Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 2-8

ByChris Jones Chicago Tribune SteppenwolfTheatre CompanyannouncesThurs- day that itsnew, in-the-round theater andeducationcenter will benamedtheLizandEric LefkofskyArts andEducation Center.However, theactual theaterwill benamedthe inHonorof EricLefkofsky, thebillionaire co-founderofGrouponand the technologycompanyTempus, amongotherenterprises, is one resi- dents.HeandhiswifeLizare longtimeSteppenwolf support- ers andmajordonors.Eric Lefkofsky is chairmanof the Steppenwolfboardof trustees. HelenZell, a longtimearts benefactor inChicago, is the wifeofSamZell, a successful real estate investor. SamZell was, atone time, theownerof theChicagoTribuneandother newspapers. The theater costmore than $54million toward that amount, according toSteppenwolf.The theateralso said ithadreceivedmore than 15gifts to its capital campaign in is akeypartof thecultural fabricofChicago andshouldbesupportedasone of thegreat arts saidEricLefkofsky inaTribune interview. time the ensembleand thecompanyhas gotten beenable tomake investments ingiving themnewscopeand newscale.That iswhatweare trying andarts educationspace is especially important addedLiz the extensivephilanthropic longhaveempha- sizedyoungpeople.

andEricembody theentrepre- neurial spirit of this company andare truechampionsof programs that support and said Steppenwolf executivedirector E.BrookeFlanagan, ina state- ment. imagine ourbuildingbearinganyother Chris Jones is a Tribune critic. Steppenwolf Theatre names its new theater and center after major donors been reading theBest American series. Tobe exact, been reading it for 35 years, sincehigh school, when I founda copyof the AmericanShort 1986 (editedbyRaymondCarver) for a quarter at a yard sale. I knowwhy Ibought it; that copy was years old, andeven in 1988, whoneeded thebestwriting from twoyears earlier? Still, it was cheapand full of thekinds of writers Iwanted to claimIhad read (TobiasWolff, AliceMunro).

If know, theBestAmer- ican series arrives annually and from magazines, newspapers, literary into categories: icanMystery eachgenre gets its ownvolume, though (misleadingly) the best of theprevious year, not the year on the cover. Short the longest-run- published in 1915. I can chartmy lifewith these books. pudgyandcomplacent, Ipresume theBestAmerican serieswill be waiting on their ownrackbeside the checkout atUnabridged Bookstore inLakeview.For years, I bought themat theBookStall Americans adedicated shrine. (Thosewho love this series, love this series.) Before that, since I wasoften inNewYork inOctober, whennewBestAmericans arrive, ThreeLives bookshop inGreen- wichVillagewasmygo-to.

Before that, the late ShamanDrumbook- WHAT READING The Best American series adds up, trying for the complete set ChristopherBorrelli CHRIS TRIBUNE Turn to Borrelli, Page 9 From Up Brian Swords of York (watercolor on paper, Judith Kudlow, oil on Williams Eating A Lamb anonymous, paint on plywood, 2020, part of John Week Tonight Masterpiece at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago. JOSE M. OSORIO CHICAGO TRIBUNE PHOTOS John paintings welcome back visitors to theMuseum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago UNUSUAL ByLaurenWarnecke For Chicago Tribune Are-imaginedMuseum of Broad-cast Communications is nowreopened and free to the including, for a limited time, a micro-gallery of three ridiculous artworks courtesy of John Oliver and TheMBCwas among wide selectedby to showwhat the satirical newsmagazine calls its on loan for a short time, comes with of efforts todrawattention to and support ailing smallmuseums.Anadditional to a charity of in this case, the GreaterChicagoFoodDepository. Themuseumused the timeof its long closure to revamp its permanent exhibits andcreate anew celebrating centen- nial. Around the corner threepaintings culled fromcome- antics on anoil-on-canvaswork fromself-employedartist NationalEconomicCouncil directorLarryKudlow inclination shirts and tieswere ridiculedon after she applied for a small business bailoutduring thepandemic.Olivermadeanon-air, lowball offer for herpainting describedas installment ofher career-longexplorationof aworld got it.

Flanking are two largerpaintings. byBrianSwordsofYork, features twopostcoital rats embracingon the edgeof a bed (a jar ofKy-lu- bricant sits on thebedside at-home awhite void; rat erotica, he theperfect thing in thebackground (plus foodbankdona- tion) to thepreviousowner. Then apaint-on-plywoodpiece titled depicting, well, that.Quarantine daytime television talk show fromhome foundher indulging onvariousdelicacies like aChampagneglass ofOran- gina and the aforementioned lambchop. Shegifted the portrait toOliver in appreciation for the showeringof praise who rose to fame in the 1990s as a charismatic radio host andDJ, has another connection to themuseum: Shewas inducted to of Fame in 2009. After closing that summer.

Poor attendance forced themuseum Turn to Oliver, Page 9 The Century of tracks its chronology from Morse code to satellite radio. 8 Chicago Tribune Section 2 Thursday, October 21, 2021.