How much room and for how long?

"By Chicago, For Chicago Chicago is a fabulous museum town, but some residents believe that the city's world-renowned museums frequently ignore the art that's right under their nose. Enter the Chicago Art Foundation, founded a year ago with the mission of building a new museum to showcase Chicago-based art. Such endeavors take huge amounts of time and money, of course, but the foundation has made impressive progress in a relatively short period of time.

When Ed Paschke died on Thanksgiving Day last year, television news crews called the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Art, asking to photograph or shoot video of his work. But even though the Art Institute and MCA owned paintings by Paschke -- perhaps the best-known Chicago artist of the past quarter-century -- none were on display." Chicago Sun-Times 12/01/05

Now for me to be glum - How long until the Chicago Art Foundation Museum has more work than they can juggle? What then? Don't get me wrong, this is a tremendous idea that is a long time coming for every city in the world. But how many other contemporary museums started out with similiar missions and are now "full"? If I decide to set-up a Chicago studio, in a few years, will there be any room left for a "new" Chicago artist? - DN