Support Chicago's Theatre Building

Things are tough all over--we all know that. Everybody's finding it just that much harder (or considerably harder, as the case may be) to make ends meet, and everybody could use a little bit of help. But one place where it's particularly bad is in the arts. Many arts groups depend on government grants and other funding, and a lot of that comes from the states. The federal government's been looking for spending in relation to the stimulus package, but state governments have been doing little more than cutting back. Here in Illinois, for instance, the Illinois Arts Council is slashing parts of its budget. The Theatre Building in Chicago is set to lose 75 percent of the funding the Arts Council provided last year. They're on the case, though, to make up parts of that amount. Since the beginning of the month, they've been conducting an online auction that includes a broad variety of items (134 of them, to be exact). There are tickets to shows on the auction block, books, CDs, sports tickets and memorabilia (the Cubs, the White Sox, the Bears, the Bulls, and the Blackhawks are all represented--even the Green Bay Packers), furniture, travel packages--all kinds of stuff. The bidding finishes on Sunday evening, so you've still got room to browse, and the majority of items don't even have initial bids. There's plenty of good stuff yet to be had. And it's for a worthy cause. Go take a look!