Most of us art lovers who frequent the Art Institute of Chicago will never meet the director. But I’m sure you all are interested to hear that the museum's board of trustees went in-house for its new president and director, Douglas Druick.

This from a news release I just received:

On Sunday I and 40 other folks attended Art Theater operator Sanford Hess’s presentation, "The State of the Art," in which he recommended that a co-operative form to take over the Art Theater.

If you want a handle on contemporary art, check out the August exhibit at Figure One, the downtown Champaign exhibition space of the University of Illinois School of Art + Design.

Eight or nine years ago I was called to jury duty at the Champaign County courthouse. Even though I’m a newspaper reporter I ended up on two juries: one for a civil case over a dog bite and the other a criminal felony "three-strikes-you’re-out" case.

Here’s a fun way to help the victims of the devastating tornado that hit Joplin, Mo.: The Show Me Music and Arts Festival.

As part of my daily newspaper gig, I often scan Facebook posts for news fit to print, or at least put online.

Krannert Center and a New York public-relations firm have over the past few weeks released, bit by bit, the lineup for the Ellnora Guitar Festival that will open the Krannert season in early September.

I virtually jumped for joy when I received a news release just now from the Champaign Parks Foundation about its purchase of a sculpture in West Side Park.

I didn’t know Carl Sandburg wrote film criticism. But I do now because Roger Ebert posted on Facebook his May 2000 column about Sandburg and the movies.