Steve Johnson – Page 7

Shedd Aquarium penguin Wellington turns 33 on Friday, and he’s having a livestreamed birthday party

May 22, 2026 at 8:01 p.m.

For a penguin to make it to age 33, a lot of things have to break right. Predator avoidance. Good genes. And, sometimes, cataract surgery. The latter was part of...

Shedd Aquarium coral research scientist Ross Cunning collects coral samples from a patch reef on the Yellow Bank.

Shedd Aquarium scientist uses party coolers to identify Florida coral best suited for climate change

May 22, 2026 at 8:01 p.m.

To the layperson "rapid, field-based testing of coral thermal tolerance" is perhaps not the most exciting phrase in the English language. But to Shedd Aquarium coral researcher Ross Cunning, it...

Brookfield Zoo’s dolphin man says dolphins and Chicago suburbanites have a lot in common

May 22, 2026 at 8:01 p.m.

Beginning his work in marine biology, Randy Wells thought he was a shark guy. But the teenager whose family had just moved from Peoria to Florida's Gulf Coast volunteered to...

Mark Witteveen, owner of The Chicago Flyhouse, places a city of Chicago flag mask on one of the lions outside the Art Institute on April 30, 2020.

Art Institute, Brookfield Zoo announce staff furloughs amid new round of pandemic closings

May 22, 2026 at 8:01 p.m.

The Art Institute and Brookfield Zoo both announced this week that they will be furloughing scores more workers in the new year as the institutions reckon with a second wave...

"Minna" from Spanish sculptor Jaume Plensa at Gray Warehouse in Chicago.

Sculptor Jaume Plensa on why he’ll never replicate Crown Fountain and how it led to his current Chicago gallery show

May 22, 2026 at 8:01 p.m.

Another pandemic-year disruption: Jaume Plensa, creator of Millennium Park's Crown Fountain, was supposed to be in the city and in Michigan this fall, where he's got a new gallery show...

Pedestrians walk pass by a Vivian Maier mural painted by revered Brazilian artist Eduardo Kobra in the 1600 block of west North Ave., Monday, July 17, 2017.

New Vivian Maier color photo trove donated to Chicago History Museum

May 22, 2026 at 8:01 p.m.

Another cache of Vivian Maier photographs has been donated to a public-facing institution, this time to the Chicago History Museum, the museum announced Monday. The gift comprises 1800 images, mostly...

The Union League Club of Chicago has owned "Apple Trees in Blossom" by Claude Monet since 1895, when a club member bought it from an Art Institute show and sold it to the club for $500.

Union League Club votes to sell its prized Monet painting to cover pandemic losses

May 22, 2026 at 8:01 p.m.

The story of Claude Monet's "Apple Trees in Blossom" and Chicago is long, significant and now — with the Union League Club's decision to sell its most valuable artwork to...

For museums, 2020 was an open-and-shut, up-and-mostly-down year

May 22, 2026 at 8:01 p.m.

A museum on the end of a yo-yo string is not an easy image to conjure. The buildings are heavy, for one thing, and not particularly aerodynamic. Plus, there's so...

A woman argues with bystanders before crews removed the Christopher Columbus statue in Grant Park on July 24, 2020.

Chicago visual arts in 2020: Time to make new work and right past wrongs

May 22, 2026 at 8:01 p.m.

Sure, art fairs, museum exhibitions and gallery shows throughout the year were postponed, cancelled or pushed, sometimes uncomfortably, into the virtual realm. But even amid the COVID-19 pandemic there were...

The way see Georges-Pierre Seurat's "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" these days is via an online video, unlike what these folks were able to do in person at the Art Institute in June of 2017.

With museums closed again, here are 5 great online museum experiences

May 22, 2026 at 8:01 p.m.

A few advantages to digital museumgoing: 1. No lines. 2. No fees. 3. No alarms sounding when you venture a little too close to the item on exhibit. So below...

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