Why Chicago Needs Bigger Place on World's Stage

It is a large part of the big lag between spending on the arts and culture in New York, where international visitors crowd Broadway theaters and the Midtown entertainment district, and in Chicago, where arts groups must, for the most part, focus on a more limited pool of locals and visiting Midwesterners. Chicago's cultural organizations remain a key to increased international visibility for Chicago: One need only to have read the reports of the rapturous reception afforded the touring Chicago Symphony Orchestra in St. Petersburg and Moscow last month or seen the recent pictures from London of Chicago Shakespeare Theater's hip-hop "Othello" steaming up audiences packed into the Globe Theatre, experiencing Shakespeare from across the world as part of an international festival attached to the upcoming Olympic Games.

New international arts initiatives must navigate some tricky waters. Local arts organizations are wary of sudden new competition for audiences and philanthropic dollars. Chicago's arts organizations are far more cooperative than those in most cities, but competitive impulses are still strong, and control of international work, especially international work with funding attached, enhances institutional and individual prestige. Those existing relationships must be nurtured and protected, but they also can't be allowed to choke new and radical initiatives. Meanwhile, local artists often argue that bringing in the likes of Robert LePage or Philip Glass (both of whom are appearing at Luminato next month) merely diverts resources from Chicago's own underfunded arts scene and offers no benefits to those who live and work here for much less compensation than such cultural titans routinely command. Yet Chicago is a huge city, and merely creating a marketing plan for what's already here — creating a website and calling existing shows an international festival — would hardly make a NATO-size international splash.