Darien Group Struggles To Get Local Backing

DARIEN, IL – The Darien Arts Council calls Darien its home. It's in the group's name.

But the council says it struggled to find a local venue for its play last spring. It finally settled on a middle school in Lemont.

At Monday's Darien City Council meeting, Nancy Urban, a leader in the Darien Arts Council, detailed the hurdles in getting in touch with school officials.

The spring play was "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat." It included a dress rehearsal and three performances in May at Lemont's Old Quarry Middle School.

Urban told aldermen that she emailed and called the superintendents of Darien School District 61 and Center Cass School District 66 repeatedly, but got no response.

She said most of the performers in the play were from Darien District 61's Lace Elementary School.

"The superintendent over at Lace and Eisenhower (Junior High) lost an excellent opportunity to support his students," Urban said. "We had 16-plus students at Lace and Eisenhower for this show. Some of them had very good parts."

Urban said she was able to get her calls returned at Hinsdale South High School. The school said she could use its facilities, but the group would have to pay rent for keeping its set at the school during its weekend of performances, Urban said. And she said the school told her that if any function happened at the last minute during the Friday performance, the play would be bumped.

Hinsdale South ultimately did not work out because the school gave away its stage Thursday for another event, Urban said. Thursday would have been the dress rehearsal.

The Darien Arts Council also struck out with a major local church, Urban says, with the church saying, "We're not interested in renting it out to community groups."

By contrast, Old Quarry gave the arts council the space for free, Urban said.

"It was great. We're very appreciative of what Old Quarry does," Urban said. "But it's not Darien. We ended up with a problem where we couldn't get any businesses in Darien to advertise in our program because it wasn't happening in Darien. Then Lemont businesses wouldn't advertise because we're the Darien Arts Council. It made the cost of our programs astronomical."

After "Joseph" was over, Urban said arts council members wondered whether it was worthwhile to continue doing plays.

"We're having a hard time getting support from Darien. I'm not sure why the school administrations don't support us. It's puzzling to me that I can make contact with school officials six times and not get a response," Urban said.

Because of Mayor Joseph Marchese's support, Urban said, "we didn't completely throw in the towel."

Marchese said it was his goal to find a venue for the Darien Arts Council.

Alderman Tom Chlystek said he was surprised that his ward includes a "beautiful" gymnasium, but the school did not help out.

Alderwoman Mary Sullivan said her heart ached for how the arts council got cold shoulders from local officials. She encouraged Urban to contact music directors rather than just the superintendents.

"I know it can be difficult to block out multiple nights for their gyms because they have other things going on," Sullivan said. "I would love to see the Darien Arts Council find a home base, whether it's Eisenhower Junior High's gym or Cass Junior High's gym."

In an email to Patch, Center Cass Superintendent Andrew Wise said his office did not receive any phone calls or emails regarding the Darien Arts Council. He noted Urban referred to the superintendent of Prairieview Elementary and Lakeview Junior High schools, suggesting she may have meant a principal.

"D66 encourages our students to participate in youth activities. We have also encouraged our parents to get their students involved in youth activities," Wise said. "D66 supports support participation in community youth activities."

In an email, Darien District 61 Superintendent Robert Langman said Thursday his district was not contacted by the arts council on the use of facilities.

"Unfortunately, this is the first I have heard of this request and program wanting to use our facilities," Langman said. "Darien 61 has always supported the use of our facilities by the community, especially for events and activities that involve our students. In fact, any community member/group can request the use of our facilities without the need to contact an administrator at any time. "

He said the information is readily available on the district's website.

Hinsdale High School District 86 did not return a message for comment.