Exclusive footage from the WTTW11 vault

In August 2001, a WTTW11 crew met guitarist Rick Nielsen in advance of a Cheap Trick show at Navy Pier. We had a backstage pass and front-row tickets. This interview and performance haven’t been seen in 14 years.

We revisit our story about a Chicago artist that continues to make an impression on the city more than 25 years after he died. You may not know his name but you’ve likely seen his public art. Egon Weiner was also a teacher, and his prominent students continue his legacy. 

The photographer Wallace Kirkland was a late bloomer who started his career as a social worker at the Hull House settlement in Chicago. He took a winding path in an artistic career that led him from Jamaica to India and around the world – all the while photographing Chicago people and places. 

Courtesy of the Koehnline Museum of Art.

A Chicago artist continues to make an impression on the city more than 25 years after he died. You may not know his name but you’ve likely seen his public art. Egon Weiner was also a teacher, and his prominent students continue his legacy. 

It was his 75th birthday. Hundreds attended a VIP event featuring music, belly dancers, and speakers honoring his life’s work, and the public opening of the Ed Paschke Art Center in Jefferson Park drew thousands from the neighborhood. Ed Paschke was celebrated in style. We revisit our story about the opening of the northwest side art center.

It was his 75th birthday. Hundreds attended a VIP event featuring music, belly dancers, and speakers honoring Ed Paschke's life’s work. The public opening of the Ed Paschke Art Center in Jefferson Park drew thousands from the neighborhood. Ed Paschke was celebrated in style. The only thing was, he wasn’t there. Paschke died suddenly about a decade earlier. 

We revisit a story of treasures created by American artist Louis Comfort Tiffany in an amazing setting – the restored Gilded Age mansion that houses the Driehaus Museum.

We preview the surprisingly varied work of American artist John Singer Sargent through The Art Institute of Chicago’s permanent collection. Known as the great American portrait artist, Sargent was a prodigy whose many talents extended beyond his reputation. View a slideshow of Sargent's artwork.

Who knew that the king of gothic cartoons came from Chicago? We visit an in-depth exhibit of Edward Gorey -- who influenced everyone from Maurice Sendak to Tim Burton -- at the Loyola University Museum of Art. View a slideshow of artwork.

The dean of Chicago photojournalists, Art Shay, shares pictures of his beloved wife Florence, who died in 2012 after 67 years of marriage. We get a preview of the exhibit, My Florence: Photographs by Art Shay. Read an interview with Ann Nathan, a gallery owner who currently represents Shay.

We find out what’s happening at the newly reopened Block Museum on the campus of Northwestern University, including a show of photographs by master photographer Edward Steichen and Polaroids by Andy Warhol. Watch a web extra video.

Mark your calendars for October 17 to witness a painting that is as gruesome as it is great.

We meet an elusive portrait artist who painted Hollywood stars and a U.S. President, and find out how a giant collection of her artwork ended up in a suburb of Chicago.

We see some of the amazing murals scattered about the Chicago Park District's fieldhouses.

We meet a Chicago artist who has been painting since the 1940s and is just now getting his due.

Untitled (man with arms around two women), 1950-60′s. Photo by Lee Balterman

He photographed the city and its people. We remember Lee Balterman, who took remarkable Chicago pictures for more than half a century.