“When is the St. Valentine’s Day Event at the Shedd Aquarium?”

“Shedd After Hours: Love Is in the Aquarium” will be held at the John G. Shedd Aquarium tonight, Thursday, February 13, A.D. 2020, the night before Saint Valentine’s Day (Friday, February 14, A.D. 2020). Held in partnership with the Shedd Aquarium’s Auxiliary Board, the event will be from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. This event is for full adults (twenty-one-years-of-age- and-over). Guests will listen to classical music, take in spectacular views of the Chicago skyline, and can sing along with love songs, cast a vote on the Shedd’s cutest animal pair, participate in a game show that compares married couples to marine mammals, and mingle with conservationists. Food, beverages, and 4-D Experiences will be available for purchase.

Tickets are $24.95 ($19.95 for Chicago residents and $14.95 for Members). Click here to purchase tickets. Showing a photo identification card is mandatory to enter. Admission to Shedd After Hours events include all permanent and special exhibits, touch experiences, and entertainment.

Live music and songs will be performed by (a) Chicago Street Stings and (b) acoustic guitarist Todd Kessler. Chicago Street Stings began as a busking duo in 2012. A roster of musicians who can play a wide variety of musical genres have joined the group in the intervening years. Tonight’s performance will include violinist Hannah Watson and cellist Leah Royale. Singer-songwriter Todd Kessler performed on N.B.C.’s The Voice. He hosts a monthly series Todd Kessler Presents Songwriters in the Round at Hey Nonny in north suburban Arlington Heights, Illinois.

For an extra $20, one can learn how to make a romantic meal from Executive Chef Steven Hipp, who will also be “teaching the importance of using sustainably sourced seafood.” The ticket include a sample of the dish and a glass of wine. The recipe is for beef tenderloin with marinated shrimp, parsnip puree, and asparagus tips. The Shedd Aquarium recommends the guests with shellfish and seafood allergies not participate in this cooking demonstration.

The Shedd Aquarium is a Smithsonian Affiliate. It is located on the Museum Campus in the Chicago Park District’s Burnham Park. Normally, the Shedd Aquarium is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. during the workweek (Mondays through Fridays) and from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekends (Saturdays and Sundays). Click here for updates on hours. The last ticket sale is forty-five minutes before closing.

The address is 1200 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605. The Website is https://www.sheddaquarium.org. The phone number is (312) 939-2438.

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The Field Museum of Natural History in March, 2018

The Field Museum of Natural History’s entrance pavilions are at opposite ends of Stanley Field Hall, which has a north-south axis. The two porticos (porches) are each reached by two successive flights of stairs.

Both porticos of The Field Museum of Natural History are flanked by two small porches, which each have two caryatids (columns in the shape of maidens). On the facade, the wings are adorned with a colonnade of attached fluted Ionic columns. The building’s fluted Ionic columns have volutes (spiral-scroll-shaped crowns).

Each portico of The Field Museum is tetrastyle in antis with double-ranked fluted Ionic columns capped by volutes. An entablature crowned by a pediment rests atop the columns. The continuous frieze in each case is relatively plain. The wave-themed acroteria that crown the pediments are borrowed from the Palace of a Fine Arts, which housed The Field Museum until 1920 and now houses the Museum of Science and Industry.

The Field Museum of Natural History isn’t “just” a museum. Visitors can watch scientists at work through windows at the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice DNA Discovery Center’s Pritzker Laboratory.

Mrs. Charles (Laura) Schweppe, a daughter and co-heiress of John Graves Shedd, the former partner of Marshall Field I who succeeded him as president of Marshall Field & Company, and who, under the guidance of Stanley Field founded the Shedd Aquarium, donated an exhibit of 100 bronze sculptures by Malvina Hoffman to The Field Museum. They represent every race, nation, and tribe in the human family (more or less). On January 9, 1933, the first group, Unity of Man, went on display.

In addition to the four figures Henry Hering (1874-1949) made for the corners of Stanley Field Hall, he also made the twelve plaster round lion head shield escutcheons that line it. These are replicas of the marble round lion head shield escutcheon he made for the pediment of the facade of The Field Museum of Natural History.

Christmas at Chicago’s Union Station

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a POLAR EXPRESS display in the Great Hall of Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a closeup of the THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is the headlamp of THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Union Station Company rail car loaded with super-size gifts is part of THE POLAR EXPRESS mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Union Station in downtown Chicago has emblems of Amtrak, Metra, and historic railroad companies whose routes they now operate like Burlington.

Cinemas sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) Helped Design

This is the Pickwick Theatre Building, an Art Deco movie palace and office building erected in downtown Park Ridge, Illinois in 1928.

The architects were Roscoe Harold Zook and William F. McCaughey. Sculptor Alfonso Iannelli, who also worked on the Adler Planetarium, contributed to this building.

In recent years, the Vlahakis family, who’ve owned the building for 50 years, have been able to turn the building into a multiplex by adding smaller theaters around the original auditorium. The latest one, with a screen four times the size of the one in the auditorium, will open in time to screen INFINITY WARS in May, if all goes well.

The Catlow Movie Theater is a cinema that opened in downtown Barrington, Illinois in 1927. The Tudor Revival style of architecture is not confined to the facade of the cinema. As with the Pickwick Theatre in Park Ridge, Illinois, sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) played a role in the design and decoration of The Catlow Movie Theater.