite cold weather location for Urban Sketchers Chicago.

The following interior sketches of the Chicago Cultural Center are by Alex Zonis

Originally the central library building, it was converted in 1977 to an arts and culture center at the instigation of Commissioner of Cultural Affairs Lois Weisberg. The city's central library is now housed across the Loop in the spacious, post-modernist Harold Washington Library Center opened in 1991. The building was designed by Boston architectural firm Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge for the city's central library, and Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) meeting hall and memorial in 1892.   

This is the Harold Washington Library. With the conversion of Chicago's former central library into the Chicago Cultural Center in 1977, a long-term temporary central library was opened in the Mandel Building at 425 North Michigan Avenue and much of the library's collection was put into storage.

A highly publicized design competition, the winning design was awarded to the most overtly traditional approach in the midst of some very diverse proposals. The building recalls neoclassical institutions, but is not literal in all its details. Anyone who walks past this solid red brick structure is compelled to look up when a strong sense that you are being watched overcomes you. It is one of four10 foot tall owls situated at the corners of the roofline.

With the support of then Chicago Mayor Harold Washington and Chicago's wealthy Pritzker family, ground was broken at the chosen site at Congress Parkway and State Street, covering an entire block. Upon the building's completion in 1991, the new mayor, Richard M. Daley, named the building in honor of the now-deceased former mayor Harold Washington, an advocate of reading and education among Chicagoans as well as an advocate of the library's construction.

Urban Sketchers Are About Telling Stories Through Sketches

by Wes Douglas, Urban Sketchers Chicago

I will be part of a three-person team of sketch correspondents at the 8th International Symposium in Chicago (July 26-30, 2017) who will cover as many events (workshops, demonstrations, lectures and social gatherings) as possible, armed with only our sketchbooks, eyes and ears to record each day's activities. 

Each day we will attempt to divide and conquer by sketch-recording furiously the flavor of 36 workshops, dozens of artist demonstrations and lectures at the Symposium and by night composing, scanning sketches and blogging highlights from the day—reporting on our impressions of what we hear, observe and experience for those who were not able to attend the Symposium or could only be in one activity at a time.

As an Urban Sketcher, I am often asked if this group is just a bunch of artists getting together to draw. While it is true that we are a social group that enjoys sketching together, one of the most critical components of selecting a scene to sketch on location is whether the scene will make a great story to tell. The sketch serves as our prompt to relive the experience.

I am a big proponent of the example and here is a recent post from fellow urban sketcher  Donald Owen Colley that caught my eye because of the great story and help from the impressive visualization:

Century Pens, Chicago
Ed Hamilton, owner/proprietor
Story and sketch by Donald Owen Colley

I walked into Ed Hamilton's boutique pen shop, Century Pens located in the Loop by the [Chicago] Board of Trade, just over eight years ago, and have developed a wonderful friendship with Ed – a Prince among men – who has owned Century Pens for eleven years. 

Trained as an architect and hailing from the fair state of Indiana, Ed and I have spent many hours talking about pens, ink, penmanship, architecture, Chicago's history, politics, and tales of our wild youth. I got the fountain pen bug just before I met Ed, who recognized a potential addict the minute I walked in the store with a sketchbook in my hand and an assortment of pens peering over my vest pocket. 

Ed was every bit the enabler and fanned the flames of desire for this draughtsman whose fountain pen collection (I'm sure) passed the $11,000 mark several months ago. I recall talking to one of Ed's regulars whose collection was over 650 fountain pens. 

Century Pens has been the premier fine writing pen store in Chicago and one of my absolute favorites nationwide. Chicago lost Gilbertson Clybourne a couple years back and I fret Ed's age and the prospect that he may hang up the spurs one day. 

Today, I spent most of the day sitting in Ed's store, drawing, sharing take-out lunch, and shooting the bull with Eddie and Charlie. Online is in so many of it's convenient ways a poor substitute for the face to face, hands on, of the brick and mortar experience. Cheers Eddie. Drawn in a Tomoe River Paper sketchbook with Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens and a Pelikan M215 fountain pen with Platinum Carbon Ink.

For more on Urban Sketchers Chicago: 
About the USK 2017 Chicago Symposium

About Urban Sketchers Chicago

For more sketch stories from Donald Owen Colley: 
http://buttnekkiddoodles.com 

Century Pens, Chicago: http://www.centurypenschicago.com

Fermilab Sketchcrawl - March 19, 2017

On Sunday, March 19, about 30 participants in the Chicago chapter of the artist network Urban Sketchers visited Fermilab, located in west Chicagoland, and sketched their hearts out. They drew buildings, interiors and scenes of nature from the laboratory environment, capturing iconic Wilson Hall, restored prairie land and the popular bison herd on site.

Urban Sketchers holds monthly sketch crawls, as they’re called. Their mission is to “show the world, one drawing at a time.”

The sketch crawl was organized by Peggy Condon and Wes Douglas from Urban Sketchers Chicago along with Fermilab Art Gallery curator Georgia Schwender.

You can see more paintings and drawings from Urban Sketchers Chicago on their Facebook page.

Check out their Fermilab sketches below. To see the full drawings and paintings, click on the magnifying glass icon in the lower right corner. Impressions from the artists are included in the captions.

Mary Jo Ernst

We had to make the Bison stop. Have never sketched them before. Just like cows–constantly moving. They have such an odd anatomy.

Fermilab sketch from the second floor balcony facing the main entrance.

This location was a nice change of pace for me, offering really interesting views and very unique architecture. I had no previous knowledge of this place so it was an adventure!

Thanks Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory for such a warm welcome! Thank you to Wes Douglas Peggy Condon and Georgia for organizing. It was worth the roadtrip!

Lynne Fairchild

I had a wonderful time at our Sketchcrawl at Fermilab today. Thanks to everyone for organizing it, and to all who attended.

This sketch is, of course, the atrium at Wilson Hall.
I loved sketching in this light-filled space.

I was very inspired by Fermilab's strong commitment to the arts. I didn't expect this for a world-renowned scientific research institution. I really appreciated that they found so 

many ways to honor the arts and culture: the art gallery, lecture series, the awe-inspiring sculptures on the campus, and the design of Wilson Hall (especially the beauty of 

the atrium).

Thank you Fermilab for your hospitality and to Georgia for her warm reception to our group.

Harold Goldfus

It was great to finally be able to get to a sketch crawl. I did several drawings. This one of the atrium at Fermi Lab's Wilson Hall is my favorite and it was the most challenging in terms of perspective. I was able to get at it by treating the view as if I was doing a sci-fi paperback cover and abstracting a lot of the shapes. Not my usual figurative work, but it still felt to me like my style.

My first drawing at Fermi lab on Sunday was a warm-up sketch from the second floor balcony in Wilson Hall. I can see that I was already mulling over the more abstract approach that I used for drawing the atrium in the drawing I posted yesterday. I really enjoyed the aesthetics of Fermi Lab. For a place devoted to cutting edge physics, there were a lot of artistic touches I appreciated.

I regard myself as primarily a figurative artist. At the Urban Sketchers Chicago outing, I expected to sketch figures at Fermilab with hints of the environment in the background. Instead, I found myself taken with the architecture and aesthetics of the interior of Wilson Hall, and decided on a more unconventional approach.

I drew most of this kneeling in the corner which accounts for the unusual angle and perspective. Inspired by the covers of science fiction paperbacks I read in the 60's and 70's, I chose to abstract out a lot of the shapes and colors, which adds to the futuristic look of my picture.

Peggy Condon with Jing Zhang

#Fermilab, restored prairie East of Wilson Hall after a recent prescribed burn.

Eileen Ferguson
I drove out west today to sketch at Fermilab. Some people sketched outdoors, but I enjoyed the view from the fifteenth floor.

Alex Zonis

"Radiofrequency quadropole linear accelerator" - RFQ :). Fermi Lab 15th floor. Looks like a cool insect! Thanks to Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory for hosting us. #Fermilab, #USkChicago

Brian Wright Great event and turnout at Fermilab!

Wes Douglas

I am "pleased as punch" that this location worked so well today. Our group tends to favor Chicago locations so I wasn't sure how many would show up to the suburb of Batavia today. I heard that around 44 or so of you did and that blew my mind. You guys rock and so doesPeggy Condon and Georgia Schwender for the idea.