A retired professional from the travel industry, Uta Staley supports numerous museums in Chicago. A patron of the arts and a lover of classical music, Uta Staley is a supporting member of the Chicago Art Institute and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In January 2017, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) will begin its 33rd European tour, which also marks the CSO’s 60th international tour. Led by conductor Riccardo Muti, the CSO has scheduled a total of 11 performances in Paris, France; Aalborg, Denmark; Milan, Italy; Vienna, Austria; and Hamburg, Baden-Baden, and Frankfurt, Germany. The program for the European tour will feature works by multiple composers, including Paul Hindemith’s Concert Music for String Orchestra and Brass and Edward Elgar’s In the South (Alassio). The CSO also will perform Catalani’s Contemplazione and Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4, as well as Modest Mussorgsky’s A Night on Bald Mountain and Pictures from an Exhibition, which was arranged by Maurice Ravel.
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A native of Germany and a naturalized citizen of the United States, Uta Staley enjoys a wide range of hobbies during her retirement from the travel industry. In addition to supporting sports teams in Chicago, Uta Staley enjoys several Chicago museums, including The Field Museum. The Field Museum hosts numerous events to encourage children to engage with science. One such event is Dozin' with the Dinos. This event gives children aged six through 12 a unique opportunity to stay overnight at the museum and learn about dinosaurs and other topics from museum scientists. Children also can enjoy a unique flashlight viewing of the Inside Ancient Egypt exhibit and learn how to draw live subjects as researchers. The next Dozin’ with the Dinos event is scheduled for January 20, 2017. The event welcomes participants to register as families or as groups of more than 15 attendees. For more information about the event, visit https://www.fieldmuseum.org/at-the-field/calendar/dozin-dinos-0. A lover of the arts, Chicago, Illinois, resident Uta Staley enjoys attending a variety of events at the local theater. Uta Staley particularly enjoys the symphony and its performances involving classical European music and supports the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO). Founded in 1891, the CSO performs more than 150 concerts each year at its downtown Symphony Center and at the Ravinia Festival found on Chicago’s North Side. The CSO also tours nationally and internationally, performing in 29 countries on five continents during 59 international tours. The CSO is led by renowned Italian conductor Riccardo Muti, who is in his tenth year at the helm. The 2016/2017 season, which began on September 22, features a variety of performances, including a Beethoven concerto cycle, Brahms symphonies, and several guest conductor engagements. To open the season, the CSO performed Modest Mussorgsky’s “A Night on Bald Mountain,” Richard Strauss’s symphonic poem “Don Juan,” and Anton Bruckner’s “Symphony No. 7.” The CSO repeated the concert on September 27. Since the later concert was on a Tuesday, guests were able to partake in a question-and-answer session with the artists after the concert. The CSO hosts these sessions on every Tuesday concert day. Uta Staley, a former travel industry professional, is retired after a successful career that lasted more than 25 years in the industry. She now spends much of her time supporting a variety of organizations and museums, including the Chicago Art Institute, the Newberry Library, and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield. Uta Staley is also a member of Chicago’s famous Museum of Science and Industry.
Maintaining close to 14 acres of exhibits and more than 35,000 artifacts, the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) in Chicago is one of the world’s largest science museums. First opened in 1933, MSI’s renowned exhibits inspire children to succeed within the fields of medicine, technology, science, and engineering. MSI currently has more than 20 exhibits, including Yesterday’s Main Street, the Whispering Gallery, and the Transportation Gallery. One of its most recognized permanent exhibits, YOU! The Experience, offers an interactive environment that celebrates what living a healthy life means. Bringing together a variety of elements, the exhibit is one of the largest of its kind, including information on everything from the mind to the body’s movement. Another popular exhibit for individuals from grade four to adulthood is Earth Revealed. Offering a real-time, up-close view of the Earth, the exhibit holds a solid globe suspended among video projectors and computers that hold data sets from both NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The data is projected onto the globe, showing the living system that is Earth. MSI is also presenting the Art of the Bicycle, showcasing the evolution of bicycles throughout their 200-year existence. Featuring newly restored artifacts, 10 contemporary bicycles, and five contemporary racing bikes, the Art of the Bicycle illustrates how riders and inventors have been pushing the bicycle beyond its limits since it was first invented. Currently retired, Uta Staley spent most of her career working in the travel industry. Although traveling is still one of her most enjoyable hobbies, Uta Staley has taken up several other interests during her retirement, and she particularly enjoys going to the opera and viewing art by Impressionist artists.
Often considered to be one of painting’s first distinctly modern movements, Impressionism first developed in the 1860s in Paris before quickly spreading throughout Europe and to the United States. Artists who belonged to this movement focused on capturing the momentary, sensory effect of a scene by trying to paint what the eye perceived rather than what the brain understood. One of the most famous Impressionists was Claude Monet. Considered to have fathered the movement when his work Impression, Sunrise was shown at an anti-establishment exhibit, Monet was a student of Charles Gleyre, through whom he met other artists who shared his Impressionist style, including Frederic Bazille and Pierre-August Renoir. Renoir was another leading Impressionist who focused much of his work on feminine beauty. Much of his work featured candid people as the main subjects, and his work first began to be recognized when it was exhibited in the first formal Impressionist art show. Another major Impressionist was Edgar Degas, who was recognized for both his paintings and his sculptures. He was one of the founding members of the movement, but he preferred to be called a realist rather than an Impressionist. While his early works often focused on realistic depictions of historical subjects, Degas’ later works changed to focus more of women at work and dance, and took on a more Impressionist look. Mary Cassatt, who lived much of her life in France despite having been born in America, began contributing to the movement after meeting Degas. Her work also portrays women, but focuses more on their social and personal lives. After completing secondary school in her native Germany, Uta Staley matriculated at the College of the Ursulines in the city of Darmstadt. She moved to the United States and became a citizen in 1973. She has lived in the Chicago area for years and enjoys the city’s sports, entertainment, and cultural opportunities. Uta Staley holds membership in many of the city’s cultural institutions, including the Chicago Symphony, the Huntington Botanical Gardens, and the Field Museum of Natural History.
Situated on Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive alongside Lake Michigan, the Field Museum of Natural History evolved from the 1893 World’s Fair, officially the World’s Columbian Exposition, which celebrated the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the New World. The museum’s permanent exhibitions include dioramas of animals in their habitats, the Grainger Hall of Gems, Inside Ancient Egypt, the Ancient Americas, and the Evolving Planet, which includes a dinosaur hall whose star is Sue, the world’s most complete, most well-preserved tyrannosaurus rex. The Field Museum mounts exhibitions designed to capture interest as well as educate. Recent exhibitions have included Living With Wolves, a photographic documentary of life among the famous Sawtooth wolf pack of Idaho; Extreme Mammals, a display of the world’s largest, smallest, and strangest mammals; Nature’s Toolbox: Biodiversity, Art, and Invention, a collection of contemporary art that explores the interrelationships among the world’s species; and Malaria: Blood, Sweat, and Tears, which explores the disease’s history, impact on humanity, and science. Memberships to the Field Museum are available in several different categories. The most valuable benefit of membership is free general admission to the museum whenever it is open for the member and a guest. Some membership categories provide additional benefits, like free tickets to special exhibitions, free coat check, a free subscription to the museum’s magazine, and discounts at the museum store and restaurant. The museum’s website at www.fieldmuseum.org provides a wealth of additional information. Uta Staley offers over 25 years of expertise in the international travel and tourism industry and is a retired travel-business consultant and investor in Chicago, Illinois. Born, raised, and educated in Germany, Ms. Staley has been a citizen of the United States since 1973, and she is a longstanding member of the Ethiopian Community Association of Chicago.
The Ethiopian Community Association of Chicago (ECAC) is a non-profit organization serving the needs of Ethiopian immigrants in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. Established in 1984, today ECAC helps Ethiopian residents in the United States adjust and assimilate socially, culturally, and economically. ECAC staffers provide workshops and counseling on a range of topics specific to health care, housing, education, and employment in America. As well, ECAC member volunteers help with immigration and legal issues, English language training, small business start-up assistance, and resettlement coordination for refugees. A secondary mission of the group is to promote and celebrate Ethiopian culture and community in Chicago, offering classes in Amharic, East African languages, and ethnic dance to children and adults. Uta Staley frequents museums and the arts across Chicago, Illinois. Uta Staley also donates to city attractions such as the Museum of Science and Industry. The Museum of Science and Industry houses more than 35,000 pieces and almost 15 acres of exhibits geared toward people of all ages. As the largest science building in the Western Hemisphere, the museum opened in 1933 and more than 175 million visitors have passed through its doors.
In addition to its permanent exhibits, the museum features temporary ones. From March 2013 through September 2013, the museum hosts an exhibit entitled Animals Inside Out. Through cooperation with veterinary programs, animal groups, and zoos, the museum shows the inner workings of animals found across the world. Dr. Gunther von Hagens, who created the Body Worlds exhibit that showcased humans in the same capacity, helped to create the animal specimens through plastination. This process prevents decay and replaces the animal's body fluids with plastic in order to create these visual exhibits, and visitors can view the animals' central nervous systems and organs. Included in the exhibit are ostriches, giraffes, crocodiles, reindeer, bulls, octopuses, and squid. |
AuthorUta Staley, a native of Germany and a long-time resident of Chicago, Illinois, devotes much of her time to supporting the arts in her adopted city. Archives
December 2019
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