Beaux Arts big draw for Union League Club and a few Alumni

Union League Club of Chicago presented its Biennial Tribute to the City's Art Tradition -- the Beaux-Arts Celebration on Jan. 22.

More than 500 guests sought confirmation that Chicago is a world-class center of the arts -- and they found it in the club's 1926 klieg-lit façade and in artist John David Mooney's illuminated environmental display at the foot of the dais as well as a stellar line up of many of the city's most distinguished artists.

Union League Club of Chicago's Biennial Tribute to the City's Art Tradition -- the Beaux-Arts Celebration: Overview photo of guests as they are led by docents to enjoy the club's 750-piece art collection focusing mainly on American Art.

Club members, their guests and prominent figures in the city's art community witnessed as Marsha Goldstein, the event's co-chair and a member of the board of directors and art committee chair, inducted two new members into the club's distinguished artists program: William Conger, oil painter and Northwestern University professor emeritus of art, and Dawoud Bey, associate professor of photography, Columbia College Chicago, who is widely celebrated for his engaging large scale color portraits.

Guests roamed several floors of the club house to view videos of Union League Club Distinguished Artists and to enjoy several large pieces of Conger and Bey's works that were on temporary exhibit. Docents, led by Goldstein, offered guests tours of the club's 750-piece collection which focuses largely on American art.

Others who attended the Beaux-Arts Celebration included: Lisa Wainwright, dean, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Maria Pinto, fashion designer; and William G. Simpson, member of the club's art committee and a noted Chicago art patron.

Among other distinguished art community members who attended the Union League Club event were: Charles Thurow, former director, and Kate Lorenz, executive director of the Hyde Park Art Center; senior curator Richard Born and director Anthony Hirschel from the Smart Museum of Art; director Susanne Ghez of the Renaissance Society; curator Lanny Silverman of the Chicago Cultural Center; Jennifer Draffen of the MCA; senior curator Debora Wood and director of Development Helen Hilken, both of the Block Museum; and former curator of photography at the Art Institute of Chicago David Travis.

Some of Chicago's most prominent artists who attended the gala evening included: Ken Josephson, Jed Fielding, Judith Geichman, Frank Piatek, Sandra Perlow, Don Pollack, Bob Thall, the Zhou Brothers, among others.

Guests were greeted in the lobby with the melodious sounds of the club's brass ensemble. Upstairs in the second floor main lounge, where the program was staged, the club's own Jazz Union punched up the room's energy. Guests enjoyed buffet stations where hand carved roast beef, turkey, risotto and seafood dishes plus accompanying salads and colorful vegetables were served by the Union League Club's culinary staff.

Later, guests moved to the main dining room to sample an attractive array of desserts.

An illuminated ice sculpture centerpiece, "Number One," heralded the Union League Club of Chicago's recently earned status as the " best private city club in the U.S." by a Club Leader Forum survey of 7,000 club managers and presidents.

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