By GINNY VAN ALYEA

This summer, an old camp song came back to me: “Make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver and the other’s gold.” 

I consider that perspective one of the privileges of publishing Chicago Gallery News. Year after year, CGN connects our audience to new artists, exhibitions, and ideas while honoring the history, relationships, and city that have made us a resource since 1982. After nearly 25 years with CGN, I’m especially aware of how much there is to appreciate around us—both what is new and what has endured.

We are proud of our new fall edition and hope you will pick up a copy in a gallery or subscribe. This issue’s cover artist, Rashid Johnson, returns to his hometown for a 30-year career retrospective at the MCA that traces the importance of where he got his start alongside what his art explores today. Johnson counts many local supporters as key to his success, and he advises young artists to keep their eye on the prize and to think about creativity as a long-term opportunity, not a short one.

We look back to 2005, when Bad at Sports got its start—the podcast before we all listened to podcasts—after co-founder Duncan Mackenzie saw a need to discuss contemporary art in Chicago with other artists.

CGN regularly offers a look inside private art collections in Chicago. A collection built over time bears witness to artists’ careers, as well as how local galleries adapt to the market. Collectors like Macol and José Cerda refine their tastes and collect because of a shared passion and love of creative and intellectual engagement. 

We also examine how artists and architects, from Andi Crist to Scotland’s Charles Rennie Mackintosh, take creative risks without knowing what challenges the future may bring. Both benefited from meaningful support at important moments, even as circumstances beyond their control tested what they created. Their stories offer perspective on why supporting artists and their ideas in the present can have an impact far into the future. All these stories, and more, are in our printed edition and will be posted online in the coming days and weeks.

For almost four and a half decades, CGN has connected artists, galleries, museums, and collectors while documenting the remarkable creativity that defines Chicago’s place in the art world. As you enjoy this fall art season, I encourage you to appreciate what has come before—and to consider how your engagement today helps shape what comes next.

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Also make sure to follow CGN on Instagram to see what we're seeing this fall!

On the cover: RASHID JOHNSON. Pictured: ‘Broken Crowd “The President’s Audience,”’ 2026, at The Obama Presidential Center, Chicago, IL. Credit: The Obama Foundation.  Feature interview by Susan Gescheidle.

CGN's Fall 2026 edition is out now and celebrates all there is to see this fall in Chicago and beyond. Featured stories include:

– Cover Interview: Artist Rashid Johnson

– The Collection of Macol and José Cerda

– Andi Crist: The Art of the Pun 

– Hyde Park Art Center’s Not Just Another Pretty Face Returns

– West Town: The Development of an Arts District

– R. Justin Stewart at VSG Contemporary

– The Restoration of a Masterpiece: Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Scottish Hill House

– The Invisible Journey of Public Art

– Bad at Sports Turns 21

– Dan Devening and Elizabeth Lalley Collaborate

– Artful Holidays in Chicago