I cannot help but find myself reflecting on the state of art and culture in Illinois. What worth is given to it in Illinois? Evidently very little by the current administration, as I hear Gov. Rauner thinks this Helmut Jahn building is a “tear down”. Think of history. When all else is gone, the culture/art of a people tells the story for lifetimes.

For REFERENCE and more thought provoking topics:

Will Gov Rauner sell the building?http://www.bettergov.org/is_rauner_planning_to_sell_thompson_center/?CategoryId=1

http://www.beloitdailynews.com/rauner-wants-to-sell-downtown-chicago-state-office-building/article_e258e7fc-71d2-11e5-aa4a-e7c27679e317.html

Beloit Daily News: Rauner wants to sell downtown Chicago state office

 October 13, 2015 12:45 pm | Updated: 12:51 pm, Tue Oct 13, 2015.

Rauner wants to sell downtown Chicago state office building

CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner wants to hold a public auction to sell the James R. Thompson Center, which houses state government offices in downtown Chicago.

Rauner made the announcement Tuesday in the 16-story glass-paneled building’s large atrium, calling the building “ineffective” and a “very wasteful, very inefficient use of space.” He said selling the building and moving state workers elsewhere could save the state between $6 million and $12 million annually. He called it a “good move” for taxpayers.

 As a historical note of interest:

The stunning building also gave rise to suicides, and as I look up I imagine the leap to the target tiles 15 floors down.

http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2011/10/11/the-fatal-attraction-of-the-james-r-thompson-center Excerpt from an article by Deanna Isaacs, The Chicago Reader. 10.11.11.“The James R. Thompson Center, which houses the Illinois State Museum Chicago Gallery, was shut down during a reception for an exhibit …after a woman plunged to her death from the 15th floor of the building’s spectacular atrium.According to Illinois State Police, it was the fifth suicide since the building opened in 1985.At 16 stories the Thompson Center is dwarfed by the city’s real skyscrapers, but architect Helmut Jahn managed to create an interior that gives the impression of startling, vertiginous height. The 54-year-old jumper, who was not a state employee, apparently climbed on a chair in order to get over a protective barrier between the open offices that rise in a dizzying, multistory semicircle around the atrium and the inviting void, with its marble-floor target so far below. A state police spokesperson said the last previous suicide there was in 2001”

These actions to shut the Illinois State Museums and destroy the Thompson Center is like State Suicide.

 It says, “just jump”  

 Life in Illinois is in the balance.