CHICAGO — Thanks to a $10 million gift from an anonymous donor, Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art says it plans to greatly expand its live performance offerings in its 300-seat Edlis Neeson Theater, a much-admired performance space with a substantial seating capacity and an enviable location off the Magnificent Mile at 205 E. Pearson St., the northwest corner of the museum.

Deputy director and chief curator Joey Orr said in an interview that the gift will establish a new MCA Performance Fund that will allow the museum to expand its offerings in the live arts. He declined to provide more specific information about the donor, citing their wish to remain anonymous, but described the gift as large and transformational.

“It’s going to make a lot of new things possible, he said. To that end, he said, the museum has hired Moira Brennan, a former Chicagoan who became a noted administrator in the worlds of arts philanthropy and presenting. She will be the MCA’s director of performance and public programs.

The MCA had a rigorous performance program under former director of performance programming Peter Taub, a man known for excellent artistic taste and a desire to present eclectic work from top-tier performers including such artists as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Laurie Anderson, the Elevator Repair Service (whose hit show “Gatz” was seen at the MCA months before New York), and Spalding Gray, as well as South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company and numerous dance companies with global reputations. Some performances have continued. But by the time of Taub’s departure in 2016, following a 20-year tenure, the museum had come to see the space more as an adjunct to its visual arts exhibitions, and diminished resources further constrained independent live performance at the museum, a situation that the new grant clearly has the potential to change.

Orr said that the MCA had, in essence, re-created its performance department and planned to present local, national and international work as well as to return to the business of commissioning performance artists, one of Taub’s signatures.

Precisely what will be presented remains to be finalized. “We don’t feel everything that happens in the theater has to be directly related to the galleries,” Orr said. “Our perception is that our community is looking for deep support of local groups, as well as things that come from far away from home that they could never get their hands on without the support of a presenting organization.”

©2025 Chicago Tribune. Visit chicagotribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.