Burn or fizzle? Public art, economic renewal, and the curious case of the Great Chicago Fire Festival

Photo by Robert Loerzel

Belt magazine, November 2014 — The critics were brutal. Headlines called it a “fizzle,” a “fiasco,” and “a total bust.” Some 30,000 people had gathered on the banks of the Chicago River in the city’s downtown on the night of October 4, waiting to see three floating houses set ablaze… Read my story in Belt magazine.

Photo by Robert Loerzel