Editor’s note

Springfi eld arts organizations always have needs, with money at the top of the list. But their mood seems to be brighter this year, as Scott Faingold reports in his “State of the Arts” survey on the health of the arts and the groups that support them. That’s partly because the arts are so accustomed to starving they fi nd ways to be creative anyway. But it’s also because positive developments large and small have opened a fresh spirit of possibility. A successful fundraising effort to pay off the burdensome mortgage on the Hoogland Center for the Arts lifted a weight from the community’s shoulders. Now the Springfi eld Art Association has good reason for optimism about its capital campaign to fund its expansion plans. Groups from 3rd Thursday to Torch Tuesday, from the Pharmacy gallery to Dynamic Patterns Theatre, are enthusiastic about plans for next year. Read Faingold’s upbeat report beginning on p. 11. Then resolve for 2013 to get out and support the arts. –Fletcher Farrar, editor and publisher

Illinois Times offices will be closed from Dec. 25 until we return on Jan. 2. Peace.