Editorial: A salute to ESO and suburban arts that inspire and lift spirits

The suburbs are not as homogeneous as city dwellers would have you believe.

You’ll find many have a strong identity of their own that people drive for miles to experience: Geneva’s quaint shopping district, Naperville’s Riverwalk and Fox Lake’s endless recreational boating on the Chain O’ Lakes.

Nowhere outside of Elgin, though, will you find a symphony orchestra.

The Elgin Symphony Orchestra has been an institution for 61 years. It is the bedrock of a community that has evolved over time to be a hub of the arts. There’s the ESO’s home — the Hemmens Cultural Center, which also hosts performances from big-name acts; the Visual and Performing Arts Center at Elgin Community College, a number of theater troupes, on-street theatrical events, music clubs, public art displays, vocal groups, youth music organizations, vocal groups, dance. You name it, Elgin has it.

The city is even developing an incubator colony for artists downtown.

And it all springs from the notion — developed over decades in Elgin with the ESO — that art is the salve of the human spirit.

Elgin could use a little salve right about now.

With the opening of a glitzy new casino in Des Plaines and property values continuing to slide in Elgin, city officials are looking at cuts to programs and basic services and higher fines and fees to balance the budget.

In hard times, we must do what we can to tend to those among us who are in the greatest need. The city has many mouths to feed through its fund that’s fueled by casino taxes. Actual mouths to feed. Children to be kept off the street. Counseling services. There are myriad groups that depend on help from the city to survive. And with lagging support from the state, some of them may not make it.

There has been a lot of talk around town about how a city in financial crisis has no business in providing funding to human service-type organizations, let alone the arts, when basic city services are at risk.

The ESO likely won’t get the type of financial support it’s enjoyed from the city either.

But that won’t stop the ESO. Despite some recent changes in the leadership at the symphony, the situation there is by no means dire, board members say. Attendance is up; new donors are showing interest. Where once the organization was headed toward the red, adjustments have been made and it’s back on track, albeit with slightly leaner offerings — for now.

The ESO is far more than a Saturday night out. It works with schools, it provides entertainment for other community groups, and it even takes the healing power of music bedside to Sherman Hospital with its Musicians Care project.

Music always will lift our spirits and inspire us. And so will the ESO.